So You Want To Go To Law School?

So You Want to Go to Law School?

(Babble On for the Sunstar Davao, October 12, 2007)

It’s that time of the year when a lot of graduating college students think about going to law school. Since you are reading this article, you are probably one of the brave few considering the law school option.

Now here’s the thing: law school isn’t easy. It’s a lot of hard work and pain. A lot of sleepless nights and mental anguish. Law school is unlike anything you have ever experienced, unlike anything you could even imagine. Law school requires you to dedicate everything you have to it: your mind, your body and even your soul.

If I haven’t scared you off yet, good. That means you may be the kind of person able to survive law school. Just to make sure however, here are a couple of questions you should ask yourself before you enroll:

1.) Do you really want to be a lawyer?
You have to want to be a lawyer more than anything in the world. And you have to want it for yourself, not for your mom or dad or to look good for your girlfriend. Yourself. Because when you are neck-deep in cases that threaten to overwhelm you, or when a professor is shouting and demanding answers from you, or when you are drafting a pleading at 5 am in the morning, there is no one else who can pick you up and make you go on, except yourself.

2.) Can you handle pressure?
Law school is all pressure, all the time. Which is why the first year as a freshman law student is the worst. The requirements are thrown at you all at once and it can be simply overwhelming. Hundreds of pages of readings. Dozens of cases. And that’s just for one subject. Per day. Since you have around three subjects per day at a minimum, you can imagine how much reading has to be done. Throw in professors who want to test your mental capacity via the Socratic method, and it is enough to make one collapse under the impossible weight.

The Socratic method, by the way, is the preferred method of teaching in law schools all throughout the world. It requires the use of question after question fired at a law student who either sinks or swims under the barrage. In theory, it is a test of the student’s understanding of the subject matter. In reality, it is often a tool of fear, anxiety, and for some, terror. Many generations of law students have cursed this method and its creator, Christopher Columbus Langdell, who was the Dean of Harvard Law School in the 19th century. Unfortunately Dean Langdell’s method is the one in use today in all law schools. The Socratic method is pressure personified.

Then there’s the pressure of exams and knowing that the attrition rate of law school is some of the worst in any academic institution. One speaker during a law school orientation program asked his freshmen audience to look at the person seated beside him or her. Chances are, he would say, is that the person next to you may no longer be in law school by the next semester. Feel the pressure yet?

And finally, there is the pressure of preparing for the Bar and knowing that your entire professional life depends on the result of that one test. Can you handle pressure? Because to get through law school, you better be able to.

3.) Can you study everyday for four years (five if you count the bar)?
Because of the countless readings, one has to study for hours and hours on end everyday of the week for 4 whole years. It becomes routine after a few years, and the pressure of finishing your readings becomes something you flick off your shirt like lint.

But then the next hurdle of law school comes in. Doing the same thing (studying) everyday, day in and day out, year in and year out, can inevitably lead to boredom, and worst of all, fatigue. Can you see yourself doing the same thing over and over again for years?

4.) Can you handle not having lots of free time (for anything!)?
Lots of readings. Lots of pressure. Combine the two and it equals to a law student who doesn’t have much free time to do anything else except study. This means that a law student doesn’t have the time to go out with friends, not much time to spend with the family, and little time, if any to watch TV or even sleep.

Lots of relationships have been broken off because of this lack of free time. In fact, it is the number one warning given to freshmen law students during their orientation programs. Upperclassmen would constantly say that, “if you have a significant other when you get into law school, chances are you will break up very soon.”

So can you handle having not much free time?

5.) Can you afford law school?
On a more practical note, before entering law school, one should look at the tuition fees involved. Legal education isn’t cheap, not unless you are in a state run institution like the national university. Every other law school charges very high rates per semester. One prominent law school in the Metro Manila area charges around 50,000.00 pesos per semester.

And that’s not counting the law books you will be needing. Each class will require at least one good law book on the subject matter. A law book averages around 1 thousand pesos. If you are like other students who buy a number of books per subject, then you are looking at a few thousand pesos just for one subject!

Let’s not forget about photocopying fees that will come in. In law school you need to read cases and so you need to photocopy each and every one in order to read them. Hundreds of cases. One copy each. You do the math.

So if you aren’t really sure about law school, best not to waste your money. Because none of that is refundable (obviously).

One Last Point
If none of the above deters you, and you believe you really do have what it takes to be a lawyer, then by all means, go to law school. You will find that it can be some of the best years of your life. Notwithstanding all the pressure and pain of course, but trust me, you will get used to it. You have to.

(Btw- Kelvin is in law school. He’s almost done. He hopes.)