Legal News

Thinking About Law School? These Blogs Tell You Why You Shouldn?t

By Ashby Jones

Going back a few years, there’s a pretty rich history of “think twice before you go to law school” books. You had “One-L,” of course, followed up by “Broken Contract,” “Take the Bar and Beat Me.” We also might put “Proceed with Caution” and “Anonymous Lawyer” into this category.

Now, we’re seeing a resurgence of sorts in this type of literature, though it’s mostly using the blog as its medium. Click here for Bruce Carton’s post on the rise of the genre, over at Legal Blog Watch.

Carton says the mission for all of these posts is similar: “to alert any wannabe lawyers out there to the futility of such a decision.” As an example, Carton blockquotes this really amusing excerpt (mission statement?) from the blog Big Debt, Small Law:

We prefer not be crammed elbow to elbow in document review gulags for less money than an ex-con gets paid to stamp holes in sheet metal. We prefer not to run around toilet courts and haggle over $500 whiplash cases for 45 K a year and no health benefits. Our sole purpose is to dissuade, deter and prevent more hapless lemmings from repeating the mistake of law school. Law has no rewards. Instead of pots of gold, you’ll find only piles of s—.

Others blogs championing the movement: Exposing the Law School Scam, JD Underdog, Temporary Attorney, Esq. Never, Toiletlaw, and Third Tier Reality.

We’ve taken our own stab at the genre. But in our mind, the true pioneer on the topic (at least the 2000s version) was our old friend Loyola 2L (where have you gone, Loyola 2L?). For those new to these pages, L2L was a, well, 2L at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He struggled getting a job, posted often and intelligently on this blog and Above the Law and other blogs about his struggles and then, one day, gave it up.

We’re waiting for the inevitable backlash to the backlash: We’ll give a LB gold star to anyone who alerts us to the first pro-law-school blog.

Photo: iStockPhoto

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).