I was thinking about you just the other day. You know, I went to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law, from 1981 through 1984. I cannot say enough good and kind things about my law school. But my school was then, and is now, the second law school in a small rural state. In the very early 1980s, when I went, the legal market was seen as relatively stagnant. The federal government had a hiring freeze. Only oil companies were hiring. Ruinous tax cuts were on the verge of creating a bubble, but the outlooks was not good. Entry level jobs did not pay very much money.
Notwithstanding those various hurdles, virtually all of my classmates got jobs out of law school. I don't mean just people who had good grades--we got a bit better jobs, or a clerkship. I mean the average C student (our median GPA was 2.67). My friend Mark had no tremendous family advantages--his folks ran a bakery. His grades were not stellar. Yet Mark became one of his region's respected public defenders, and sometimes sits by appointment as an appellate judge. Students below the top of my class are now judges, trial lawyers (civil, criminal, family), and transactional lawyers. It's true that the road for them sometimes involved some "building up to it" in the first year or two after school. But these folks earned livings from the law, even when the rumours in our time--as in this--was that anyone not on law review was doomed.
I like that you have come so far. You got yourself through college. You married a guy you love. You even embarked on law school. I've been rooting for you, as I remember the decision to go to law school as a very difficult one, and yet one of the best decisions I have made.
I like that you're socially aware, and that you're inquisitive. I like your Texas roots. I like that you're into great music and that as an RA, you were so supportive of your charges/friends. I like that you have a creative bent, and I like your writing style.
If I could help you with advice or encouragement, because you're on the side of the angels and deserve supporters in your corner. I like that you play chess. I like that you're kind about complimenting a journal post or two of mine in the past.
It's so easy to find things in 1L year to fret one, or make one lose hope. I want you to gain hope, because you're a person for whom hope should spring eternal.
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Re: All about me...
Date: 2007-01-25 03:20 am (UTC)In the very early 1980s, when I went, the legal market was seen as relatively stagnant. The federal government had a hiring freeze. Only oil companies were hiring. Ruinous tax cuts were on the verge of creating a bubble, but the outlooks was not good. Entry level jobs did not pay very much money.
Notwithstanding those various hurdles, virtually all of my classmates got jobs out of law school. I don't mean just people who had good grades--we got a bit better jobs, or a clerkship. I mean the average C student (our median GPA was 2.67). My friend Mark had no tremendous family advantages--his folks ran a bakery. His grades were not stellar. Yet Mark became one of his region's respected public defenders, and sometimes sits by appointment as an appellate judge.
Students below the top of my class are now judges, trial lawyers (civil, criminal, family), and transactional lawyers. It's true that the road for them sometimes involved some "building up to it" in the first year or two after school. But these folks earned livings from the law, even when the rumours in our time--as in this--was that anyone not on law review was doomed.
I like that you have come so far. You got yourself through college. You married a guy you love. You even embarked on law school. I've been rooting for you, as I remember the decision to go to law school as a very difficult one, and yet one of the best decisions I have made.
I like that you're socially aware, and that you're inquisitive. I like your Texas roots. I like that you're into great music and that as an RA, you were so supportive of your charges/friends. I like that you have a creative bent, and I like your writing style.
If I could help you with advice or encouragement, because you're on the side of the angels and deserve supporters in your corner. I like that you play chess. I like that you're
kind about complimenting a journal post or two of mine in the past.
It's so easy to find things in 1L year to fret one, or make one lose hope. I want you to gain hope, because you're a person for whom hope should spring eternal.