CNN is right: Law school is a waste of time

LAW SCHOOL IS A WASTE OF TIME


My job has been ho hum. Working hard, making some decent money and basically just getting by. I get funny looks from strangers and co workers when they find out I am also a parlegal, and they think I should leave and get a job in a law firm. Unfortunately there are no jobs in law firms. I make more money now than most TTT and TTTT grads make their first year out of law school. I am just thankful for the job that I have, but today one of the VP's in the company had their son come and visit the office. His son is a student at one of those liberal arts colleges (Williams/Amherst/Swarthmore types) and majoring in Philosophy or some other useless major. He sat next to meet today at break and was flipping through his LSAT book and I told him that law school really isn't worth going to unless you go to a to a T14 school, because most lawyers won't make enough money to pay back their loans. I told him that I was doing better at my current job than if I had gone to a law firm.

Sadly, he is denial. All those fancy liberal arts colleges feed their students ego's about how they can do whatever they want and how they are all "special" students. Its such bullshit. I told him he should only go if he gets into a top school and it would be better for him to get a job with his dad's connections.

He really believes he will get a job making $160,000 starting from ANY law school he goes to. I told him to look at articles on the internet exposing the realities of the legal profession. As my break was ending, he came across this CNN article on his laptop. It really opened his eyes and it will probably open your eyes, too!




-The Poor Paralegal

Lawyers join the "OCCUPY WALL STREET" movement

Lawyers are now getting involved to protest the corporate greed in the US! Make your voice heard and fight the greedy bastards  who are ruining this country. To find out more please visit :

 http://www.occupywallst.org/

-The Poor Paralegal

LAW SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR ADMITS TO STEALING FUNDS

A law school administrator has been charged with stealing over $173,000 over a period of 2 1/2 years from his law school. According to the court documents, the administrator used his  computer to get access to the school’s accounting system over a period of several years. During that time, he created many false checks for a total of over $173,000  in school funds, which he deposited into his personal bank account, records show.

You can read more about the article here : Law School Administrator Steals School Funds

What really amazes me is that there are no articles talking about law school administrators stealing funds by misleading students with phony job data and fraudulent advertising! If this guy is stealing over 173k from his law school, imagine what else may be going on at this "institution of higher learning" ?!?!
Law school administrators are evil, greedy and manipulative bastards. They are the  lowest forms of species on the face of planet earth! What surprises me is that school administrators don't get beat up one of the law school students who were ripped off by the law school scam. However, some students fight back ..literally..

Watch the video below!


- The Poor Paralegal

Lawyer Turns Topless Dancer to Pay bills

I stumbled across a great new article about unemployed lawyers getting desperate to pay the bills. Some are even turning to extreme measures to help make ends meet. Some are even turning into strippers, exotic dancers and topless dancers.  In fact, you should all read this article I just found on MSNBC:

Lawyer turns topless dancer to make ends meet

When I read this article I was sitting at my cubicle during lunch break, and a VP of research came by my desk to ask me to run a report. He saw me reading the news on my computer, and saw me reading the article about the lawyer turned stripper. He made some awful joke about how this girl must wear a lawyer outfit with a miniskirt when she strips at the club. He is this 300 lbs obese prick, and doesn't seem to understand the frustrations that many unemployed legal professionals face.

I read this article and it really made me sad. I can't imagine how horrible it must be to have so much student debt, bills to pay and resort to working as an exotic dancer to make ends meet. In the article it goes on to say that she will get another law job as soon as she can and leave working as a topless dancer.

I have had my share of crazy bad jobs to make ends meet:

I have worked as a bouncer at a lesbian bar ( the money was great 200-300 bucks for 2 nights of work)

I have worked as a laborer in construction

I have worked as telemarketer for fast food companies in college

I have also worked in South Central LA and survived a drive by shooting ( Thank God they missed and the sheriffs came right away)

I hope that God protects this girl and all the other legal professionals resorting to stripping, porn or any other type of job that puts them in danger. Also, be careful if you are a stripper, the work itself can be dangerous! If you don't believe me, watch the video below on Youtube!

- The Poor Paralegal

Great new Article from CNN MONEY!

I recently found a great new article on CNN MONEY: Law School Graduates Sue their Alma Mater

This is a great new article discussing how many students are now suing their schools for fradulent misrepresentation of material facts. It will be interesting to see how all of this is covered more intensely by other media outlets.

On a lighter note, Ramadan has officially ended and I wanted to wish everyone a very HAPPY EID MUBARAK!

 I think my present this year is the peace of mind knowing that more students will read articles like the one above and think twice before going to law school and taking out massive debt. I hope everyone has a happy holiday and I found a great new song on Youtube! To celebrate...enjoy!  Happy Eid and Bayram everyone!

- The Poor Paralegal

Tough Job Market Drives Young People to Suicide

Tough Job Market causes young Koreans to commit suicide

In South Korea, the suicide rate among young people in their 20's has skyrocketed! It is now the highest it has ever been in recent history, and many of these people are young law school graduates. The law school saturation is not just limited to US graduates having problems, but also in other countries. There are too many attorneys and not enough jobs to absorb all the recent graduates.

Suicide is now the # 1 cause of death for young people in South Korea.

As the article goes on to say, "At least 10 of the suicide cases that have been reported so far this year are believed to be linked to a failure to find jobs. A study by an Internet job search portal conducted in April showed that six out of 10 respondents felt tempted to take their own lives due to the increased difficult and related stress of finding work in Korea's overheated job market, which is causing employers to pare down their new hires."

Law School Graduates Face Grim Reality

This article talks about how there are too many law school graduates in South Korea and not enough Jobs for most of them. So many people are unemployed and contemplating suicide, this is horrible! This problem is not limited to just US law school graduates. However, what shocks me is that the ABA is allowing new law schools to open up across the USA!

-The Poor Paralegal

Law School Graduates Sue Law Schools for being Misled about Job Prospects

Law School Graduates sue for being "Scammed" by Law Schools?

New York Law School and the Cooley law school in Michigan are now being sued by their recent graduates in a class action lawsuit. Read the article in the link above! The graduates of these schools feel that they were misled about job prospects, starting salaries and employment prospects when they enrolled in these law schools.

The plaintiffs in this case accuse the law schools for misleading them and are seeking millions in damages for lost tuition money and other damages they incurred while enrolling in law school. As the article in the link above goes on to say,

'The law school industry today is much like a game of three-card monte, with law schools flipping over ace after ace, while a phalanx of non-suspecting players wager mostly borrowed money based on asymmetrical information on a game few of them can win," according to the New York lawsuit.'

Are you listening all you pre law undergrads? These students are smart, hard working and did everything right, but the legal profession simply cannot absorb all the graduates that come into the job market each year.

I recently talked to an investment banker at my company who is a JD/MBA and he said many graduates of lower ranked law schools get duped big time. It all comes down to their glossy brochures!  When a naive young liberal arts graduates reads the law school brochures, he gets hypnotized by the "success stories" in the admissions brochure! In a nutshell, this is how many pre law students get scammed by law schools:

Oliver the Overachiever graduated Summa Cum Laude from an Ivy League School with a  triple BS in Quantum Physics, Applied Mathematics and Political Science. He then applied to law school and decided to attend ( lower ranked non elite law school) . He had scores of law schools to choose from, and now he is a happy graduate of our school. He was editor of law review and graduated at the top of his class. He now works for a BIG law firm making $160,000 a year and is a successful attorney. He credits his success by attending (lower ranked law school)!

Nearly every law school student thinks that he or she will end up like Oliver the Overachiever and making big bucks! This is not true, and the vast majority will end up underemployed, unemployed or employed in a non legal profession.

In my last post, I wrote about the crazy Attorney who was like a motivational speaker on drugs. I recently met up with him again, after I got off of work. He ended up talking to me about some of his problems and financial hardships he is going through. I began to think about him as a professional and how people assume that just because he is a successful JD/MBA from an ivy league school, that he is super successful. Everyone assumes that if you work in corporate law that you are rich and successful, but you aren't. You still have many problems, MASSIVE student loans, and most of these people don't make as much as you think they do! Most are beyond miserable in their jobs and just try to work to pay back their student debt.

This is the problem with the legal profession: It warps your reality!

All the pre law students think big salaries, see inflated employment statistics, and offices in skyscrapers! They don't realize that when they see people like "Oliver the Overachiever" in the law school admissions brochures, it is just a fantasy! Success stories like that are rare exceptions and not the reality for the vast majority of law school graduates! Most end up doing temp jobs, document review and will struggle to find anything to pay the bills.

It will be interesting to see if more students will sue their law schools for being misled about job prospects!

On a lighter note, Ramadan just started over a week ago and fasting has really screwed up my gym schedule. I am running, lifting and going to the gym during odd hours of the night and still trying to do my best at work. I was cooking food for dinner last night and I found a great recipe on Youtube. I know we are still in a recession, and many people can't afford to eat out, so I found you a great recipe! If you like Indian/Pakistani food, then try this easy chicken curry recipe. It is really easy, tasty and it goes great with rice or naan.

If you want to save some money by not eating out this weekend, then cook at home this weekend! Have a spicy south Asian Saturday night!

-The Poor Paralegal