Why Do People Go to Law School?
Most people say the same thing when you ask them why they went to law school.
"I didn't know what else to do."
That's why I went to law school. I didn't know what else to do. My mom was an insurance adjuster, so she worked with a lot of lawyers. She wanted me to go to law school. Because I didn't know what else to do, I was easily persuadable, so she didn't have to do much pushing.
There is a movie called "Interstellar" with Matthew McConaughey as an astronaut. During a mission, they are running low on fuel. They have to find a way to get enough speed to return to a safe planet. They devise a plan to use a slingshot manuever around a black hole, using the black hole's gravitational pull to propel them forward. The downside is that, by flying so close to the black hole, they'll be warped through space time and 51 years will pass. They do it anyway. McConaughey's character reunites with his daughter, who has aged 51 years since he last saw her and is now older than her dad McConaughey.
Even though I didn't know why I was going to law school, it turned out to be a pretty significant decision. It is like sailing a big ship. Even though you're not going that fast, you're going in one direction and you have some momentum. It is hard to change course and even harder to stop. After I decided to go to law school, it took me 13 years to stop the momentum.
You've probably heard of Peter Thiel. He was Facebook's first outside investor. He cofounded Paypal. He funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit that destroyed Gawker. His net worth is over $2 billion.
Before he did all of that, he practiced law. For 7 months. He worked for Biglaw firm Sullivan and Cromwell. He left because he didn't find "transcendental value" in his work.
So why did he go to law school?
"Looking back at my ambition to become a lawyer, it looks less like a plan for the future and more like an alibi for the present. It was a way to explain to anyone who would ask to my parents, my peers and most of all myself to myself - that there was no need to worry, I was perfectly on track. But it turned out in retrospect that my biggest problem was taking a track without thinking really hard about where it was going."
Law school is such an easy decision. It solves so many problems. It doesn't matter what you do now because you have a plan for the future. That's what Thiel means when he calls law school an "alibi for the present." You don't have to get a job. You get to defer for a while the question of "what am I going to do with my life?" But as Thiel suggests, you enjoy the prestige of becoming a lawyer. When you tell somebody that you're going to law school, they imagine you in the future, having graduated from law school, having passed the bar, and practicing law successfully somewhere from a corner office in a skyscraper with a view of the city.
There is another reason people go to law school. It lies beneath the "I didn't know what else to do" explanation. It rears its head whenever a lawyer warns somebody to avoid law school.
"I didn't know how bad practicing law would be."
A while back, I went to a restaurant with my friend Chris. He had eaten there before, so I asked if he had any recommendations. "It's all good," he said, "but don't get the catfish." I looked over the menu. Nothing really caught my eye, so I went with a salad. Boring, but at least it wasn't the catfish apparently.
There is a difference between not knowing what to do and knowing not to do at least one thing.
The problem is that most lawyers tell people to avoid law school. "Don't go!" they'll say. Why doesn't that advice prevail more? Or maybe it does. I suppose we don't know how many people would have gone to law school but decided against it after being persuaded by that advice. (Maybe we should talk to those people who gave apparently worthwhile advice?) But the advice to "don't go" doesn't work because it doesn't provide an alternative. It doesn't solve the problem of not knowing what to do. In Thiel's words, it takes away his alibi. If he can't tell people he is going to law school, he has to tell them something else. He has to get a plan and get on track. Now. He can't rely on law school to be his alibi for the present.
"I didn't know what else to do."
That's why I went to law school. I didn't know what else to do. My mom was an insurance adjuster, so she worked with a lot of lawyers. She wanted me to go to law school. Because I didn't know what else to do, I was easily persuadable, so she didn't have to do much pushing.
There is a movie called "Interstellar" with Matthew McConaughey as an astronaut. During a mission, they are running low on fuel. They have to find a way to get enough speed to return to a safe planet. They devise a plan to use a slingshot manuever around a black hole, using the black hole's gravitational pull to propel them forward. The downside is that, by flying so close to the black hole, they'll be warped through space time and 51 years will pass. They do it anyway. McConaughey's character reunites with his daughter, who has aged 51 years since he last saw her and is now older than her dad McConaughey.
Even though I didn't know why I was going to law school, it turned out to be a pretty significant decision. It is like sailing a big ship. Even though you're not going that fast, you're going in one direction and you have some momentum. It is hard to change course and even harder to stop. After I decided to go to law school, it took me 13 years to stop the momentum.
You've probably heard of Peter Thiel. He was Facebook's first outside investor. He cofounded Paypal. He funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit that destroyed Gawker. His net worth is over $2 billion.
Before he did all of that, he practiced law. For 7 months. He worked for Biglaw firm Sullivan and Cromwell. He left because he didn't find "transcendental value" in his work.
So why did he go to law school?
"Looking back at my ambition to become a lawyer, it looks less like a plan for the future and more like an alibi for the present. It was a way to explain to anyone who would ask to my parents, my peers and most of all myself to myself - that there was no need to worry, I was perfectly on track. But it turned out in retrospect that my biggest problem was taking a track without thinking really hard about where it was going."
Law school is such an easy decision. It solves so many problems. It doesn't matter what you do now because you have a plan for the future. That's what Thiel means when he calls law school an "alibi for the present." You don't have to get a job. You get to defer for a while the question of "what am I going to do with my life?" But as Thiel suggests, you enjoy the prestige of becoming a lawyer. When you tell somebody that you're going to law school, they imagine you in the future, having graduated from law school, having passed the bar, and practicing law successfully somewhere from a corner office in a skyscraper with a view of the city.
There is another reason people go to law school. It lies beneath the "I didn't know what else to do" explanation. It rears its head whenever a lawyer warns somebody to avoid law school.
"I didn't know how bad practicing law would be."
A while back, I went to a restaurant with my friend Chris. He had eaten there before, so I asked if he had any recommendations. "It's all good," he said, "but don't get the catfish." I looked over the menu. Nothing really caught my eye, so I went with a salad. Boring, but at least it wasn't the catfish apparently.
There is a difference between not knowing what to do and knowing not to do at least one thing.
The problem is that most lawyers tell people to avoid law school. "Don't go!" they'll say. Why doesn't that advice prevail more? Or maybe it does. I suppose we don't know how many people would have gone to law school but decided against it after being persuaded by that advice. (Maybe we should talk to those people who gave apparently worthwhile advice?) But the advice to "don't go" doesn't work because it doesn't provide an alternative. It doesn't solve the problem of not knowing what to do. In Thiel's words, it takes away his alibi. If he can't tell people he is going to law school, he has to tell them something else. He has to get a plan and get on track. Now. He can't rely on law school to be his alibi for the present.