Nearing the End of the Second Year of Law School and a bit JADED

I am nearing the end of my second year of law school and life has become a little bit more stressful. As much as I love the law, the prospect of becoming an attorney in the technology field at this moment is a little bit uncertain. The job market in Chicago is quite slim for lawyers and there are no signs that it's going to get any better.

What does it mean to be a law student in today's economy? It means the bottom of the totem pole. It means you get the job left over after all the unemployed lawyers who are licensed and willing to work for near minimum wage (in some states) don't take. The result is law firms unwilling to hire and pay law clerks for work they would normally be paid for if times were better. What does that mean?

It means all those loans that are given out every year to law students in the name of "education" and "a professional career" are never going to get paid back. (I heard a rumor that President Obama didn't finish paying off his debt to University of Chicago Law School until last year.) Eeek! Will I be 40-something years old and still in debt?

Tuition prices are rising, starting salaries at law firms are lower (between $50,000 to $80,000 for a small to mid-size firm) and nobody has made the connection that it might be impossible for law school graduates to pay off the $150,000 debt (for private law schools) incurred from law school in the allotted time limit (20-25 years for most loans). This figure doesn't even include debt acquired in college!

Even if law students try to "mitigate" (fancy legal term) their losses and attempt to find a nice firm to pay them for their hard work in an attempt to lower the amount they must borrow during the semester and summer, they are met with empty offers. "Work for us 40 hours a week with no pay and we will write you a nice recommendation." This wouldn't be so troubling if a nice recommendation would get you anywhere in this atrocity of a job market. If nobody is hiring and everybody is laying off their new associates, what makes anyone think a nice recommendation from an employer-firm will make much of a difference when the recent law graduate is sitting in a room filled with applicants with at least 1-3 years of experience? Law students are thus left with the option to incur more debt and gain "experience" or take a job working at retail job, which they are clearly over qualified for (remember, law students ALREADY graduated from college and received at least a BACHELOR'S DEGREE).

What happens if the law student decides to "mitigate" his/her losses and take the retail job paying minimum wage? Well, they then get reamed during the interview process for "lacking experience" or worse they don't even get an interview. 

The moral of this story is don't think twice before going to law school - think five times and then ask yourself - do I like the prospect of incurring huge amounts of debt with little payoff and rewards? Do I really love the law or just the idea of a high profile position as an attorney?

When I entered law school I was a bright and optimistic 21-year-old. Knowing me, I would have said, "Screw the odds. I can do it." And I am, I am doing it. But I am not going to lie, I often wonder what it would have been like to set my mind to another dream. Maybe I would have had a more likely chance of getting a making my parents proud if I would have pursued a career in business or become an engineer. Humph. Too late now.

Does Anybody Read Terms of Service Agreements?

Last week in my Cyberspace Law Class we were educated on the importance of Shrink Wrap Licenses, Click Wrap Licenses, and Browser Wrap Licenses. You can read all about my class room perspective here.

Basically, all those licenses are the licenses we consent to when download software, buy it on CD or use a web based software (webware). I will admit here and now, I don't read a lot of the licenses. In fact, I've probably read a total of six all of which was required for my Technology and the Law class last summer. What does all this mean? It means those of us who fail to read the "I agree" screens and just click "I agree" are actually consenting to terms we've never read. Which leads me to ask: How effective can those licenses be if nobody actually reads them? Doesn't Contracts 101 require a "meeting of the minds" before a contract can be formed?

I have a few theories on why nobody reads those licenses:

1. Nobody likes reading blocks of text, it makes us tired and we're overwhelmed by the idea of having to read tiny text on a screen that spans 20 pages.
2. Even if users did take the time to read the licenses, nobody would understand what they are saying because they are written in overly complicated legalease.
3. It's too easy to just click "accept" or "I agree" and finish installing the software.

Would you read the the terms of service if they were:

1. Written in plain, simple, everyday terms, short and to the point. (Like bullet points).
   
2. Were pictoral or visual like the Creative Commons Licenses?
3. Reminded you with updates of new terms?
4. Were easy to find on a website or from a software?
5. Required you to type the main point of the license, such as, "I agree not to share the music I download"?
6. Required you to check an accept button next to each statement you consent to?
7. Allowed you to negotiate the terms with drop down boxes or choices?
   

I want your opinions and thoughts as well. Do you read the terms of service of all the websites you use and do you actually read the legalease posted on the "I accept" pop-up windows when installing software? Tell me if any of my theories fit with why you don't read the licenses. Suggest your own theories!

Growing Through Blogging

Now that law school is back in full fledged I have to admit I feel a lot more prepared for what's ahead of me as a 2L than a 1L. I have even found time to do some pleasure reading and some independent research on Copyrights and Privacy. I met with my friend and mentor, John Merritt, on Friday to discuss the law and social media. We talked for four hours in Caribou Coffee and I realized how he's a lot like my muse. He helps me organize my thoughts on law so that it's not boring or overly stuffy. He's helping me get ideas for my next blog posts on Social Media Law Student and relate the law back to the everyday business person, twitter follower, stay-at-home mom, etc.

The first and foremost thing when writing any blog post is to know your audience. It's one thing to do tons of research only to realize your audience can't relate and doesn't want to read your blog posts. For example, I began writing this blog to keep my friends and family informed on my daily life while in college. Now, I'm 22 and in law school and my focus of this blog has somewhat shifted. Instead of writing about friends I made and football games, I want to write about topics that make me think. This is both good and bad because my audience expects me to write about my daily happenings (funny people I met in line at the grocery store, riding around on the El and getting lost but finding my way), when I want to write about law, social media, people influencing the world and theories that shape my mind. So I think I am going to re-gear this blog towards both. A little bit of my daily life in Chicago and a little bit of my rants, raves, theories on life, law, social media, and the world we live in.

I have to admit, I love how this blog has evolved. I was looking back at some of my posts from my freshmen year of college and my senior year of high school and I realized how much I have grown, matured, and become a different person. I really love that I kept track of so much of my personal life on the pages of this blog because it reminds me of where I came from, who I am and what my goals are in life. If anyone doubts or wonders the kind my upbringing, who I am or where I come from - this is an open record of my life - the good, the bad and the hilarious.

I was reading back through my blog and groaned at some of the things I wrote about. I wondered if maybe I should delete those posts or make them private so nobody could read them again - or rather, nobody had to read them again. But then I realized deleting those posts would counteract my personal purpose for writing this blog - to learn from my mistakes, laugh at my trivial worries, and be proud of my triumphs. I'm not perfect and I don't claim to be, but I can, will and do learn from my mishaps, my encounters, the people who surround me and the life I lead.

[caption id="attachment_655" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Having fun at Plymouth Bar and Grill after the first week of 2L year"][/caption]