Unemployed Baltimore law grad with 120k in debt - options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone decides to go to law school nowadays with such a bad market for lawyers. I currently am working at BigLaw and have been looking to lateral for over 2 years with no luck. Good luck to you OP, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

The issue is not going to law school. It is going to U. Md. law school, in a declining city like Baltimore. It is not a good investment unless you already have or can make connections in that city. It will not open doors in the financial or regulatory centers.

[Anonymous]

the best advice ITT is to just ditch law and find something else to do as a career. you might honestly consider leaving the JD off your resume, because that often is a huge hindrance. employers think you are either a fuckup (otherwise, why didn't you get one of those big firm jobs that are just falling off of trees) or that you will just take off the second you get a job as an attorney (because, you know, they all pay so much).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone decides to go to law school nowadays with such a bad market for lawyers. I currently am working at BigLaw and have been looking to lateral for over 2 years with no luck. Good luck to you OP, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

The issue is not going to law school. It is going to U. Md. law school, in a declining city like Baltimore. It is not a good investment unless you already have or can make connections in that city. It will not open doors in the financial or regulatory centers.

PP is even worse off than this. s/he went to university of baltimore, which is ranked in the fourth tier. UMD is at least ranked in the 30s/40s (depending on the ranking year). having said that, UMD is a bad idea. even Georgetown is a pretty dicey proposition. funny that in one of the biggest law markets in the country, there isn't a single school that is actually worth the investment. (and i say this as a UMD grad working in biglaw)

[Anonymous]

I recently served on the hiring committee for OGC at my fed agency (not one of the popular agencies either). We were absolutely astounded by the number of resumes we received for each opening, including those from Ivy grads. Our system was to rate each applicant based on GPA, school ranking, extras such as moot court or law review, and relevant experience. The only way someone with OP's stats would have gotten an interview was if he had lots of experience relevant o our agency's mission or had veteran's preference. Even then, he probably would have been outranked by someone from a better law school with law review experience or a vet & thus, wouldn't even make it to the interview stage.

[Anonymous]

^^

thank you for finally validating what i and most people know. some of the posts in here were just bonkers and probably (unfortunately) gave OP false hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone decides to go to law school nowadays with such a bad market for lawyers. I currently am working at BigLaw and have been looking to lateral for over 2 years with no luck. Good luck to you OP, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

The issue is not going to law school. It is going to U. Md. law school, in a declining city like Baltimore. It is not a good investment unless you already have or can make connections in that city. It will not open doors in the financial or regulatory centers.

PP is even worse off than this. s/he went to university of baltimore, which is ranked in the fourth tier. UMD is at least ranked in the 30s/40s (depending on the ranking year). having said that, UMD is a bad idea. even Georgetown is a pretty dicey proposition. funny that in one of the biggest law markets in the country, there isn't a single school that is actually worth the investment. (and i say this as a UMD grad working in biglaw)

Baltimore is not a declining city. What does that even mean? It is one of the wealthiest metro areas in the country, for the same reason DC is that much wealthier - access to govt jobs. UMD Law is not a bad idea if you don't borrow too much.

UB is much worse than UM, that is apples to oranges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone decides to go to law school nowadays with such a bad market for lawyers. I currently am working at BigLaw and have been looking to lateral for over 2 years with no luck. Good luck to you OP, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

The issue is not going to law school. It is going to U. Md. law school, in a declining city like Baltimore. It is not a good investment unless you already have or can make connections in that city. It will not open doors in the financial or regulatory centers.

PP is even worse off than this. s/he went to university of baltimore, which is ranked in the fourth tier. UMD is at least ranked in the 30s/40s (depending on the ranking year). having said that, UMD is a bad idea. even Georgetown is a pretty dicey proposition. funny that in one of the biggest law markets in the country, there isn't a single school that is actually worth the investment. (and i say this as a UMD grad working in biglaw)

Baltimore is not a declining city. What does that even mean? It is one of the wealthiest metro areas in the country, for the same reason DC is that much wealthier - access to govt jobs. UMD Law is not a bad idea if you don't borrow too much.

UB is much worse than UM, that is apples to oranges.

the legal job market is in the toilet. UMD is a bad idea even if you have a full ride, in that you have wasted 3 years of your life and your job prospects are bad if you are outside the top 15% or so. overall, you are better off doing something other than law unless you get into a top 10 school. and, actually, top 10 is pushing it. more like top 5. i am the UMD grad who posted above, so not a UMD hater - just pointing out the reality.

[Anonymous]

I feel for you, dude, I really do. But it SHOCKS me that anyone would be surprised that finding a job as an attorney is difficult. Have you not been reading anything about the legal industry for the last few years? The decline of the legal industry is pretty well documented. Law firms and law schools are going bankrupt. This is not a good business to be in right now. If you do go solo, read the cautionary tale recently published on above the law to get some insight on what that is like. You've got to avoid the pitfalls.

I think you should look at government jobs. Not just fed, but state and local as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone decides to go to law school nowadays with such a bad market for lawyers. I currently am working at BigLaw and have been looking to lateral for over 2 years with no luck. Good luck to you OP, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

The issue is not going to law school. It is going to U. Md. law school, in a declining city like Baltimore. It is not a good investment unless you already have or can make connections in that city. It will not open doors in the financial or regulatory centers.

PP is even worse off than this. s/he went to university of baltimore, which is ranked in the fourth tier. UMD is at least ranked in the 30s/40s (depending on the ranking year). having said that, UMD is a bad idea. even Georgetown is a pretty dicey proposition. funny that in one of the biggest law markets in the country, there isn't a single school that is actually worth the investment. (and i say this as a UMD grad working in biglaw)

Baltimore is not a declining city. What does that even mean? It is one of the wealthiest metro areas in the country, for the same reason DC is that much wealthier - access to govt jobs. UMD Law is not a bad idea if you don't borrow too much.

UB is much worse than UM, that is apples to oranges.

the legal job market is in the toilet. UMD is a bad idea even if you have a full ride, in that you have wasted 3 years of your life and your job prospects are bad if you are outside the top 15% or so. overall, you are better off doing something other than law unless you get into a top 10 school. and, actually, top 10 is pushing it. more like top 5. i am the UMD grad who posted above, so not a UMD hater - just pointing out the reality.

I don't totally disagree about your premise on law in general, but if you like law and you had a free ride, then there are worse things to do in your 20s than spending three years learning something. The big thing I focus on is the debt. So if you don't have the debt I don't have as much problem with it. I went to UMD too. And my classmates are all over the place doing everything - biglaw, govt, environment, business. The market is much worse than when I went of course.

[Anonymous]

OP,
UB or UMB?

Have you looked at the UM Center for Health and Homeland Security? Jobs posted.

http://www.mdchhs.com/category/careers/

http://www.mdchhs.com/class-of-2014-law-school-graduates/