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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a lawyer from a zero-lawyers family. I've enjoyed all my jobs, including early years at a big firm (although I could not do that lifestyle long-term). She needs to be a strong writer, detail-oriented, [b]with strong executive function. [/b]Most lawyers are bit high strung, so if she can manage to be both detail-oriented and calm, she'll go far.

Three common mistakes people make, IMO, are:
- Going into big debt if you are not sure you can get a big salary. There are [i]a lot[/i] of lawyers: the fancy jobs are competitive. 
-[b] Thinking that you should be a lawyer because you "like to argue." Lawyers are strategic and customer-oriented: it's usually not in our interest to argue for the sake of it.[/b]
-[b] Thinking that an enviro/animal law focus will involve any actual contact with nature. [/b]You won't be doing field work, you'll be writing donor agreements. [/quote].

I disagree with a lot of this.

First, I have ADHD and terrible executive functioning. And I did very very well in a T1 law school and have a great job that a lot of other people would like to have. I have my own way of managing things, like I always have, and it’s fine. No one with poor executive functioning should hesitate to go to law school. It’s fine.

Second, you must not be in litigation. Our ranks are filled with people who like to just argue, and some people are quite good at it when they need to be. For example, when their client has almost no case but hundreds of millions are at issue and there is a lot of money to spend on legal fees. In this scenario, the strategy is to bury the other side and harass opposing counsel to death. This is a very common scenario, and the folks who, as you put it “like to argue” —well, there’s a lot of them and the clients love them for this.

Finally, I went to a law school that is top ranked in environmental law, and I do not think it is common for law students who study it to think they’re gonna be petting animals or visiting meadows or something. They know they’re going to be “writing donor agreements” as you put it, or, more likely: working for Exxon.

—also the first lawyer in my family [/quote]

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