hey! i was wondering why you decided to pursue law and if it was what you expected?
Sorry that it’s taken me so long to reply.
I have a lot of /emotions/ about this.
So grab a cuppa and settle in for a long read (will add a cut later).
Why I decided to pursue law
For purely selfish, uninformed reasons.
I did well in political and legal studies (civics etc) at high school. My university offered a degree structure that allowed me to pursue law, japanese and politics - subjects which I enjoyed.
I had absolutely no idea what ‘a lawyer’ did. I didn’t really bother to research. I didn’t know anyone in the legal profession. I wasn’t inspired by tv series (law and order etc).
I basically wanted to keep all my doors open (see above). My (well meaning but uninformed) teachers told me that ‘as I could write, I could do law’, and that ‘you can do anything with a law degree’.
For me, it was really a product of my indecision. I was too young to decide - I had not idea what I wanted to do. So I decided not to choose - I literally picked the option that kept the most doors open so “I could choose later”.
procrastination at its finest yo.
Was “Law” what I expected?
To be honest... I didn’t really think about what I was getting myself into. So I hadn’t really turned my mind to law school - I just wanted to get the fuck out of high school asap.
But in saying that, here’s what i can say:
I knew law school would be competitive. I mean, the process of getting into law school was competitive - naturally I expected the same at law school.
What I didn’t expect was the ferocity of the competition. Call me naive, but I didn’t expect the sabotage and cruelty of some of my peers. Esp when it came to clerkships. Cmon guys, ethics?
I guess I wanted to be proved wrong.
Don’t get me wrong though - some of the kindest, fiercest, opinionated and caring friends I’ve made have been the ones I met in the pressure cooker of law school. There’s nothing that strengthens bonds like trying to tackle a 50+ page civ pro assignment in one sitting.
I think, most of all, I didn’t expect, nor realise, how much this pressure/ stress/ competitiveness would affect me. As a person. How I would react. My own values.
I didn’t fully appreciate how I would be shaped by law school.
I always thought studying was separate to “who I was.”
The lines definitely blurred a few times throughout my degree.
I knew that I had to work hard. In many ways, we’ve all been striving hard for ‘good results’/ to be at the top of the pack.
I wasn’t ready for how much I would need to learn. And under such time pressure.
I didn’t expect to change the way I studied. I thought that the skills that paved the way to success in high school would similarly pave the road to success in law school. Hell, I thought the skills that helped me ace my arts unit would too.
Law was a different beast. It challenged me to re visit my study routine. I learnt when to ‘cut the fat’ - what was relevant, what was not relevant. It made me reconsider the life-study- work balance I needed to be healthy and to be happy.
It really taught me to study smart and not just hard.
And it sure as hell taught me that effort doesn’t always pay off.
Legal Practice/ jobs etc.
As I mentioned above, I didn’t really know what a lawyer did when I signed up for this hell of a degree.
I had no idea what the day-to-day life of a lawyer was, and I didn’t know whether I wanted it.
I honestly thought that I would still have a bunch of options upon graduation.
In many ways, there were.
But in many ways, it didn’t feel like it. The whole clerkship process made me feel as if the door had closed in penultimate year. There were all these ‘selection criteria’ that I didn’t feel I met.
And then hearing all the horror stories at uni didn’t help.
After taking my first (baby) steps into practice I can say that practising law can be as horrific as all the law school rumours make it sound. But in many ways it is much much better. It is much more enjoyable than studying law.
In law school, I didn’t think I wanted to be ‘in court’. I wanted to do transactional stuff - to put it bluntly, more solicitor than barrister.
But now? Now that I’m out of law school and have the privilege of being in court every single fucking day? You’re going to have to drag me kicking and screaming outta that court room. I want to be there.
So in many ways being a ‘lawyer’ was just as boring as I expected it to be... but also much more fun? I dnk. Maybe I’m just learning to take the ups and downs in stride (and with copious coffee and wine!)
Bonus: how going to law school forced me to become a decisive person
I went into law thinking, “well even though I don’t know what I’m going to do, as long as I do reasonably well, I can decide later.”
Well that plan went to shit when I started failing things halfway through my degree. But really, that failure made me more... resolute. It made me, for once, actually think about what career choices I was going to make. Because I had to work for it. I had to shut doors to open other doors.
Previously, I’d just “done well” and just “taken the first opportunity that came to me” - without thinking about whether or not I wanted it. I mean, that’s how I decided to go into law school.
But tasting failure made be conscious that I couldn’t just ‘coast’ into my future. Rather, I had to actively participate to shape it.
I’ve been very fortunate (and yes, hard working, but really fucking lucky lbr) to have a ‘law job’ straight outta graduation. I’ve enjoyed practicing law so much more than studying law.
But what really helps is that I know I’ve chosen this. I’ve chosen this career. And this gives me the confidence to know, that hell, if everything goes tits up, I’ll have the knowledge and the confidence to choose some thing else.
And that’s a lesson that will hold me in good stead for years to come.