Thursday, October 23, 2003
How to be an artist in law school OR a response to Rich
The greatest dichotomy is that law school is very little if anything like being a lawyer. Especially if you are a law student at a top law school. Especially if you are thinking about being a lawyer that makes a difference.
Law school is three years of your life that you have to sacrifice to get to that end. BUT, I know plenty of people who were creative in law school. They created and they moved things forward, and they did it while maintaining internships and full course loads and clubs that looked good on resumes. They did it with their work AND through their work.
You cannot maintain the mentality that you are too busy to write. You are too busy so you HAVE to write. One of my classmates brings her violin to class because she is still taking lessons. Creating keeps you sane and many people in law school are not sane.
Here is the charge, don’t just be a lawyer, be a lawyer that does worthy work. Then you will have to be a creative attorney. This system changes so slowly that you have to think and create. You have to write briefs that not only express what the law is, you have to write compelling briefs. You need to turn legal briefs into an art form because you are trying to convince somebody that how it isn’t, is how it should be and you have to use the law as it stands to prove that.
If you want to be a creative attorney, you should know that you are not going to be one of the uber rich attorney’s. Uber rich attorney’s get paid to keep things the way they are.
Remember: do not use law school as your excuse. Use its insanity as your motivator. That is how to be a artist in law school.
The greatest dichotomy is that law school is very little if anything like being a lawyer. Especially if you are a law student at a top law school. Especially if you are thinking about being a lawyer that makes a difference.
Law school is three years of your life that you have to sacrifice to get to that end. BUT, I know plenty of people who were creative in law school. They created and they moved things forward, and they did it while maintaining internships and full course loads and clubs that looked good on resumes. They did it with their work AND through their work.
You cannot maintain the mentality that you are too busy to write. You are too busy so you HAVE to write. One of my classmates brings her violin to class because she is still taking lessons. Creating keeps you sane and many people in law school are not sane.
Here is the charge, don’t just be a lawyer, be a lawyer that does worthy work. Then you will have to be a creative attorney. This system changes so slowly that you have to think and create. You have to write briefs that not only express what the law is, you have to write compelling briefs. You need to turn legal briefs into an art form because you are trying to convince somebody that how it isn’t, is how it should be and you have to use the law as it stands to prove that.
If you want to be a creative attorney, you should know that you are not going to be one of the uber rich attorney’s. Uber rich attorney’s get paid to keep things the way they are.
Remember: do not use law school as your excuse. Use its insanity as your motivator. That is how to be a artist in law school.
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