Letters to the Editor
-
I forgot to say something
Good luck LW!
-
Don't over-estimate your competition
I used to be a lawyer. Believe me, most of the lawyers and judges I dealt with were of very average intelligence. Of course, they probably thought the same about me. The biggest part of being a lawyer is carrying yourself so that it appears you know what you are talking about, even when you don't.
-
So true!
"After you're admitted to the bar you can join the rest of us wondering what you want to do with your life."-altab
-
I agree
"Cary's advice is good"
May I insert "always"?
I usually post first then read Cary's reply. Every time, he brings something that I hadn't thought of, something interesting, unusual or inspiring.
I think he is touched, has some sort of gift. Even if you disagree, you cannot say he is lacking compassion and that has great value in the big mean world.
-
Old saying:
People who get A's in law school become law professors;
People who get B's in law school become judges.
People who get C's in law school become rich.
GOOD LUCK ON THE BAR! I have a feeling you'll do just fine. But if you don't, please try to keep in mind that there are plenty of successful lawyers out there who didn't pass on the first try.
-
From one impostor to another
I too am an impostor.
I am a law student, a 1L in the lingo of law school. I am almost 40, and I came from working class, when there was work, roots. I have always been a good student, if erratic in performance for much the same reasons as the letter writer. So what? So what that I am 15 years older than my classmates? So what that I didn't get in to Harvard?
I am going to be a lawyer too.
Cary is absolutely right, and the other letter writers have pointed this out. Prove you are worthy, to yourself, and no one else. Do good work, do important work, make a difference. Anyone can coast on their family background and go a long way in any business, but especially the law. It takes real character and grit to make it because you want it. It does not matter if you "deserve" it. That is not for us to decide. We can only strive to be a positive force in the world.
If you do that, then you will deserve it.
As for being an impostor, use it to your advantage. Join the secret societies, the inner circles; and use that power against for good. The secret is the powerful and entrenched would never use their power for anyone other than themselves, and we, the masquerading rebels and malcontents; we can, and we will.
Lowering the bar, I salute you for how far you have come, and look forward to sharing our profession with you.
-
Grades Don't Mean Diddly
In law, your grades get you your first job. Any job after that depends on your ability and skills.
My father used to say, the A students became law professors, the B students Judges, and the C students rich.
I graduated near the bottom of my law school class yet had my first law book published within four years and my first legal treatise with 10.
My daughter is a B student at middling law school. She just got an internship with a large international law firm in one of its international offices. Why, (1) she speaks that foreign language without an accent and (2) has taken summer school courses at a law school in that country.
So don't beat yourself up. Take the bar review course and try to network like crazy. Everything works out for the best.
-
Fuck statistics
You've already done things that are statistically unlikely. It sounds like there has always been a part of yourself speaking up and negotiating something better. Listen to that part now, and good luck.
-
I am and have also been an outsider, but I sense that "out' will eventually become 'in'.
I am not trying to become 'in'. I have become accustomed to being 'outside', excluded, isolated.
But having borne ostracism and family persecution with dignity and feigned indifference, and now since being advised that I should write about my experience and publish it during my lifetime, I sense that 'out' might become 'in'.
LW, Cary's advice - a)to feel self esteem, do esteemable acts and b)if you are different, make a difference - seem to be solid suggestions.
The fellow lawyers, readers of SYA, have all been most encouraging toward you.
You the 'outsider' will find yourself an 'insider' when you find the groove of legal work that your talents are called to perform.
I have an ex-H, for instance, whose list of evildoings is long and predatory. Do I need a lawyer? Yes. Like Cary's architect friends, the survivors of Katrina, who live with uncertainty, there are people who need legal advocacy and lawyers with a sense of mission. There is, for instance, a lawyer who represents only abused children. His name is Andrew Vachss.
You will find your niche, LW. You won't be 'out'. You will be 'in.'
Keep the faith.
-
Actually you are an impostor
This letter writer contradicts himself in so many ways he lacks credibility. The letterwriter claims he got his GED, and then claims the admissions director of a state school needed his high school transcript. Wrong. State schools have to admit you with a GED. He also suggests that his high school refused to release his transcripts out of spite. Please.
He also suggest that his new freedom to learn involved exposure to "communism and macro-economics and Zen Buddhism and linguistics and history and race and culture" and suggests that Catholic schools avoid those subjects. I call bullshit on that. I attended Catholic schools. They teach all of the above and then some.
His continual references to Catholic High School as being the crux of everything bad, suggests this letter is more about the assumed subtext of negative anti catholicism, than about his supposed self esteem issue. And you all bought it hook, line and sinker. Ask yourselves why?
-
I thought you were me for a second.
Hi, LW. I've been there and back. I dropped out of Junior High School at 13, because my Mom, who had severe mental issues, moved me around the country. We were dirt poor and often avoiding school officials, landlords, etc. along with many cats and an abusive sister and absent father--plus I was adopted intra-family (as I was told by my raging alcoholic sister). I have "discalcula" as well, but through reading (I was taught a love of reading, even detective novels) I passed the GED and SATs, attended two film schools but did not have enough money to pay for them. I finished undergrad (pol sci) Magna Cum Laude at another school--I had enjoyed studing racial hate groups on the internet, full of idealism I was. But I had little self esteem to follow my artistic bent and was bullied by an ex into going to law school. I tell you this because I saw everything you did at law school, the gossip and hierarchy, and the admin who cared nothing for you if you weren't corporate and high-ranking. Yeah, I was a C student too, and I'm smart (I got a second degree in the school in Religion, thank God that department was humane and supportive). For some people, law school just doesn't click mentally, it is not indicative of your mental capabilities--and it has nothing to do with being a skilled lawyer. But I felt like an imposter too, around "normal" people with assistance from family and the time to go out and party and buy expensive things. I worked two jobs in law school, to get away from the abusive ex. And, because I couldn't affort Bar Bri, I failed the bar the first time. It isn't the end of the world, and I've been homeless, I've begged for food money with my mother at the Salvation Army and slept on people's floors. I've been physically, emotionally and sexually abused. Failing is horrible, for sure, but put it in perspective. I'm not lecturing you--I feel for you and want you to know you aren't alone, and you are not a fraud, you are a good person. You are not an imposter, there is no set criteria in life for who "deserves" the good life. You know Buddhist values--don't value what other people do, value character. Nobody is paying rent on your life, so nobody has a right to say anything about you. remember that. I was humiliated by failing the exam for a week or so, but got over it. Your family and friends if they truly love you, will not think of you as a failure. Passing the bar is damned hard. Two years later I took it again, with Bar Bri, and passed, at almost 40. Passing the bar happens, too. It will more likely happen with you than not. Study with some bar review course, and do not let other people put demands on you--they will. Do not listen to other people and their horror stories. Remain calm, anxiety makes you forget. Tell yourself, what is the worst that can happen? Imagine it, decide what you will do, and then let it go. As for the job search, I've been there, too. I started out after getting sworn in finally with a decent resume (I worked in nonprofits helping criminal defendants, and I taught paralegals in business schools) and I got practically nothing in response to my job search. (My roommate in law school, with far better grades, once papered his wall with rejection letters, though, so it happens to good students as well). It's hard, this field is over-populated and companies can choose who they want. My advice outside of the bar exam: take stock of everything you have as a skill and maximize it--can you speak another language? Work experience? Consider volunteering at a firm or nonprofit--an alternate position to being a lawyer, even. I engineered two volunteering positions into two full-time paying jobs, one at the nonprofit mentioned earlier, and one at a firm when I passed the bar, through doing a bang-up job (research and writing skills are still much needed in law offices). You might have to work a second job while volunteering, but that is okay. I've been doing it for years. Try a legal aid type position for a couple years to develop a reputation. I harbor dreams of writing as well; why not go back to writing? Write down your fears and your memories. I wrote through law school, so I would not have to feel as though law school was the only thing in my life, an unloving parent. You might need writing as a break from the hell of the job hunt. And believe me, you learned more from your undergrad studies to help people than through law school. Consider what you want to do with your life as well. My Mom was crazy, but had one smart thing to say--do what you love. You're smart, you'll find a way. You might want to leave law after awhile, that's okay as well. Do what you love. Your wife will support you if you are sincere. You are my colleague, and I support you. Reconstruct your identity--take away what was imposed upon you, and build a new path in your mind of what you know you are, a good person, an artist, a lawyer to be. You can do it.