Alumnus pursues law school career, discusses pros, cons

By Matt Owen, Illustration Manager

This is the third in a series on career paths. In this edition, we explore the hardships of law school.

Studying law opens up a wealth of opportunities for applying what one has learned to the real world. While taking classes following the pre-law curriculum may help, it is by no means necessary.

For the biology majors, there’s pharmaceutical law. For the foreign language majors, there’s international law. For the psychology majors, there’s criminal law. According to J.R. Neiswender, associate director of college counseling, there’s no need to strictly follow an undergraduate pre-law program.

“A liberal arts education is really about learning to think and to solve different kinds of problems, and that tends to be a great preparation for law school,” Mr. Neiswender said.

Law degrees provide an opportunity for graduates to follow career paths inside and outside the legal profession, but achieving the Juris Doctorate (J.D.) is by no means easy.First, there’s the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the equivalent of the high school student’s Standard Admission Test (SAT), but much more critical.

While the SAT tests high school students on general knowledge gained through high school, the LSAT hones in on reading comprehension and logic skills. Whereas some colleges are now considering removing the SAT altogether, the LSAT is the opposite. According to Nikhil Pole ’01, schools won’t even look at students with low scores.

“I spent months studying for the LSAT,” Nikhil said. “I ended up quitting my job so that I could spend 40 hours a week to study. It became my job.”

Nikhil now attends Loyola Law School Los Angeles, and is in his second year. He says even after getting in, there’s no sigh of relief.

“Getting into law school is like running blindly through a forest: there are so many things that can get you and bring you down, and once you get out, you’re relieved,” Nikhil said. “But that relief is short-lived because the first few months of classes are even worse.”

In most law schools, all work is centered around reading and analyzing cases.

After reading these cases, students then must come to classes, commonly held in packed lecture halls, where they have to be prepared to present the case.

“The professor calls on us randomly,” Nikhil said. “We have to be prepared everyday to explain the case thoroughly. Preparing everyday is crucial.”

Grading is strict. Stude1nts are ranked based on their peers – grades are determined comparatively. An A+ could be getting only a few questions correct, as long as everyone else did worse.

“It usually works the other way, though,” Nikhil said. “In my first exam, I missed two questions and got a B-. On one of my papers, I received a 121/125 and earned a B.”

Then there’s the bar exam. The bar exam is a test each law graduate must take if he or she wants to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. It is administered by agencies of individual states and is one of several steps for being licensed to practice law.

According to Mr. Neiswender, the best thing to do in preparation for all of this is to learn how to problem solve in as many different ways as you can, and to learn how to write.

“Law school is about writing,” Mr. Neiswender said. “People who write well and communicate well will have the most success in law school. I think Greenhill does a good job in preparing kids for that.”

Senior Michael Sabeti looks forward to the prospect of practicing law.

“As I started to go through the college process, I really started to truly evaluate what I would want to do with the rest of my life,” Michael said. “One of the most attractive things about law school is the ability to move into politics.”

After taking AP Government with Scott Cotton, Upper School History Department Head, Michael realized his love for politics.
“Luckily the timing of the class took place at the same time as one of the most competitive primary seasons in our history,” Michael said.

Law school offers plenty of opportunities for those interested in anything pertaining to or even beyond the legal system.
“If you get out of law school, and you realize you don’t want to practice law, it’s not the end of the world,” Nikhil said. “Law school opens up countless job opportunities. It’s a great step towards building your career.”