Law $chool: a Complete Waste of Time and Money

Abraham Lincoln, John Marshall and Strom Thurmond.  What do these great lawyers have in common?   They all became first rate, cream of the crop attorneys without stepping foot in a law school.  They made their place in history by using their legal skills and careers as a foundation for becoming President, a Supreme Court Justice and a United States Senator.  Impressive, right?  How would one become a lawyer without going to law school?  All three apprenticed with other, more experienced lawyers (also called "Reading Law") to become a lawyer.  So, long story short, the best way to fix law school is by eliminating it as a requirement to sit for the bar, and harkening back to those days when working as an apprentice attorney was enough.

I'm not saying that we must close all law schools down. What I propose is that we allow people to apprentice for a few years, even without pay, then sit for the bar exam.  If they pass, spectacular.  If they don't, they may have suffered without pay for three years--but at least they didn't pay for thee years of tuition to do it.

And for those students of the law who suffer from delayed adolescence (a/k/a "fear of the real world"), the law schools should be available to "prepare" you for the bar exam.  And to that point, the law schools will have to reform vastly to do this very basic task.  Currently, you attend law school for 3 years for $120K, then you must pay an additional $3525.00 for a review course or you won't pass on what you learned in law school alone.  Oh,  you weren't aware?  The law review class that you take after law school better prepares you for the bar exam than any of the classes you took in law school.  And this is coming from someone who strictly took "bar" classes.   I'm sure that you have run across people who "studied by themselves."  From what I've seen, those people fail more often than not.  So, under my model, to stay open--law schools will have to more closely resemble Barbri. Or even better, you can skip law school all together and just take Barbri and apprentice with someone.

Am I being harsh?  I don't think so.  When it comes down to it, you're not paying law schools to prepare you for the bar exam--Barbri does that.  You aren't paying law schools to help you find a job--they certainly don't do that.  You're paying for the experience--which is extremely grueling by the way.  I certainly didn't have any fun.  Did you?  So, that leaves us with paying a law school large sums of money so that you don't have to go out into the world and earn money.  My guess is, if capitalism were allowed to reign free, the schools who don't provide the sought after service, a career in the law, will either come down in price or close.  The others will improve their programs and produce better attorneys than any apprenticeship program can.

So, if you're so inclined (i.e. idiotic) to pay for law school under my new-if-Angel-ruled-the-world-model, feel free.

In case you were wondering, the "Reading Law" way to becoming an attorney is still available in a handful of states:  California, Maine, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming and Washington.  Let's reverse the trend of eliminating it as an option and bring it back as the primary way of becoming an attorney.

I have been accused of being a liberal many times.  Nothing can be farther from the truth. I believe that there should be as many options as possible for citizens.  I believe that the government should not subsidize or provide assistance to students seeking student loans.  I believe that the inflation in tuition is a direct result of government programs designed to educate Americans.  I believe that banks should bear the risk in lending money to students who choose worthless degrees.  And when they loan  money to someone with a worthwhile degree, they should charge a substantial amount of interest.  Lastly, I believe that all Americans should be entitled to bankruptcy--as it's just as much the creditor's fault as it is the debtors.  Both parties should live with the consequences of their foolhardy decisions.

Lastly, I very strongly hold that college education should not be a requirement to finding a professional job, and that college has become the new high school--since high school so ill prepares our youth to enter the work force.

In short, our unique blend of capitalism with socialist infusions of government guaranteed money is more evil and more detrimental than capitalism or socialism, or even communism, alone.  All that we have achieved is plenty of welfare for the rich, and nothing comparable for the poor.  We will all be masters or wage slaves at the end of the day, choose your path wisely.  And try walking your path with a crowd.  Makes the trip a bit easier.  See you out there for the big protest on October 6, 2011!

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L4L's Reasons for Shutting Down Big Debt, Small Law

Many of you wanted to know why Big Debt, Small Law was permanently deleted the same day the New Jersey Star-Ledger article on the law school scam featuring Scott/L4L was published. I received the following from L4L last night with his permission to publish the letter explaining his reasons for shutting down his popular blog. We are working with L4L to get all of his posts from Big Debt, Small Law archived and accessible to readers for future reference. Thank you to L4L for his contributions to the law scam movement and good luck to him in all his future endeavors.

First off, it's been a pleasure meeting all of you on this scamblogger group, and I've enjoyed "fighting the good fight" as much as anyone. BDSL was both a passion and a pleasure to write, and I've appreciated and enjoyed all of your support, encouragement and comments over the past 12 months.

However, on the eve of the Sunday article in the Star-Ledger, I voluntarily chose to take down BDSL for good. As the article states, I do have a side-practice with a partner, and it wasn't really fair to force her to "answer" (so to speak) for the often-inflammatory contents of the blog. My editorial style often made it appear that BDSL was a "group" effort (which it was not, I wrote every single word ever published there aside from quoted, italicized text from other articles). I blogged in this style merely to avoid the repetitive boredom of constantly saying "I think" and "I believe" and so on. C'mon, would you rather read "I noticed" as opposed to "It came to our attention here at Big Debt headquarters," etc. I personally think the style suited the message quite well.

At any rate, it was impossible to maintain the quality level that BDSL had in the early days, so posts had of late become fewer and farther between. I'm working on a novel right now (as well as some stand-up comedy), and prefer to spend the precious spare time I have available on those side project(s) as opposed to scamblogging.

Make no mistake: "outing" yourself like I did back in the Sept. 2007 WSJ article will curse any chance you'll ever have of working at a law firm. Period. Employers (esp. legal employers) are not looking for "boat rockers" and "malcontents." I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, only that you should always be well aware of the consequences. You'll have to answer for this shit for the rest of your natural life, thanks to the Internet. Not that you'll be missing out on anything.

At the time I "came out" I'd already logged 2+ years in the most miserable, dead-end, dysfunctional boiler room you could ever imagine ( a notorious NYC pi firm called Mirman, Markovits & Landau) and simply lost all ability to even give a fuck at that point. I pray that none of you will ever endure an experience as miserable, degrading, and suicide-inducing as the one I had at MM&L. If given the choice between spending eternity in Hell or returning to that gulag, I wouldn't hesitate to prefer the former. Take the worst job you've ever had and multiply it by a factor of 10,000, and you'll have a vague idea of the type of workplace this gutter truly was, and still is.

Now I've "done it again," bashing my alma mater in it's own hometown paper (the Star-Ledger offices are in Newark NJ right down the street from SH). I feel like I landed some real "haymakers" right in the Valvoline Dean's jaw, and am eternally grateful to my business partner (and fellow SH alum Justine) for having the cojones to do this interview with me. We both took supreme pleasure in shoving some of the Valvoline Dean's bullshit back up his ass (and; tellingly, the coward didn't have the balls to respond). Another profile in courage from the ABA lawschool scam machine.

But at this point I've simply had enough. I was trying to pen a special "Big Debt" post to coincide with the Star-Ledger article, and halfway thru just decided to throw in the towel. My heart just ain't in it anymore. I feel kind of like Marty McFly from Back to the Future: we all know damn well what awaits these lemmings, but none of them will believe it. Like a sci-fi time travel flick, the kids will just have to find out what the future holds on their own. Their incredulity will be their downfall.

I've seen some comments that implied we '"feared" a lawsuit from SH and that's why the blog disappeared. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unlike the thugs at SH, Justine and myself have both actually conducted civil jury trials on our own (she's also paid her dues in small-firm hell), and neither of us give two shits about the noise and smoke SH might throw our way. Bottom line is that we hold all the cards anyway. A case like that would be David vs. Goliath, and the bad PR and media attention a law school vs. alum case would entail makes it simple common sense that no school would risk the hit.

I made the decision that the blog had run it's course and what's done is done. I'm moving on and trying desperately to recoup some of my lawschool "investment," and BDSL (if seen by clients) would materially hurt those goals. Hence it's demise.

I still have all the old blog posts saved in MS Word, and if anyone is interested in running a "Big Debt" archive I'd be happy to fwd. them to you to run again (kind of like "syndication" for an old TV show.) Let me know if you're interested.

I wish those of you who keep blogging the best of luck, and feel free to call me anytime to BS or if you have any questions about starting a side practice (there is some easy money in law if you know how to find it). It's been fun & I wish you all the best,

Scott Bullock aka L4L