I was having lunch with some law school friends last semester. We were discussing some of the careers our peers had before coming to law school. I noted that one of our classmates had been a food blogger in her pre-law school life. My friend shouted, “that’s my dream job!”Her exclamation made me laugh. What on earth are you doing in law school, I thought, if you really want to be a food blogger? In my naiveté, I thought everyone at law school wanted to be Chief Justice. Are there others at law school who aren’t following their passion? What options do students have if law school and being a lawyer isn’t for them? Alternatively, if you are committed to law school, but are not set on a type of practice, what options are out there?
The hardest part of law school is getting in, as the saying goes. Currently, it is nearly impossible to flunk your way out of law school. Only 5% of us will get Ds or Fs, and the Fs are not mandatory in marking. Generally, if you study, you will pass. This is contrasted with the welcome given to Osgoode students a generation ago which said “look to your left, look to your right. One of you won’t be here by the end.”We now, more or less, have the choice of whether we want to complete law school. Dropping out is usually a result of different kinds of pressures now.
My LSAT prep course was taught by a young man who had dropped out of law school after first year. He aced his LSAT and was accepted into most schools but, once there, he learned that he didn’t like the environment. He didn’t like the competitiveness or the subject material (needless to say, he didn’t go to Osgoode). I appreciated his honesty about leaving law school to pursue an alternative career. He was lucky enough to take a position at his father’s consulting firm while he was figuring out what to do next. He appeared happy with his decision. Most of us are not fortunate enough to have something to fall back on but if you find yourself truly unhappy, leaving law school to pursue the career you actually want, though drastic, may be the best option.
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Osgoode Professor Ed Waitzer about his legal career. Unlike many, Prof. Waitzer did not initially intend to practice law with his law degree; nor did he want to be a professor, or a politician. For Prof. Waitzer, a former community organizer who started his career without a high school diploma or an undergraduate degree, a law degree was the most effective way to change the world.
Knowing that he had no intention to practice, Prof. Waitzer did not conform to the legal system as it then was but made his career conform to his vision. During our chat he said, “[there is a] different mindset when you’re there because you want to be.”
After receiving his LLB from the University of Toronto in 1976, Professor Waitzer articled for Ian Scott, who went on to become the Attorney General of Ontario. The pair had an agreement that he would not be asked back once the year had finished.
Like his LLB, earning his LLM was another means upon which he could rely on at a later time. Since earning his degrees, Professor Waitzer has worked in several areas such as the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Ontario Securities Commission. Professor Waitzer said that without the LLM he probably wouldn’t be a full-time professor now.
During our discussion, Professor Waitzer told me that life rarely happens in a straight line. The degrees he has earned have helped him get where he is now. Those degrees, the same degrees we are working toward now, are more than a license to practice law. A legal education has the added benefit of giving the recipient a different perspective on the world and the skills by which to change it.
Unlike a generation ago, a law degree now costs a small fortune. The benefits of a law degree have also changed and, as ELGC has informed me, jobs are not readily available after graduation. I am writing this article just after having paid the second installment of my tuition which means that, barring any major gaffes, I will be staying around a few more months and probably a couple more years.
This makes models of success like Professor Waitzer so much more important. I don’t propose telling your OCI interviewers that you don’t want to work at their firm, but it’s important to know that there are doors that will open that don’t even exist yet. My advice is that, unless you truly don’t enjoy what you are doing, you should continue trekking down the yellow brick road and consider designing your own career. After all, life rarely happens in a straight line.