Nonsense Fear-Mongering

I was reading Peggy's xanga post about the LSAT and LSAT prep when it dawned on me how much test prep companies, even those as great as Testmasters, rely a whole lot on fear to make money.

Now that I've gotten a good idea of what not only law school but law firm life is like, I can look back at my original anxiety surrounding the LSAT and shake my head. Even though the LSAT is a very important indicator of where you'll end up for law school, it does NOT, as many test prep firms would have you believe, dictate where you'll end up working. Though going to a good law school is sufficient to get you into a "good" firm, it is not necessary (those of you who've taken LSAT prep know what I'm talking about).

The truth is that while higher-ranked schools make it easier for you to find a job, what really matters is how you do in law school. A top-ranked student at Loyola will get just as good of a job at a prestigious law frim as a top-ranked student from UCLA, Boalt, or Columbia, or even Yale.
I know for a fact that there are partners here at Nossaman who graduated from 69th-ranked law schools (av. LSAT: 159). I also know for a fact that they are making a very comfortable income.

But despite all this, here's the rub: In many cases, you might not even want to work at one of the huge "prestigious" mega-firms. They are called "sweatshop firms" for a reason.

Just my 2 cents.

Lunch: Met up with high school buddies Mike and Ben, who happened to be in Downtown. Since Mike parked in my building's "$3.50-per-15-minute" parking structure, he decided that eating close by would be a good idea. We ended up at Ciudad, the place where I went to happy hour my first week here. Turns out the food isn't so cheap when the hour isn't happy. I had a relatively ok burrito thing, Mike had some sort of salad, and Ben broke the bank with $18 fish tacos. Between the overpriced food and the ridiculous parking, I cringe to think of what Mike and Ben had to pay in total. Mike joked that he was going to have to explain to his kids that the reason they were all living in a trailer was because he decided to have lunch with me today. Actually, I don't think he was joking.