Written by S. Thompson | Posted in Education |

If you are in law school or thinking about going to law school you’re probably pretty pumped. You think you’re going to go into that place a mere mortal and exit a super lawyer, ready to conquer the world. The problem, though, is that law school doesn’t teach you two important things that are critical to success as a lawyer. We’re going to talk about those two things right now.

1. Law School Doesn’t Teach You Anything About the Practical Side of Law

When I got out of law school I had a job with a law firm. I went to work the first day ready to take on the world, ready to fight the man (I’m a Seattle criminal attorney), and ready to take care of some serious business. “Okay,” my boss told me, “I need you to put together a subpoena for this witness and serve it.” What? Sure, I know what a subpoena is, what it does, and what you can use them for, but I had no idea how to make one, much less how to serve it on someone. Was it like the movies where you have to sneak up on them and give it to them?

That’s just one of the many examples you’ll encounter when you start out. Think of it this way – you may not even know where the courthouse is!

2. Law School Doesn’t Teach You How to Be a Lawyer

Law school teaches you one thing – how to think like an attorney. That’s an important skill to master, as everything else derives from that, but there’s a lot more to it than just being able to identify an issue and then write a memo on it. Let’s take my profession, just as an example – let’s say you’re out there working for your clients and you stumble upon some evidence that really helps you. You email the prosecutor and tell them about it and ask them to dismiss the case. To your surprise, they email you back and tell you what you’ve got isn’t so good because they just talked to the cop and he “remembered” some new information that helped you.

In law school your find would have made a significant difference. There’s no one there to rebut what you’ve got with something else. But being a Seattle criminal attorney and learning about criminal law are two totally different things.

Law school is great. It’s important to being a good lawyer. But just remember the learning doesn’t stop there.

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