Eternity Paid Questions

[Eternity]

@Elliot

I think Ayn Rand is wrong about stuff like knowing exactly what you want to do with your life when you’re 10. I don’t think she has good advice on this topic. Most people don’t know very well what they want to do with their life when they’re 20 and that’s fine.

That’s fair but I assume one should, at some point, be sure of what exactly they want to do for a career. Yes?

@Elliot

If you expect a high paying job at a big law firm, and you’d be unhappy with any backup plans, I think that’s a major problem. I understand there are way too many lawyers for too few big law spots.

Nah. Well partially. I think I want to work in a big firm for a while to see what its like but not for a long period of time. I’m very open to various fields of law. Big law, on the whole, kinda seems like something I’d hate.

@Elliot

If you’re happy doing a solo practice in a small town, or various other options, then getting a law job you’re happy with is more realistic.

~yeah. I’m very open to many options. All forms of legal work interest me (though I would say most work interests me).

@Elliot

Another issue is that a lot of lawyers do unethical work. And I think ethical work may correlate with lower pay and not working at a major law firm. I don’t know what ethical boundaries you have now, what you might realize you have or should have once you start working somewhere with ethical issues, etc.

Thats one reason I want to work in a big law firm. I want to get a better sense of reality for why certain areas of law suck. Big law isn’t exactly a field of law, but most of these firms, afaik, do not so great things while working with corporations (typically).

Also yeah typically from what I can tell ethical work doesn’t pay as well. I do think most of the time you’re not getting paid to help an innocent client.*

*Not related to the paid question but do you have any opinions on guilty people needing representation?

@Elliot

Do you have a particular type in mind like criminal law, tax law, employment law, personal injury?

No not really. I do like employment law due to crappy bosses and what not. I’m not too worried about the field. I do know I want to avoid courtrooms.

@Elliot

Some of the more appealing jobs in terms of doing good work that makes society better may be lower paid work for non profits, and I don’t know how hard to get those jobs are or how ethically compromised a lot of them are.

I like the Institute for Justice. I’m interested in working for them at some point. I don’t think they have any cases that I think are bad. I think, unfortunately, for smaller jobs (in terms of business size) its probably a lot of who you know (I could be wrong).

@Elliot

Or maybe there is an apprenticeship option then study for the bar?

There is but I need a bachelor degree. Wack. Oh yeah it varies state by state. I think most states don’t, but Virginia, where I reside, does.

@Elliot

What are your thoughts on being a philosopher? Not interested, or don’t think you’re good enough at it, or want to do some on the side because you think law pays way better, or?

Actually I never really made that clear did I? I think I want to be a philosopher who does a lot of law stuff. I’ve shared this before but I’m very easily, genuinely (I’d like to think) interested in stuff. I had the largest period of interest in philosophy and I like the scope of the field. My goal in becoming a lawyer is two-fold:

1.) The pay. afaik you’re pretty much the only good philosopher and you’ve shared that you don’t primarily make money from philosophy. maybe I could get lucky and i’ll be different but idk. along with that you clearly have a lot of skill in philosophy that will take me a long time to reach and again, for all that skill, you don’t get paid well to do what you’re doing. skill doesn’t equal pay sure, but I still feel like I should be really good before i get paid. So since I like law I figured that would be a good place to earn my income from.

2.) instead of suppressing my interest i felt like i could integrate it. law to me seems like a very philosophical field and so i have thoughts about integrating philosophy work with legal stuff.

pays the biggest reason in pursuing becoming a lawyer. I can figure out other ways to get the legal experience I want if I wasn’t concerned with pay.

@Elliot

And generally trying to find out in some real detail what a lot of jobs, including lawyer but also others, are actually like. I find TikTok has some of the best information about what working in various professions is really like.

Yeah I’ll look at TikTok and stuff. I also have a regular at my Starbucks thats a pretty big defense attorney in my city (well, the regular is the wife). I get along with her well and was planning to ask her if I could shadow him. I also have a friend whos quite well off and his dad knows quite a few lawyers so I could go that route.