There are many reasons why people quit law school - it's a difficul]]> 

10 Reasons People Quit Law School

There are many reasons why people quit law school - it’s a difficult and taxing time for any students, and thousands quit at the start of their first year. Let’s look at the top 10 reasons why students drop out of law school.

1. Cost - The primary reason that people leave law school is because of the cost. It is very expensive to go to law school. Law school students will amass over $100,000 of student loan debts that they will be paying back for quite some time. While it’s true that lawyers do make a lot of money, they don’t start out that way and these debts can be a little overwhelming.

2. Job competition - Finding a job after law school is very difficult and there is a lot of competition for the best jobs. Jobs at top law firms throughout the country are highly competitive for students just out of school. This is something that even first year law school students learn quickly. Coupled with the massive debt, students are all the more deflated when they find out they will likely be making under $40,000 for the first five years after they are out of school - put this up against more than $100,000 in student loans and you find many students dropping law school for cheaper schooling careers.

3. Hours - Law school takes a lot of time - not only do you have to attend classes, you have to spend hours upon hours cramming the information into your head for the examinations and, eventually, the bar. Many law school students still want to have a social life and find that they don’t have any because of the studying and homework they have to do. As a result, this cycle doesn’t end out of law school - the hours in a law firm are long and arduous too.

4. The Bar Exam - The bar is a brutal exam - two to three days of testing of questions that are hard to answer because it seems a real answer doesn’t exist. The preparation for the bar exam is intense - months of studying and cramming. Over 40 per cent of law students fail the bar on the first try which means doing it all over again in six months. Over 33 per cent of law students fail the bar on the second try.

5. Lack of Applicable Knowledge - Law school focuses on how to make you think like a lawyer, which doesn’t really translate well to the work you will be doing. Many students figure this out in the first term of law school and find out that this isn’t what they want to be doing.

6. The Need for Money - Most law school students need to have a part time job to help pay for school, and work full time during the summer. Breaks aren’t spent having fun partying with friends, rather they are spent working to improve a resume and the time off from work is spent studying and reviewing material.

7. Brutal Competition - Most law school students figure out before they even get to law school that college will be a time of buckling down to get the work done. All students know that it’s imperative to be near the top of the class - those are the students that land the high paying jobs. However, not all students can be at the top of the class so the competition in class is brutal, resulting in a lack of social scene; not to mention the long hours of working and studying that are also cramping their social life style.

8. Difficult Teaching Styles - Many law students can’t take the heat from their professors, who are arrogant and pretentious while they are trying to drill a bunch of information into their heads.

9. Final Examinations - The final exams for any semester are almost as grueling as the bar exam itself.

10. Dealing with Others - many people will ask a law student about law, trying to get lawyer information for free on an issue they are having. Law students can do nothing to stop this endless harassment - it is something they will cope with from friends and family forever. Many can’t take the constant barrage of questions and queries and thusly drop out of law school before it becomes a life long nightmare.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for reasons why law school students leave law school. If you are a law school student, you need to seriously weigh your options - school loan officers don’t care if you drop out - you’ll still have to pay those back. Is dropping out worth it?

Mark Warner is a Legal Research Analyst for RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs gives you insider access to millions of legal documents online drafted by the top law firms in the US that you can download, edit and print. Search For Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com

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That's Part Of The Reason Their Own Marketing Efforts Are Destined ]]> Law School Does A Great Job Of Training Lawyers To Be Professional Skeptics
Tony Merlino

That’s Part Of The Reason Their Own Marketing Efforts Are
Destined To Fail.

Here Are 8 Great Suggestions From Law Firm Marketing
Professionals That Are Guaranteed To Produce Results. Lawyers
practice law, NOT marketing. Effective marketing takes a certain
amount of faith and patience. It just doesn’t happen overnight.
To make matters worse most lawyers tend to over analyze any
marketing plan. Some gain satisfaction in proving “beyond a
doubt” there is no way marketing can be effective for them.

When it comes to marketing, most lawyers don’t have a clue. It’s
not their fault. No one in law school ever told them the
practice of law involved actually starting a business.

Here are a few suggestions from law firm marketing professionals
about what it takes to successfully market your law firm.

1. Realize that there is some risk involved in lawyer marketing.
Start taking a little risk. Even a turtle has to stick his neck
out to make progress.

2. Realize that being a lawyer is being a business owner. Start
thinking like a business person. Stop defining yourself as “an
attorney”. Instead, define yourself as the owner of a law firm.

3. Realize that when it comes to marketing, you need to stop
arguing with the marketing experts. You went to law school.
Unfortunately they didnt offer even one single course on
actually marketing your practice.

4. Realize that traditional law firm marketing is dead. The old
yellow pages ad and “word of mouth” isn’t going to cut it
anymore in the Internet age.

5. Realize that you need an “effective” Internet presence to
exist in today’s law firm marketing space.

6. Realize that you are no longer considered an “ambulance
chaser” just because you advertise effectively. Times have
changed and so have the attitudes and perceptions about lawyers
who advertise.

7. Realize that effective law firm marketing comes at a price.
Start focusing on the end result (more billable hours) instead
of fixating on the beginning cost.

8. Realize that “Education Based Marketing” coupled with a solid
“Client Referral System” is the recipe for effective 21st
Century Law Firm Marketing.

OK, so let’s say you buy into the fact that you need to start an
effective law firm marketing campaign. Where do you start? With
the basics of course. If you practice law in New Jersey or the
surrounding states of NY, PA, or DE you are really in luck.

Here is a bit of shameless self-promotion. Start by getting a
listing in the Law Firm Directory. http://www.je
rseyjustice.com/resources/add.cfm Otherwise, look to obtain
a listing in another highly trafficked legal site in your state.

If you don’t already have a dedicated law firm website, it’s
time to get one. But don’t just throw up a few web pages and
expect clients to start beating a path to your firm. Your
website needs to be effectively designed and marketed as well.
Otherwise it becomes a solitary billboard in the desert that
receives little or no traffic from clients searching the
Internet superhighway for attorneys able to relieve their
pressing legal problem.

Find a professional legal marketer with a proven track record
and experience in promoting individual as well as multi lawyer
firms. Then listen to what they have to say and act on their
suggestions. All the while be sure to they provide blind control
testing all of your marketing efforts so that you know what is
working best.

Every practice area has it’s own set of characteristics that
influence results. In other words, one size legal marketing does
not fit all firms. Allow your marketing consultant to custom
tailor a program that works.

Learn how to attract new clients, increase referrals, strengthen
client loyalty and build your image as an authority in your
practice area. When you first begin marketing your legal
services it is common to rely on intuition and common sense to
make decisions. But in most cases the results from your own
marketing efforts won’t produce the desired result. That is why
it is wise to hire a professional legal marketer.

How do you find a qualified legal marketer? Simple. Go to any
major search engine like www.Google.com and type in
“Lawyer Marketing”. Then look for the top generic listing. If he
is a good enough marketer to earn the number one or two spot for
the term “lawyer marketing” (considering all of the formidable
competitors), it should be good enough for you.

About the author:


Tony Merlino is webmaster and Legal Marketing Consultant at Jersey Justice.com

Technorati tags: marketing firm realize legal start lawyers

Law school is one of the most challenging and rewarding ex]]> 

What You Need to Know About Law School

Law school is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences a student can have. The popularity and demand on law schools has grown at a rapid pace. If you’ve ever seen the “Devil’s Advocate”, Al Pacino (during his dramatic closing monologue) says that there are more people in law school than there are actual lawyers. I’ve done some research and I haven’t been able to verify whether or not this is true, but it wouldn’t be a total shock if it was valid. Television programs like “Law

A case decided by a jury in Rochester presents a glaring example of why choosing a lawyer to repres]]> The Pitfalls of Lawyer Advertising
Stephen G. Schwarz

A case decided by a jury in Rochester presents a glaring example of why choosing a lawyer to represent you in a serious personal injury matter should be a far different process than choosing a laundry detergent. A jury awarded the plaintiff in that case $1.9 Million Dollars against his former lawyer, a man who in recent years has flooded the airwaves with his advertisements proclaiming that he is the meanest, toughest, smartest lawyer in town and will always get you a big cash settlement.

What the trial of that case revealed was that contrary to the claims of maximum cash made in the advertisements, the client was talked into settling for only a fraction of what the case was actually worth. Even more troubling were the revelations that:

1. The very first time the client ever spoke to any lawyer from the firm was the day he was asked to sign the release for the settlement. Prior to that his only contact was with support staff;

2. The client was encouraged to accept the settlement on the basis that another better claim existed, when in fact, there had been no investigation of this second claim and it was ultimately never pursued;

3. The meanest, toughest, smartest lawyer in town according to his commercials admitted in his videotaped deposition played to the jury that he has never once tried a case in court and lives in Florida!

Prior to the United States Supreme Court decision forcing states to lift the ban on lawyer advertising on First Amendment Grounds, most people had to research their choice of a personal injury attorney by asking friends, a family attorney or someone involved in the court system for a recommendation. Now attorneys competing for personal injury clients appear on virtually every billboard on the expressway, on countless, tasteless, radio and television ads and sometimes send direct solicitations to injured individuals. Although the Supreme Court has held that this lawyer advertising cannot be prohibited, it is well recognized within the legal community that the advertisements are frequently not providing potential clients with the information they really need to make an informed choice.

If you are injured by the negligence of another and need the assistance of an attorney, you should ask the following questions:

A. Who will try the case? Although it is perfectly appropriate for younger, less experienced attorneys to work on your case, you need to find out who is ultimately responsible if the case does go to trial and whether that person will be involved all the way through.

B. Is the trial attorney experienced in the type of case involved? All personal injury cases are not alike. Medical malpractice cases, for instance, are far different from automobile or construction accidents.

C. Is the trial attorney experienced at trying cases? Although many cases settle, in this field a number do get tried. When choosing a surgeon to perform a particular procedure most people want to know if he or she has done this procedure before and how often. The same question should apply to trial attorneys.

D. Is the trial attorney recognized by his or her peers as knowledgeable? New York now requires all attorneys to perform 12 hours of continuing legal education each year. These programs are usually taught by other attorneys in the community. Find out if the attorney you are considering has been asked to lecture to his or her peers in one or more of these programs.

You should also not be enticed by the offer of a free initial consultation. Virtually all personal injury attorneys accept contingent fee arrangements which provide for the attorney

Deciding whether to attend paralegal school or law school is not an easy]]> 

Paralegal Schools Vs Law School

Deciding whether to attend paralegal school or law school is not an easy task. Both have significant pros and cons, making the decision a challenging one. If you are trying to decide between these two career paths, here is some valuable information you can use to help make your decision.

Pros of Pursuing a Paralegal Career

Paralegal school is much more affordable than law school. In fact, many paralegals can start their careers with just three months of paralegal-specific training, provided they have the right college education behind them. Most paralegals start working with little school debt other than the college loans that most people have, in comparison to lawyers who graduate law school with tremendous amounts of debt, usually pushing the six-figure mark.

Paralegals do not have to pass a school entrance exam. Those who take the LSAT and do not receive high enough marks to enter law school often have no choice but to enter the paralegal program, unless they want to continue taking the LSAT in order to improve their marks.

Paralegals also have less stress in the field than lawyers. Since they must work under an attorney or lawyer, paralegals answer to someone other than themselves for their actions. Also, working in law requires long hours. Paralegals are usually able to get overtime pay. This is not the case for lawyers.

Cons of a Paralegal Profession

Pursuing paralegal school when you qualify for law school limits your advancement opportunities. There is only so far you can go in the system as a paralegal. The highest you can earn in most markets is $90,000 a year.

Some people feel that the tasks assigned to paralegals are mundane and become routine over time. This eliminates some stress, but also may eliminate the challenge of the job. Paralegals usually operate in a shared office environment, which some may view as a con to the job.

Pros to Attending Law School

The main two benefits to attending law school are unlimited career growth potential and the fact that a good lawyer has unlimited earning potential. If you are successful as a lawyer, you can grow in your profession and pursue a broad range of specialties. If you start your own firm, you will not be limited by the direction others wish you to pursue.

A successful lawyer has a lot of perks. Secretarial support and the help of paralegals are all benefits enjoyed by leading lawyers. Lawyers typically work out of private offices and enjoy a diverse assortment of tasks throughout the day.

Cons of Law School

The main drawback to law school for many people is the tremendous cost. If your LSAT scores are high enough, you may be able to get aid. However, most people end up graduating from law school with a lot of debt.

The other drawback is all of the testing you will have to do. First, you will need high enough LSAT scores to qualify for a law school program. Once you graduate, you will have to pass the bar exam in order to become a lawyer. It is entirely possible for a student to go all the way through law school and fail to pass the bar exam, which means that a career as a lawyer is impossible, in spite of the money spent on paralegal schools.

So which career path should you pursue? Only you can answer that question. If you desire to have unlimited income potential and feel you have the knowledge and resources to pass the rigorous testing required for law school, then pursue that option. If, however, you wish to take the safe route, a career as a paralegal may be the best option. You now know the benefits and risks of each career, so you can make a more informed decision.

Halifax college offers training in continuing care, medical office administration and paralegal studies. When looking for information on colleges in Halifax, consider The Centre for Health