Parenting

Should You Send Your Kid To Law School? [Part 1] Cliff Ennico www.creators.com "My daughter's in her junior year of college and has started to think about her future. Like most kids her age, she really isn't sure what she wants to do with her life (except, of course, become a famous actress or rock star), and I really don't want her working years in a dead-end job while she 'finds herself'. I am suggesting that she go to law school after graduating from college. She's not wild about the idea of becoming a lawyer, but I think a law degree can lead to so many different careers. What do you think?" A law degree (which - full disclosure - I myself have) can be an excellent way to prepare for a large number of possible careers . . . as long as you don't become a lawyer after you graduate. On the plus side, law school teaches you how to analyze situations very logically and precisely. "Thinking like a lawyer" means looking at situations that appear superficially the same, and realizing that they are quite different when you look at them closely. When you read cases in law school, you learn how to sift through complicated fact patterns and sort through the irrelevant (but often colorful and distracting) details to focus on the essential facts - the one or two important facts that stuck in a judge's craw and made him or her decide for one party over the other. Lawyers are trained from day one to cut through the glitz, noise and hype and take a "no nonsense, just the facts ma'am" approach to life, and they tend not to suffer fools gladly. This can be a great asset in a business career, though it means lawyers often aren't as much fun at cocktail parties as, say, marketing people. But there are negatives to a legal education as well. (1) Lawyers don't help their clients make money: they protect their clients against risk. In law school, you never read about business relationships that work. You read only about the ones that went sour and led to lawsuits, and it's easy after a while to start looking at the entire business world as a lawsuit-waiting-to-happen. Business is all about taking calculated risks, and a risk-averse approach to life is a tremendous handicap in any business career. (2) Lawyers are trained to be perfectionists. A Wall Street law firm partner I once worked for was fond of saying "when you're in school 95% is an excellent grade, but when you practice law 95% is a failing grade; anything less than a 100% accurate performance for a client we call 'malpractice'". Lawyers never advise their clients unless they are 100% certain of the facts, whereas in business "procrastination kills deals". If you wait until you have all the facts before you decide to enter a new market, or buy a company that's on sale at an attractive price, chances are either the business opportunity has long since passed by, or your competition has jumped on the bandwagon and has left you in the dust. (3) Lawyers don't deal much with numbers. The focus in law school is on reading court opinions, statutes and other "texts", not dissecting balance sheets or making statistical assessments of marketing strategies. Law school students (many of whom were humanities or history majors who gave up on college math after first-year calculus) often develop "math anxiety" due to lack of exposure. In the business world, "if you can't quantify something, it's only a rumor". A basic knowledge of accounting, financial mathematics and statistics is essential to anyone pursuing a career in business. (4) Last but not least, law school is expensive. VERY expensive. When you graduate from law school you are almost forced to work several years as a junior lawyer in a mid-sized to large law firm, because only at such firms will your income be high enough to pay off your college and law school debts as well as your living expenses. After several years of working in a law firm making a six-figure salary, it will be tough if not impossible to take a pay cut and do something else with your life, especially if you have since married, bought a house, had a kid or two . . . So what's the best way for a college graduate to prepare for a fulfilling career when they don't really know what they want out of life? More next week . . . Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. His latest book is 'Small Business Survival Guide' (Adams Media, $12.95). This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2006 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.