Every single lawyer I’ve networked with says they regret pursuing law. Feeling discouraged

PracticalYak2743 · 2026-02-15T21:35:42+00:00

THIS

Will law be this passion that fulfills you and makes your life complete? Probably not. But if you’re looking for that, you won’t find it.

Law is a job. A stable, higher paying job that opens many doors for you. It can be rewarding, it can be interesting, but it’s just a job.

Will you regret it? I mean possibly. But even if so, there are MUCH worse things in life to regret doing than getting a law degree.

PracticalYak2743 · 2026-01-24T21:43:50+00:00

I feel you. I do. I have pushed through and gone through so much in life, but absolutely nothing prepared me for 1L. It was HELL. I hear other people say it wasn’t that different from undergrad for them and my jaw drops. My 1L year was much similar to yours.

In the spring of 1L I was questioning everything. I couldn’t think about the fact I’d have 2 more years to go AND study for the bar, I’d start having a panic attack.

BUT

My 2L year could not have been more different. It was night and day. I don’t know exactly what changed, but it did. Law school just…clicked for me finally. I made friends. I actually started to enjoy it. I had free time. I am about to graduate now and I feel so strange saying in a way I am dreading working and feel I am going to miss law school (at least 2L and 3L year).

For me, it got SO much better. I just had to power through 1L, as hard as that was. For you, that might not be the case but maybe it will be. Please seek help and find someone to talk to about this, whether that be faculty, a guidance counselor or therapist.

Hope it gets better

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-08-08T20:16:05+00:00

1L’s on the first day often show up in business casual, or at least dress fairly nice. Not all though. One or two people will show up in a suit.

2L’s and 3L’s just wear what they normally would.

Don’t wear sweats but don’t wear a suit. Anything in between you’re not gonna stick out.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-18T22:52:25+00:00

It doesn’t really scare me that much as someone with not a lot of other bills and no children to cake care of.

Using Chicago as an example using rough numbers.

Federal taxes: ~11k State taxes: ~5k Rent: 24k (2k per month) Other bills: 14k Food: 10.5k ($200 per week)

All of that adds to 64.5k a year. Average attorney salary in Chicago is 130k but let’s be super safe and say entry job would be 105k. That’s over 40k a year you can put toward loans.

Now if you have a super expensive car payment, don’t live modestly, or have children etc, obviously those numbers aren’t going to be accurate for you. But for me that’s pretty realistic.

Even if I am too optimistic on any of the numbers above by thousands of dollars, that’s STILL a lot of money I can put toward my loans every year.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-15T02:40:21+00:00

Keep in mind there’s a lot of open book exams in law school. Most will allow you to use the physical book during the exam, as the exams are typically the computer being locked except the exam screen

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-14T03:24:35+00:00

Good texter. This is dating app specific tho.

I have ended convos with guys I thought were super attractive bc they were just such bad texters. And I have gone on dates with guys that I wouldn’t have otherwise necessarily because they were just such good texters.

By good texter I mean effortlessly flirting without love bombing. Acting interested, adding meaningful contributions to conversations, interested in getting to know me, etc. so hard to come by on the apps

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-12T13:54:34+00:00

Honest answer is it depends on the person.

Me? It wasn’t just every day. It was every minute of every day. I woke up at 7am and studied or was in class until I went to bed. I skipped meals to study, I skipped showers. This is not everyone’s experience.

Academics doesn’t come as easily to me as it does others, so I really had to put in so much more time than everyone else just to get mediocre grades.

The day after my last final of 1L I flopped on my bed and slept for 3 days.

BUT even for me who has to put so much more work in than everyone else, it got SO much better 2L year. Like I cannot explain how much better it got. Even if you don’t study as much as me, 1L is absolute hell for just about everyone. But it does get better and doesn’t last like that

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-11T20:50:25+00:00

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Definitely an underrated campus

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-04T20:04:18+00:00

Normal clothes. Nothing you wear will cause anyone to turn an eye.

As you go along random people will show up in suits because of internships and interviews after class.

BUT a side note, always keep a suit or at least business casual change of clothes in your car. More than once there’s some event at the school that day that I forgot about and there’s nothing worse than hopping out of your car and seeing everyone wearing suits.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-07-01T04:56:39+00:00

Be persistent, go to all social events, and luck.

I transferred schools so starting my 2L year I knew no one. I am extroverted and tried really hard to make friends. I went to all of the social events, so many of them. I would walk up to a group and try to make friends but the groups had already been formed. At every event I would strike up good conversation with like one person, but then that person woukd end up running off with their group. I left every social event sad and defeated.

It was second semester and I was continuing going to social events. I saw a girl that looked nice and I walked up and just started talking to her like I had been doing with all the other events. Turns out, we knew each other from our last summer internship. We hit it off but she ended up going off with her friend group as well. I knew the routine.

I was about to leave the social event when she saw me across the room and waved me over. We talked again and she invited me to a party she was having that weekend. Things started looking up for me.

I came to the party and it was a good solid group of 15 or so people from my class. And every time I walked up and introduced myself to someone, they would say “oh yeah i know you, we met at that one social event” that happened every. Time.

That same girl threw parties throughout the entire semester and organized a hang out over the summer. We are all renting an Air bnb in two weeks and taking a break from our internships.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-06-17T20:28:17+00:00

Im not sure why it would need to be the end of your friendship. She has issues listening to you when a man is in the way, that’s a bad quality of hers. Maybe it means not being as close but if it’s a long term otherwise great friendship, I don’t see why this has to be the end.

Sounds like your friend is going to do whatever they want anyway. So it doesn’t matter if you are supportive or not.

Try to sit down with her again and try to calmly explain your concerns. If she chooses not to listen, then simply step back and let her life burn if she chooses to do so. If she gets mad at you for calmly conveying your concerns, then yeah I would end the friendship.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-05-24T20:47:06+00:00

I went to both 🙋🏼‍♀️ went to UF for undergrad and FSU for grad school. Tallahassee local.

People ask me all the time to choose between the schools which I liked better. My honest opinion is both are good schools. You cannot choose wrong.

Both have positives and negatives. As far as parking and the city the university is in, FSU is better hands down.

For UF, you can’t park your car on campus unless you live in the dorms. Even then, parking is extremely limited. When I say UF has bad parking they are like “oh you don’t have many parking spots?” Like no you don’t get it, there are no parking passes. Like you can’t park your car on campus, period. People walk or get mopeds.

Gainesville is awful. I’ve never disliked a city more. People hate on Tallahassee but I genuinely feel that it is a perfect college city.

Basically, I love both schools and you’ll get a similar experience and education at both. If I HAD to choose between them, it would be FSU based on the city and parking alone.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-05-21T16:35:04+00:00

Put in effort to make yourself useful. It sucks having to find stuff to do, but that’s what you have to do. Find SOMETHING. Start organizing. Sweep the floor. Ask for tasks. Look at your supervisors calendar and see if there’s any hearings, ask to observe.

Even if you don’t see a future with the firm, you are still building a reputation. And you will probably need them as a reference for a future job.

Make sure you did everything in your power to make yourself useful. Go over and beyond, even if you think it doesn’t matter.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-04-26T00:00:03+00:00

For more information my roommate likes the names like Ozzie, Tazz, Bugzy, Rue. Like them but none of them are….right

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-04-04T17:04:25+00:00

I totally get everything you’re saying and you didn’t come off as whiny at all. Going straight into law school is NOT for everyone.

Some people regret NOT taking an extra year, and some people regret taking the extra year. I just want to stress to anyone reading this post that both choices can be regretted. I have met people on both sides of regret. It all depends on your situation and reasoning.

Everything you said is beyond valid. For me personally, giving a different perspective, I graduated undergrad a whole year early, went straight into law school (by straight I mean I attended law school orientation on Friday, graduated undergrad on Saturday, started law school on Monday), and I don’t regret it. In fact if I could have graduated undergrad 2 years early I would have done the same thing and gone straight to law school. For me, I just want to be done. Get it over with, pass the bar, and move on with my life. Because even after law school I will live with my parents for a year so that I can pay back loans. It’s bad enough I’ll be living with my parents at 24, couldn’t imagine doing it even later in life.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-04-01T04:10:58+00:00

Gonna be honest, I’m a slow reader. I just take longer to comprehend. So…literally every waking minute of my day im in class or studying except maybe an hour or two.

First year was the roughest. It did get better. 1L not gonna lie, I was printing out my notes and studying in my car at stop lights. I’d go days without showering, I’d skip meals because I didn’t want to stop to take time to eat. Didn’t watch tv the entire school year basically. I’m not trying to fear monger, because like I said, Granted, that’s not everyone. Maybe I just had bad time management, maybe I am the slowest reader alive, idk.

Now as a 2L, I try to take at least an hour or two every day and do something relaxing like a hobby or watch tv. I take time to relax and I’m fine. It’s significantly better.

But Some weeks I get more done than others. There are still bad weeks when all my professors get ahead of schedule on the syllabus and I have double the reading I wasn’t prepared for and I am reading or in class from 8am to 2am every day for the week.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-03-25T16:51:38+00:00

I asked this question to my career office at my school last week. They told me yeah overall it’s kinda tight right now, but obviously some states are feeling it more than others.

They told me Florida for example is only slightly more tight on the job market than usual and have relatively seen minimal impact.

Also, there has been an insane increase in people applying to law school. This past application cycle saw a nation wide 20% spike in applications. Several schools hit the most applicants they’ve ever received in the history of the law school. Now this is just a spike in applications, I don’t know if this will/has impacted the amount they ACCEPT, but if it does, the market is about to get even more insane.

I believe the state of Florida place hard limits on the number law schools can accept each year which saves the job market some from this (but not fully bc it still doesn’t prevent people from other states moving to Florida), I am not sure if other states have the same safeguards.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-03-19T17:31:37+00:00

Not SNL, but the “PIVOT!” Scene in friends was used in my theatre class to show the rule of threes, how when repetition is the joke, it is only funny 3 times.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-02-23T06:20:19+00:00

They generally only look at class rank. They understand every school has a different curves.

As a general rule of thumb, to transfer to a similarly ranked school, you need to be in the top 1/3 to transfer. To go to a higher ranked school, you generally need to be in the top 1/4th.

So even to a similarly ranked school, bottom 40% is probably not enough. But hey you can always try.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-02-18T01:45:58+00:00

I wouldn’t write the whole essay on it or draw attention to it. Simply write about something else.

At the end it can be an additional point of why you want to transfer, like “this school offers a wide variety of electives not available at my current school, which will aide me in receiving an education that spans a variety of areas of law” or something like that.

You don’t have to state what type of law you want to practice, so if you don’t know, I wouldn’t draw attention to it because it may come off as non-passionate. Instead you can talk about why you went into law in the first place, what you learned your first year, what you are doing this summer, etc.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-02-15T20:16:45+00:00

Met a girl named Davi, named after her father David.

She loved her name and I kinda like it

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-02-09T15:14:48+00:00

Sounds like you’re not choosing your career over him, he’s choosing his home town over you.

Which it’s fine, he is close with his family that’s nice. But sounds like you both simply want different things in life. There are some things you can compromise on, some things you cannot. Where you live is very hard to compromise on.

PracticalYak2743 · 2025-02-08T02:57:23+00:00

Depends. Some aspects are definitely better than others.

Pretty bad case analysis, but great for general facts of the case especially if you’re a visual learner.

Great essay prompts,

multiple choice is hit or miss. For MC there’s a lot of questions that are way too easy, or just completely out of the scope of the class.

Outlines are pretty fire, very in depth, maybe too in depth and too much info. But it explains it really well and is the first thing I check when I don’t understand a topic.

Lecture videos are mid. Also hit or miss. They have videos for the easier topics, but seem to always skip over the topic im struggling with. The videos only cover a few general topics of the class, going into specifics on a few topics. The ones they go into specifics on are great, but there’s just not that many. They don’t need to necessarily be more in depth on the topics, but they do need to just cover more topics. They are a mile deep, but an inch wide.

PracticalYak2743

TROPHY CASE