BSChE '16, Penn JD '21

[Rheo]

"Some of you seem insecure."

_________________

Or maybe everyone is envious of you? That could also be it.

[MYK]

I'm taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, an all or nothing bet on life.

This is a really bad idea IMHO.  You have a reasonable shot at biglaw with that 60% stat, but if you hate it or don't make it, you're going to have to choose between being miserable or being buried.

My perspective is colored by having graduated in 2011, when the previous two years of graduating classes had been told, "umm, we're gonna defer you, go do something else for a year or two until the Great Constitutional Scholar (and, later, the president with the worst record at the Supreme Court since the Civil War) who's ruining, sorry, running the country stops making things worse" and my class got told "we're not hiring, good luck!"

I was fortunate in that my scholarship covered most of my costs and I had resources to cover the rest.  If I'd graduated with serious debt I would've been utterly fucked.  A lot of my classmates were.  The school had previously been placing about a third of the class in biglaw;  I think we had about 10% get hired for biglaw, and I saw some of those lose those jobs within months.  I ran into one of my classmates at the bar exam who eventually gave up and went back to being a social worker.  Her roughly $30K/yr salary isn't ever going to pay off her $200K in student loans.  Only about half of the class found jobs as lawyers, and a lot of the ones I know only "got" those jobs by going into solo practice.

Anyway, whatever you choose to do, good luck.  Be aware that many lawyers have personalities like (used) TP.

[ThomasPaine]

"Try reading a little more objectively."

Try writing better.   

[ThomasPaine]

So it's the black guy's fault you couldn't get hired?

Somebody else needs to remove their head from their rectum.

[trustme]

I am just curious. Why do you think you'll like litigation so much?

I am in-house and I find the pre-trial aspects of litigation super interesting. I went to a TTT and actively despised the cut-throat nature of the other students, but I had an engineering career before and had to learn how to get along with other people. When I was in your position I had no idea what law school was going to be like. Luckily, you probably won't have to deal with dipsh!t fellow students.

[still_learnin]

I am just curious. Why do you think you'll like litigation so much?

I am in-house and I find the pre-trial aspects of litigation super interesting. ...

What do you consider "pre-trial aspects of litigation?"

I spent about 15 years as a law firm patent prosecutor, and had a few projects over the years that involved what I thought of as "litigation support." Stuff like evaluating prior art search results, developing non-infringement arguments and evaluating possible infringers. I did really enjoy those projects.

I'm in-house now and I'm not involved with litigation at all. But I know other in-house patent counsel who supervise outside litigation counsel, and some of them enjoy being able to drive the strategy aspects while leaving the boring details to the law firm lawyers. Most of the other patent litigators I know enjoy depositions and expert witness preparation the most.

I am just curious. Why do you think you'll like litigation so much?

I didn't read the OP as saying he'd actually like litigation, only that it was far preferable to prosecution.

[trustme]

Yeah, the things you mentioned, plus things like settlement negotiations, driving IP strategy, etc. Litigation support might be a better way of putting it, but I think it's almost always better to avoid litigation.

[MYK]

TP, you should take some reading comprehension lessons.

[ThomasPaine]

You should take some history lessons.

[MYK]

I lived through it, I don't need some libtard's "fake news" take on it.

[Tobmapsatonmi]

Back to OP's OP, the only advice I have is not to tank your upcoming 1L year.  Top 3rd minimum, top 5th is better and top 10% better still.  Although Penn doesn't "rank" as such, you're still graded on a curve and interviewing firms know what's what based on your grades.