A WARNING to D/L law students!

Indeed, Christian! Stay the course! In ca. 2001, I scored 93% on Concord's internal admissions exam but my broke arse couldn't afford the $500/month payments for the next four years and I was much too proud to ask for Daddy's money. - Ted.

 

Bear in mind that if one should decide, after practicing in California for 3 to 7 years, that one would like to practice in another state, many states require an accredited bachelors degree and, moreover, that it be acquired before the J.D. Of course, before worrying about that, one would need to first make sure that the state will accept the unaccredited CalBar-approved distance J.D.... which most states won't. But, among those that will, the field is further narrowed by the few that require an accredited bachelors; and narrowed even further by those that require that said bachelors be acquired before the J.D.... for what that's worth.

Our favorite NWCULAW does.

That, from what I have observed, may be an understatement. I know a guy who's running a one-man operation in the Eastbay who did a not-quite-mid-life career change thing and went to law school at night several years back and got his J.D.; then started specializing in criminal law with a predominantly Spanish-speaking clientele more or less right out of the gate. He's now so busy that he's beginning to think about taking-on an associate or partner or something... and his number one and number two requirements (not necessarily in this order) are that s/he has considerable criminal trial experience -- preferably as a defense attorney, but as a former prosecutor would do, too -- and that s/he speaks fluent Spanish. Though he was born in the U.S., he's spoken fluent Spanish his whole life (Spanish-speaking parents). Apparently, he did some criminal defense work for some native Spanish speakers early in his solo career and word spread in that community like wildfire: If you're from Mexico and you get in trouble in Northern California, call this guy! Now, apparently, he's got more business than he can handle and, in fact, has told me that if my Spanish were better he'd hire me as an investigator in a heartbeat. Obviously, he can't pay very well, though... and that's not how I want to spend my time in any case. But, my point is, that if his situation is any indication, an attorney who can speak fluent Spanish is clearly marketable.

I've several times thought, though, that if a DL JD holder also had an LLM in International Law -- from UNISA, for example; or maybe the London External program -- s/he could probably land such a job without much of a problem.

Bet it would come close... especially with the aforementioned LLM.

Yeah... but what a slimy clientele. Sorry... but I have some experience with those types of guys. Most of them are mail-order bride customers... who will end-up having their hearts broken when they find out what their wives and the mobsters who listed them in the catalogs in the first place really did to him. And then there's the no good that those women are, invariably, up to once they arrive here. As an attorney, I would hate to have been any part of that. Even though I would, of course, be working for him and not for said mobsters, I just wouldn't want to be a cog in that mechanism. To quote Radar O'Reilly, "Ick."

So you let that stop you? Concord's the worst of the bunch in any case. Consider yourself lucky to have avoided them, no matter how it happened! What would be wrong with Taft? Or NWCULAW? Neither of them is as expensive as Concord; and Taft would get you the very same quality DETC accredited J.D. as you would have gotten at Concord. NWCULAW would get you the very same -- or maybe even a better J.D., but with no DETC accreditation... and for the lowest price of the bunch. You should reconsider. You could even stay in Ohio while you study, coming to California only for the "Baby Bar Exam" after the first year, and then, later, the actual bar exam when you're done. Then you could move to California... where you can pay $400,000 for a home and property that costs $150,000 where you're living now! Something to look forward to, no?

 

Ted - You can also explain to your two year old kid that you'll be making SO much more money after you get your degree that you'll easily be able to pay for their years of therapy as a result of being neglected by both parents during their psychologically formative years.

Jack

 

In a more constructive way let me say that I've found that the absolute best thing (for me anyway) is to become accustomed to getting up early in the morning and doing a major portion of that academic work before anyone else wakes up. Don't get me wrong, I still do some late nights but I've discovered that my ability to concentrate diminishes as the night moves from the single digits into the double digits. I simply get more done per hour if I do it in the morning when I'm more rested (and it's still quiet).
Jack
(of course, this also makes it very clear that I'm getting old)

 

I'm curious as to how well I will do as a lawyer after I graduate with my JD as a native English speaker who also fluently speaks Spanish, German, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese.

 

Well, let's see here! Let what stop me? I was at the time wasting away on $492/month in disability benefits, which were being managed by my father on my behalf. Take on a $500/month debt on that basis and I've got -$8/month before we've even considered groceries, utilities, Medicare/Medicaid spend-down, etc. (rent is no consideration as I live in Daddy's trust fund's no. 2 home for now).

Or was it the being too prideful to ask for Daddy's money that you're asking about? Well, let's see here. My brother once asked for law school money after completing his bachelor's on the seven-year plan. Daddy said no. Family politics overrode self-interest. But that wasn't the first time. In 1991, having completed 30% of my MBA program, Daddy offered me law school tuition money provided I live at home and go to law school nights while working to pay off a veritable sea of plastic money. This meant either the University of Washington (well, no. 25 in the nation just wasn't going to happen for some idiot who five years earlier washed out of University of Colorado's MA in Mediaeval History with a 1.94 GPA) or the University of Puget Sound (a good program with a strong business law and tax law component that looked like I could get admitted to with a strong record on my MBA). Since my brother had gotten the big no from Daddy one year earlier, did you think I would take $30,000 of Daddy's money under those circumstances? Not!

 

Well, let's see here. Well, if you like business law, you can negotiate international business agreements in Europe, the Far East, and Latin America. If you like criminal law, you could set up your practice in any major American city that has a substantial Asian and/or Hispanic population. If you like immigration law, your languages will serve you well (though some have opined that fiancee visas attract an unsavory crowd).

 

Better than someone who doesn't.

Fascinating. But nowhere in there did I read an answer to the question I was clearly asking: Why not go ahead and get your JD from Taft or NWCULAW for alot less money?

Actually, I wasn't talking about fiance visas, generally. Obviously, there are many such applications that have nothing to do with mailorder bride catalogs or trafficking in women or anything even remotely unsavory. But you mentioned some key countries where that sort of thing is, has been, or is fixing to be a real problem... most notably, at present, Russia (or, more accurately, pretty much the entire former Soviet Union). The Russian mob has taken over in many places in the U.S. what used to be, in largest measure, the purview of Korean and Vietnamese gangs in the East and central U.S., and those plus Chinese gangs in the Western U.S. in years past. Some small to moderate amount of that (i.e., Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese trafficking) continues, though, interestingly, it is decreasingly gang- or organized crime-related.

While not unheard of, Filipino trafficking in women via the mailorder bride ruse has never been terribly organized, effective or widespread... though it exists. Same for Spanish-speaking gangs and women from, predominantly, Mexico. But the Russians are deadly serious about it -- both figuratively and literally -- and any attorney in the U.S. who affiliates himself/herself with them in any way (including, sometimes, ways in which s/he may not even realize that s/he is doing so, at first) is asking for incaluculable and untold trouble.

 

Early morning works well for me, too, but my spousal unit ALSO likes to start the day before dawn!

Full time resident law school also destroys relationships. It's amazing how many of my classmates got divorced right after graduation.

Ignoring your family carries a very high price. You LOVE them, remember?

Overall, I think that a resident, part time evening program is probably the least disruptive approach but even so, it will be HARD.

Oh, regarding earning the B.A. first: Yes, some states DO require Bar applicants to have a B.A. before commencing law studies but for the most part, I think you'll find that they mean non-attorney applicants. They wouldn't accept a non attorney applicant with an unaccredited J.D. in any event.

 

That's how it works. The first wife is to get you through school, the second for family and the third for a lecherous old age.

 

How lecherous depends, of course, on how financially successful you were in practice?

 

That would explain why I'm sitting at a keyboard and am not out leching.

 

I thought that a guy should take as the first wife an older experienced woman so that the wife could teach her naive inexperienced boy virgin husband how to please a woman. Then if you outlive the first wife (or if she divorces you), you marry a woman your own age for love. Then if you outlive the second wife (or if she divorces you), you marry the young spring chicken so she can break in a naive inexperienced boy after you're dead (and she's got your money).

 

Wow, that is impressive stack of languages. Especially the Chinese/Japanese languages.

How did you learn all of these FLUENTLY? What would your recommendation be for someone that wants to study a second language?

After I finish my Masters, I'll probably be done with formal schooling for a while. I'm considering a home study course on Spanish. Rosetta Stone is supposed to be one of the best.