Where the Current Takes Me

... I suppose I have to get back to writing about law school. I won't forget Uncle Ray. But onward with life...

Law school is competitive.

I've said that before, and I will surely say it again.

Making the Mock Trial Team was important in distinguishing myself from the crowd a little. Members of the Mock Trial Team are designated for special training as litigators. The "honeymoon" has been quite nice, with both professors and students congratulating me. It felt really good to be Nathan Marshburn on the night that I got the call. I was out at Potbelly's club enjoying a social with other law school classmates. That call was the single best moment of my law school career thus far. Girls wanted to dance with me. My friends wanted to buy me drinks. It felt good to be "cool" for a while.

And it has started me thinking in a new way about my career. I enjoy all of my law school classes. Contracts is my favorite subject, though Property is a close second. I like the absence of moral judgement in contract law. To paraphrase my professor, contract law recognizes people are greedy, and good contract law is about letting them be greedy but harnessing the greed for economic efficiency.

Something about the purity of that exercise appeals to me.

However, there are a lot of people who like contracts here. I spoke with a girl in my class a few days ago who really wants to do something with contracts in her career. She is quiet in class, but she is also one of the few people who had a higher score than me on the contracts exam last semester. She graduated from her undergraduate institution with a 4.0 GPA.

If people like her want to do contract law- not to mention the legions of lawyers coming out of the top private schools in the country- then I'm in for a challenge in landing a top job doing that.

My conversation with her was illuminating, though. She congratulated me on making the Mock Trial Team, and said that she had no desire to be in the courtroom. She is thinking more along the lines of in-house counsel for a corporation. Of trial lawyers, she said, "I could never be a shark."

Trial law or litigation is where I might be able to carve a niche for myself. One of my professors told me that only 20% of lawyers practice in the courtroom. Many bright students at FSU College of Law want nothing to do with litigation. I think I would be good at it, though. In an ideal world, personal injury litigation is not what I would like to do (and certainly not medical malpractice). But I really think that type of work would be right up my alley.

Law school is so competitive that there is not much room for experimentation. I need to find something I'm good at and then focus on getting better at it. Job interviews are just around the corner. My experience in the Mock Trial tryouts was a positive one. Sure, I made the choice to tryout for the Mock Trial team and sure, I'll have some choice on what type of jobs I seek. The current seems to be nudging me toward litigation, though. At this point and time in my life, I don't feel like fighting the current if it is taking me to a place where I will be competent and successful. We'll see.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn