career advice
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Thanks for your email. As you may have guessed from my blog, if I had it to do over again I don’t think I would have gone to law school. Even now I am actively looking at alternatives that would allow me to chuck the practice of law entirely. I was not nearly as libertarian as I am now when I began my legal career. My firsthand experience of the legal system and the legal profession as it actually exists made me the anarchist I am. So my best advice is for you to really make sure you want to be a lawyer before you go to law school. Or if you start law school and change your mind after the first semester or the first year don’t be afraid to quit. Frankly I can confirm what it appears you already suspect: I doubt that the goals you speak of are achievable, and if anything are less achievable from inside the system, and the desire to achieve them isn’t a very good reason to go to law school. As Albert Jay Nock said, it is enough to know and speak the truth, and as Thoreau said to minimize one’s cooperation with evil, and you don’t have to be a lawyer to do that. In fact, it’s difficult to be a practicing lawyer without feeling like you are cooperating with evil and participating in an evil system. Look at Lysander Spooner. He is in my opinion the greatest lawyer who ever lived, and yet he really never practiced much law. I try to do my best to defend and help people within the confines of the system. It’s nothing glamorous, and often heartbreaking.
Sent from my iPhone
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