Sponsor a Law Student Day (or Ted Brassfield Redux)

In a move that is sure to shock none but annoy many, a 3L at the University of Arizona's law school has launched a campaign seeking sponsors to help defray the high cost of tuition. Ruth, AKA, "Law Kid", offers the following incredible opportunity:

Sponsor A Law Kid gives anyone who wants to the opporutnity to sponsor my legal education for a day. It will run from January 1, 2011 until July 27, 2011 – the last day of the Arizona Bar Exam. Each day can have one sponsor. I will also be tweeting every day about the life of a law student, so anyone who follows me can vicariously go to law school for a semester.

But it gets even better:

I can’t promise you that I’ll keep you out of jail once I’m a lawyer to give free legal advice – that would violate the code of ethics. However, when I make it on the legal lecture circuit, and I have to decide where I’m speaking next, it will be hard for me to decline an invitation from one of my law school sponsors.

And there you have it. Cutesy, annoying, self-important, mildly delusional trash from a third year law student. A new and refreshing spin on the deadly serious, annoying, self-important, feverishly delusional, "Dammit Obama give me a job because the American dream is dead and I'm still having problems with the bar exam" Ted Brassfield. Variations on a theme. But let's be clear: Ruth's shtick is far more palatable than Brassfield's. She's asking for help, not indignantly demanding the President answer for her educational decisions and employment prospects.

I have no problem with law students taking an entrepreneurial approach to paying the bills. When I was in law school, I was a writer for a couple different legal publications, tutored for the SAT, worked as a personal trainer, and offered "law school admissions consulting" services to rich kids for a hefty fee. But there is a difference between entrepreneurial effort and entrepreneurial begging. The former is to be commended. The later, well, not so much.

Ruth claims to be very interested in internet law and intellectual property. If so, she could have dedicated some of her time to researching and blogging on that topic. She might have been able to do some part time, contract work in that realm. That would have been entrepreneurial effort.

And although it is not my intention to pick on Ruth, who seems harmless enough, I can't help but note how she reminds me of those little kids who say things like, "I want to do something with animals, like maybe a veterinarian." Or like those aspiring law students who say, "I'm really interested in international law." See:

I also hope I can do something to prevent cyberharassment through public speaking.

A recurring theme, indeed a trope, in the narrative of the modern legal world is disillusionment. It seems that everyone is disillusioned. It seems that everyone is shocked and angry and complaining that they've gotten a bum deal. All sorts of people - from the innocuous Ruth to the ridiculous Ted Brassfield - are complaining that, by gosh, it just ain't right. And there's some truth in that.

• Yes, legal education is (in many instances) a huge racket and a cash cow for universities.

• Yes, some law schools either inflate their employment statistics or report statistics that are intentionally misleading.
  

• Yes, there is an entire industry built up around selling wide-eyed 22 year-olds the dream of practicing law even though that dream has been badly oversold.
  

• Yes, the movies and tv shows make law look so much more glamorous than it really is.

But remember: caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. There is no shortage of information floating around on the interwebs about the cost of law school or the brutal job market. And it is axiomatic that in a recession, when tax revenues are down, public colleges and universities will implement significant tuition increases. And as far as Ted Brassfield goes, well, its commonsense that not everyone will get their dream job with the DOJ (especially if they're still waiting for bar exam results, 3 bar exam sittings after graduation).

People need to face the facts. Either you take scholarship money at whatever school offers it to you or you take on some serious debt to finance your law school education. That, or you have rich parents. If none of those are viable options, then you just don't go to law school.

You go to law school confident in your ability to land the job you want (likely because you're headed to a good school) or you are intent on taking a less-than-ideal job then working your way up. Either that, or you just don't go to law school.

I want to be a lawyer who is also a lecturer, writer, and podcaster.

If Ruth sounded like someone serious about achieving these things.... If she seemed dedicated, disciplined, and willing to put in the necessary work.... I would be the first to cheer her on. But Ruth doesn't sound the least bit serious. She sounds... like that 5th grader who "wants to do something with animals".... She sounds, well, like a law kid, not an adult.

And yet once again, Watership Down has the answer for everything:

'El-ahrairah,' said the Black Rabbit at last, 'this is a cold warren: a bad place for the living and no place at all for warm hearts and brave spirits.'

This is law. Its no place for law kids.