Prepoceros

Feeling adrift in a sea of grad schools and law schools and Big Life Decisions, I’ve been looking for people to talk to. People who’ve been there, people who can give me not just stats and rankings, but advice on my personal situation based on real experience.

My friend Jay is just finishing up his J.D. at South Texas, so he’s been a big help. Otherwise, though, I don’t have regular contact with any law students or working lawyers.

One of John’s professors just happens to be a lawyer on the side. What’s more, he’s a patent lawyer, and patent law is likely to be my specialty*. What luck!

I tracked him down** on Friday, and turns out? He’s awesome.

I asked if he had a few minutes. He offered me a chair and said, “Well, there’s a faculty meeting in half an hour, so I’ll see what I can do.” I assured him I didn’t intend to take up that much of his time, but he knew better than I did. The man can TALK, folks.

I had a few questions lined up, but I could hardly get a word in edgewise. I didn’t mind, though, because he was spilling all sorts of goodies, like a jolly, bearded piñata of law school advice.

Remember the rainbows-and-unicorns vision of UT Law? WELL. Texas may be 18th in the nation overall, said this highly-educated man, but the humble Houston, while only 60th in the overall rankings, is EIGHTH*** in intellectual property law. It’s been ranked as high as third by some people at some time, apparently, but whatever the details, oh boy oh boy oh boy!

I made happy noises at this news when he paused for breath. He went on to share many more encouraging details, like the top-notch intellectual-property faculty at UH, the white-hotness of lawyers with technical backgrounds*^, and oh by the way your average patent attorney in Houston pulls about five hundred dollars an hour.

Talk about a confidence boost.

One of the top law schools in the field I want to go into is (1) right here in my hometown, (2) public (and therefore cheap), and (3) relatively easy to get into (because its overall rank is low compared to its intellectual property rank). Who knew?!

Previously I’d thought of UH as a safety school. I would probably get in^, and I wouldn’t mind going, but I’d feel like I’d settled—staying at the same school where I finished my undergrad feels like a letdown.

But now! UH Law is actually a damn good intellectual property law school, which is what really matters. And it’s right here! Even better, there’s a chance I can be a lawyer and not work 80 hours a week, as I’d dreaded! Booyah!

I’ve all but abandoned the idea of going to graduate school in an academic field. Why bother? It seems like so much pain and struggle, and while I know law school has just as many ways to inflict pain on its students, shut up I’m going to law school.

I haven’t been this excited about my post-graduation future in a long, long time. Okay, ever. I’m restraining myself extra hard with the exclamation points here but am sorely tempted. (!!!!!)

This merits the addition of a new Category to the list in the sidebar. Introducing: Law School.

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* I originally had “specialization” here, but it looked like too much word for the job.

** I knocked on his office door, but he wasn’t there. As I started heading down the stairs, I called John, who was coming from across campus to meet me, to tell him not to bother going upstairs, I was coming back down. John picked up the phone and said, “Hello, Dr. Xxxxx!” as they got into the elevator together. So I got to talk to him after all.

*** All rankings by that special US News and World Report magazine thing, 2007.

*^ Language skills are also highly valued. I got the impression that if you have a technical background, a law degree, and a second (useful) language, you might as well be made of magic chocolate butterflies.

^ I’m near the top of their middle 50% in GPA and a couple standard deviations above the top of their middle 50% in LSAT scores. It’s not a lock, for sure, but with a serious effort on my personal statement and adequate recommendations, I hope I won’t have too much trouble.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 10:56 pm and is filed under miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.