Law school provides students with a general education in legal principles and methods of inquiry. However, you are only allowed to work as a lawyer after admission to a professional legal association in a particular area. This association is called the “bar.” To be admitted, candidates must take an extensive exam that covers different topics [...]

It’s often been said that law school teaches students to “think like lawyers,” but it is difficult to pinpoint what this actually means. In some cases, legal work may require specialized knowledge and abilities, while in other cases, a very broad range of skills is needed. Law school calendars and guides often refer to “habits [...]

The following are some of the more common career paths available to lawyers, although you will undoubtedly encounter others. If you require additional information about particular career paths, many branches of legal practice have their own professional associations, journals, and websites. Private Practice More than half of all law graduates in North America join private [...]

You are en fuego! You aced your on-campus interviews with your favorite firm, and your formal grillings at firm headquarters have been going great. Next on the agenda: lunch or dinner with an associate. Slam dunk, right? It’s just an associate—not a recruiting director or a partner. He or she may well have gone to [...]

In his controversial recent book, Law Without Values: The Life, Work, and Legacy of Justice Holmes, University of Chicago law professor Albert Alschuler meticulously debunks the great Ollie Wendell. In his exhaustively researched polemic (1,348 footnotes!), Alschuler reveals that the brilliant jurist—revered for opinions favoring social welfare legislation and First Amendment freedoms—was actually a nasty [...]

No one would argue that Shelagh Kenney is socially unaware: She currently works as an attorney for a nonprofit anti-death-penalty group in North Carolina; in her previous job as an associate at a large Manhattan firm, she always made time for pro bono work; and she goes out of her way to buy groceries at [...]

I’m planning to be a litigator, so my personal appearance is key. The problem is, my teeth are badly discolored. What is the safest, most effective way to whiten them? Dr. of Law wishes he could offer some comforting palliative like “Don’t worry: Grossly discolored teeth make you look distinguished.” Unfortunately, there’s no way to [...]

On the list of things people do not generally look forward to, the job interview ranks right up there with root canals, strip searches, and John Tesh boxed sets. But with the proper preparation, it doesn’t have to be that way. The central skill is to know how to answer the damn questions. This sounds [...]

Whenever I’m feeling down, I scan the message boards of Greedy Associates. Reading five minutes’ worth of whining from a bunch of rich, spoiled brats makes me feel better about my problems. Consider this gripe from “Francine”: “$165,000 is just not as much as you think. Take out $70,000 for taxes. That’s $95,000. Then there’s [...]

Plenty of lawyers talk about leaving a big, comfortable job to defend the weak and powerless. Tom Myers walks the walk. As general counsel to the Los Angeles–based AIDS Healthcare Foundation—the country’s largest grassroots provider of HIV- and AIDS-related health services—Myers fights to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and to protect the rights of the [...]