Don't Become a Lawyer for the Money (Ep. 442)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2024
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many prospective lawyers dream of big law salaries. Far fewer achieve them. Ben and Nathan examine the disappointing reality of big law placement at non-elite law schools and insist that money is a terrible reason to pursue a legal career. The guys also warn listeners not to let application accoutrements distract from the LSAT. They reject a backward approach to Logical Reasoning. And they denounce law schools’ unfair pricing practices.
1:16 - Focus on the LSAT - Listener Tony asks whether to highlight his masters thesis in his law school personal statement. Nathan and Ben tell Tony to bake his cake before he worries about frosting it.
13:51 - Grade Change - Persistence pays off for an anonymous listener in their campaign to change an A- to an A.
17:20 - Pearls vs. Turds - An LSAT Demon student finds a pearl of LSAT wisdom in an RC passage about the memory-altering effects of leading questions.
26:28 - Do LR Backward? - Ben and Nathan advise listener Madison to un-reverse her approach to Logical Reasoning.
31:47 - Big Law Placement - The guys question law schools’ self-reported data on big law placement. Outside of a few top schools, career outcomes for law school graduates are wildly uncertain. Your best bet is to attend a school where your scholarship sets you up to compete at the top of the class.
55:00 - Apply Broadly - An anonymous listener considers an accelerated JD-MBA program at their local university. Nathan and Ben unequivocally reject this option. They encourage Anonymous to apply broadly and to avoid law schools’ cash grabs.
1:10:14 - Don’t Do It for Money - Ben and Nathan urge listener Zeek not to let the prospect of a big paycheck lure him into big law. Chasing money is not a good reason to become a lawyer.
1:17:28 - Tip From a Departing Demon - LSAT Demon student Nathaniel shares his key to LSAT success: “Drill, drill, drill!”
1:18:37 - Word of the Week - Macropterous ostriches flocked to us.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If your main reason for becoming a lawyer is pay, it's not the right job for you. Hello and |
| 0:15.0 | the episode 442 of the Theking Elsat Podcast. |
| 0:19.0 | I'm Ben Olsen and with me is Nathan Fox. |
| 0:21.0 | We're the co-founder of Elsideat Demon.com and the Elsat Demon Daily podcast. |
| 0:26.1 | Be Elsat famous, share news, and ask questions on our website, thinking Elsat.com. |
| 0:29.7 | You can also email a voice recording of your question to help at thinkingel sat.com just keep it under |
| 0:35.7 | 30 seconds and record from a quiet place. This is going to come out on Monday, February 19th and today I'm going to be teaching a class at 10 a.m. Pacific 1 p.m. Eastern. That class is going to be on games and if we have time we'll do some logical reasoning but it's free for everyone |
| 0:54.7 | all you need is a demon free account you can sign up for that at elsead demon.com forward slash |
| 0:59.9 | free also next week on Wednesday that's February 29th leap year day. That's the April |
| 1:06.8 | 2024 registration deadline. If you're ready for that test then sign up. If not then don't worry about it. You're not ready. |
| 1:14.6 | Yep. Let's jump in. We have this first email here from Tony. |
| 1:19.7 | Tony says hi Ben and Nathan your content has awakened a dream I had forgotten. |
| 1:26.2 | In high school, I said I was going to be a lawyer. |
| 1:28.5 | However, an undergrad, I double majored in journalism and political science, I'm about to complete my MA in journalism. |
| 1:37.2 | I don't know why I'm putting the pieces together at 31, but my enjoyable class in my undergrad and graduate journalism programs was media law. |
| 1:49.0 | And my favorite course in my Polysai program was Khan Law. |
| 1:55.0 | Studying journalism, working for a decade in marketing, |
| 1:58.0 | I've had an interest in media law and the protection of intellectual property, especially now with the rise of AI and the legal questions it presents. |
| 2:07.7 | Questions, one, do admissions teams care about my master's thesis? |
| 2:14.0 | I want to include research on AI and media law. |
| 2:19.0 | 2. If I began studying in January, |
| 2:22.0 | should I attempt the June date with logic games or should I wait until August, |
... |
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