I’m 40 years old. I graduated six years ago from Washington U in St Louis School of Law. I live in NYC where they haven’t heard of schools west of Pittsburgh and my school does not have an alumni network.
Since then, I’ve only been able to get document review assignments with large breaks of unemployment when the market cools down. Okay, so that’s my life thus far adn there are plenty of other students from my “top-twenty” school who are in the same boat. I’ve been doing my best to not whine over it without purpose.
Trust me, I have a MUCH better outlook on life than many of the thousands of people in this industry in NYC.
So here’s my question: Is there a field in the law or in a related field (or even on Mars for all I care) in whihc I can have a reasonalbe chance at getting a job, working my way up, and hopefully retire at 70 or so with my student loans paid and enough money to retire in a state with a low cost of living?
My experience beyond Doc REview (searching for words in emails) consists of:
1. completing five Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions for people through Legal Services (their not hiring when they can get peole to do it for free) over the last 1.5 years. I would have done more petitiion but the legal aids have no motivation to move any faster.
2. Representing people in their SSD appeals for two years during law in 2001-2003. And,
3. I researched one issue and wrote one Motion in Limine since law school and I have no idea if they actually filed it.
Of course, I’ve been searching since before graduatiion. I like what I know about bankruptcy but every job I find in bankruptcy asks for a minimum of five years of experience. even the so-called entry level jobs want at least a yaer of Chapter 11 experience.
I’m looking in compliance jobs and they seem to either pay 17 an hour which means I’d have to default on my student loans or they want five to ten eyars experience
Legal aid agencies have been inundated with applications since 9/11 and can get most of their work done for free by pro bono attorneys.
Any ideas out there? I truly thank you for reading this far even if you don’t have any ideas. If you have any thoughtful suggestions it could make my day (and life).
PS. I’m limiting this to lawyers because I’m used to gettting, weell-meaning, but frustrating advice from non-lawyers who think the legal profession works like most other industries in whihc someone can start in the mailroom or as a paralegal and work their way up to Senior Associate or Partner. For example, a non-lawyer will tell me to simply start filing bankruptcy petitions for people or to try to get jobs in all fifty states while a legal professional will know that we need to study, take an exam, become admitted to work in each of those jurisdicitions.