Law Students

Nepotism, Social Capital and Generational Planning in the Law.

By Steve Pirates

There is an old saying, “It’s not what you know but who you know.” I’ve got to tell you it’s true. Unfortunately, it seems that I don’t really know the right people. You see, I’m trying to get up to Portland, Oregon. Meanwhile, everyone I know is down here in Southern California, either in Los Angeles, or in San Diego. I am well aware of the other old saying, “go to school where you want to work.” The problem is I didn’t know I wanted to work in Portland until after the transfer deadline. C’est la vie.

It got me thinking about issues of class in law school. Law school, from my experiences here and visiting other schools, skews upper-middle suburban. There are quite a few people in law school who have a parent, relative, or family friend who is an established attorney. This is often not the case for people from socioeconomic strata of lesser means. Say a kid from Long Beach who grew up in a safe-ish neighborhood in a not-so-safe part of town, with a single mom, with no family car till that hypothetical kid was fifteen. Yeah, I know a whole lot of successful lawyers.

I do know a few, down here, in San Diego, I did work as a paralegal for a while. But the people I know aren’t in the right fields, or the right geographic region. It’s kind of a bummer. Now, this isn’t a pity me post. I’ve got the Walton book on getting the job of my dreams. Apparently a gorilla is supposed to hire me. But it’s just astounding how much where you come from can influence where you wind up. I picked law school without anyone really guiding me. I wonder what, or where, I would have picked with some counsel on the matter.

I wonder, when I have kids and they’re ready to grow up, if I’ll be a help to them. It’s not that I want them to follow in my footsteps. I just want to make sure that they have an easier time getting where they want to go than I did. My family did absolutely great for me, given what we had, I’ve probably gone further than to be expected. I just hope I can give more.

Full post as published by Jolly Lawger on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).