Remnant Review
A friend of mine, for over half a century, has a bright grandson. Of course, every grandson is bright in the eyes of a grandfather. But this grandson has unique skills. He is a champion debater. Not many young men have this ability when they are juniors in high school. Second, he is already earning college-level credits at his private Christian high school. In other words, he has figured out that there is no good reason to pay retail for the first year of college. Third, he has attracted the attention of a state judge. This is unheard of.
He wants to go into law. His father is a successful lawyer. His mother is a successful CPA.
Here is my advice.
Your grandfather tells me that you are a skilled high school debater. He also says that you want to go into law.
If you can debate effectively, you have a skill that will last you for the rest of your life. The only place where it will not be a benefit is in your marriage. A word to the wise is sufficient.
The field of law is crowded with mediocre performers, as every field is, but the field of law is facing a tremendous threat from algorithms. You have probably read about how algorithms are taking over the grunt work that is performed by mediocre holders of law degrees. This is going to increase. I recommend that you read this article: Why Law Students Should Take Quantitative Analysis: Big Data, Algorithms, Courtrooms, Code, and Robot Lawyers.
Your grandfather says that your father is a highly successful litigation lawyer. You would be wise to listen to his advice. When somebody is good at a profession, and his son wants to go into that profession, his son had better take his father’s advice.
Your grandfather also says that you have gained the favor of a state judge. This is unheard of for a high school student. The one person whose advice you should probably listen to if it conflicts with your father’s is the judge's. The judge is in a position to grease the skids of your career like nothing else you could possibly imagine.
INTERNSHIP
You’re going to spend at least one summer as an intern for the judge. Here is my advice. Get there 15 minutes early, and leave 15 minutes late. Bring a sack lunch, and eat it fast. Do everything that he tells you to do, and then do a little extra. If he gives you an assignment with a deadline, turn it in one day early. If you can, turn it in two days early. Go the extra mile. Then go another six blocks.
Every time he or anyone else gives you a task, reach into your pocket. Pull out your cheap spiral-bound notebook and a pen. Write down the instructions. Become known for that notebook. Then go to your desk and enter the details in a cheap knock-off of a Day-Timer.
If you get stuck, ask someone one rung up the chain of command. Write the answer in your notebook. Don't ask that question again of the same person.
Don't lose the notebook.
Don't be a pest. Be a grunt. Be a go-fer. Make someone else's life easier. Develop this habit early. Never lose it.
At the end of the summer, when you have done your best, go to him and tell him of your plans to become a lawyer. Ask him this question: “If you were in my situation, what would you do?” Bring the notebook and a pen. Take notes on what he says. Ask him an additional question or two if you need clarification. Then, over the next nine months, do exactly what he says. If you get another internship in the following summer, be sure to tell him at the beginning of the internship that you have done everything he said to do. If you need verification, have it ready to present. Don’t put it in front of him. But if he asks, reach into a folder, pull out a piece of paper, and tell him this is what you did.
Keep a daily journal. It should cover this: challenges and solutions. Keep a permanent record of both. Do this until you die.
If you do exactly what he says, he will tell you other things to do. Do these things. Even if they take time. Even if they are boring. Especially if they are boring. Do what he says, and be in a position to show him that you did what he said. He will then understand that you are really serious. Once someone with influence decides that another person is serious, the person with influence can give that other person a 10-year head start on his career. It may be more than a 10-year head start. It may be a life-changing recommendation for somebody else to hire this person.
COLLEGE
Absolutely, you must do this: quiz out of your first two years of college before you walk onto a campus. Walk on that campus as a junior. Not as a sophomore. Walk on as a junior. There is no good reason why you should not walk on as a junior.
As a general rule, unless you want to practice law in New York City or Washington DC, you should graduate from the best law school in the state in which you want to spend the rest of your life. Find out what it takes to get into that law school. Take whatever major seems to be best. If the law school is highly selective, which it probably will be, it is best to graduate from the best university in your state, assuming that the university allows you to quiz out of your first two years. Never give any university the satisfaction of forcing you to take 30 semester credit hours of junk courses that are overpriced and taught by assistant professors who will never get tenure. These courses are cash cows, and they provide virtually nothing of value intellectually. If you doubt me, read this article. It appears on the website of the number-one journal in higher education. Take its findings seriously. The first two years of college for the vast majority of students are wasted. Therefore, you should never pay retail for the first two years of college. By using CLEP exams, DSST exams, and AP exams, you can get through the first two years for under $2,500. You can get through before you graduate from high school if you hustle.
The ideal situation in your case would be this: work for the judge in the year in between high school and your junior year in college. If you have not yet completed the exams for the first two years of college, take as many courses as you can through distance learning. Spend three hours a day preparing for the exams. Spend eight hours a day as an intern. That would be the best possible preparation for law school. The judge will see that you have the incentive to play by the rules and avoid paying retail.
In your senior year, the judge is going to write you a recommendation to the law school. You’re going to get into that law school. Trust me.
If you want to go into tax law, major in accounting in college. If you want to get super-credentialed, get a law degree and a CPA. Your mother is a CPA. Your father is a lawyer. Imitate them both.
If you spend an extra year or two to get a CPA, it will be worth it. It will open doors that might not otherwise be opened. You will still be young.
DEBATE
You want to develop your skills in debate. Let me give you a warning: the exercise that is called debate in modern colleges does not train you for what you really need to know, namely, the art of persuasion. The unique skill of debate must be used to persuade juries or judges, not win debate contests. Here is a team of championship debaters. I do not recommend imitating their rapid-fire presentation. If this is what it takes to win debates in college, skip debate. Sign up for Toastmasters International instead. Toastmasters is cheap.
The first step in mastering debate is to read Aristotle’s treatise on rhetoric. Then read it a second time. Then read commentaries on it. To the extent that you can win contests in college-level debate, this could be a liability if the techniques you are required to implement in any way deviate from Aristotle’s treatise on rhetoric. Don’t submit yourself to a program which does not emphasize rhetoric. As with all communications, you have to master three things: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In the field of law, this would be facts, logic, and rhetoric. As any great trial lawyer will tell you, rhetoric is the most important of these skills. If you can’t persuade a jury, or you can’t persuade a judge in a closed session, the skill of debate will do you no good.
In your senior year of high school, be sure to attend several college debate contests locally. See what is required to win these contests. Take your father along. Maybe your father can invite a successful trial lawyer in his firm to accompany both of you one time. Listen to what he says about the debate performance.
I learned to debate in three weeks of high school debate in a speech class. That was in 1959. I retained the skill. It is like riding a bicycle. Here is a debate I was in 52 years later. It was held at a week-long summer program of carefully screened college students.
There is something else to be aware of. It is now extremely difficult to develop the skills of persuasion in front of a jury. Very few cases go to trial. A friend of mine from the late 1960's is one of the most successful trial lawyers in the United States. He has a Ph.D. in physiological psychology/biochemistry. He is a member of two of the most prestigious by-invitation-only societies of trial lawyers in the United States. He has tried over a hundred cases. Two years ago, he told me that it is very difficult for a trial lawyer to argue as many as a dozen major cases in a career. He says one of the organizations he belongs to, for which he is a screener, has problems now in finding lawyers who qualify under the old rules. They don’t have enough cases in their portfolio.
I have no doubt that the ability to argue such cases is a tremendous skill. I don’t think robots are ever going to do this well -- I hope. You have to stand in front of a jury and persuade 12 people of your position. But to do this, you need experience, and it is exceedingly difficult to get this experience.
If you don’t decide to become a trial lawyer, then your skill as a debater will not be converted into income. You will have to stay ahead of the algorithms. You won’t learn this skill by participating in college debate.
BOYS STATE
Find out who makes recommendations to the American Legion for this summer's Boys State. Then make it clear to that person that you really want to attend.
If you get nominated, you will be screened by a committee of the American Legion. Be humble. Don't hog the discussion. But be forceful and self-confident when you talk.
If you get chosen, run for a statewide office. Run for Attorney General. Skip Governor. That was my plan in 1958. But I did not know about the exam on the state constitution. You had to pass it to be eligible to run for Attorney General. I flunked it. So, I ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Ugh. I won. Find out what you have to read to prepare for the exam if there is one. Study.
SUCCESS
Decide what your job will be. Then decide what your calling will be. Unless you are a judge, these will rarely be the same. (If the audio/video sync is bad, listen, don't watch. If the presentation depends on my face, it was doomed from the beginning.)
You are now ready for my book on success. Download it here.
CONCLUSION
Here are my recommendations. First, do what the judge says. Second, do what your father says. Third, don’t pay retail for your undergraduate degree. Fourth, make friends with as many of the brightest people in your law school as you can. Know as many people as you can in the two graduating classes ahead of you, your own graduating class, and behind you. This will be your network. Maybe somebody will be in a position to recommend you for a job down the line. At the same time, maybe there is some hotshot you will meet who you can recommend to your law firm's partners. They will bring that person into the firm, and he will bring several million dollars a year into the firm.
In every profession, but especially the legal profession, who you know is as important as what you know. You may not know as much as an algorithm does, but who you know is still going to count.
Don’t worry about your peers. Worry about the algorithms.
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