You know what bugs me?

It always really bothered me when people said to me, "Oh my gosh, you're going to be such a good lawyer -- you love to argue!" or "I can just imagine you standing up and yelling, 'I Object!'" or "Good, one more to lock up all of the murderers and rapists. You'll do some real good in the world."

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't lawyers that do all of the things listed above -- argue well (and often heatedly), yell "I object" (or the variation: "this whole court room is out of order!!"), or lock up criminals. There are, for sure. And those lawyers are great.

But most lawyers don't do that on a daily basis. In fact, a lot of lawyers never get to do that in their whole careers! Why does everyone not involved in the legal field assume that being a lawyer is a lot like what is depicted on Law & Order?

I really don't get this all that much anymore, since I've been working with actual lawyers and people intimately connected with the legal field for two years, but it used to be said to me on the regular, any time I told someone I was interested in going to law school.

I don't want to go into any facet of criminal law. While I won't back down if someone is getting in my face, and I will always stick up for my convictions, I actually HATE arguing...at least the kind of arguing most of these people reference. I am much more the type of person to say, "look, I can see where you're coming from, I'm not necessarily agreeing with you, but why don't you just open your mind to my ideas, I'll ponder yours, and let's meet back up to rationally discuss this when you're less heated, okay?"

I'm also the type of person to diffuse a meaty fight in a bar parking lot by jumping in the middle and making one or both parties laugh, but that's a different story, and probably not that likely to be relevant in my future career.

But who knows, maybe it will be.

ANYWAY, my point is: a lot of lawyers never even see the inside of a court room. If you have big plans to be in front of a judge every day, grilling the witnesses and charming the jury, I hope you know that there is a lot of seediness to that side of the law, and unless you're good -- and I mean REALLY good -- odds are you won't be making a whole heck of a lot of money.

Be realistic when determining if law school (and then a career in the law) is a path you're really wanting to go down. Know the limitations of the degree, and have a solid expectation of what real life will be like when you come out of school with your J.D.