If you are a nurse in considering law school or enrolled in law school, please take a look at this article which was published in the New York Times yesterday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?src=busln
I receive a number of inquiries from nurses considering law school each month and I respond to those inquiries by saying "do your research and consider your options" before you apply and take the plunge.
Law school IMO is a Nestea Plunge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rqRx__HI9c
Even if you take the Nestea Plunge and there is water or tea behind you, you feel as if you are drowning and you have to come up for air first; then you have to swim to shore or edge of the pool; and this takes sometime as well.
Although it is one of the best decisions I have made, I took the plunge in 1994 and I graduated in 1997. It was not an easy journey from nurse to law student to law school graduate to attorney in a large firm to attorney in her own firm.
Also this is 2011and it is a different market for law graduates not to mention the cost of legal education vs. your salary as an attorney. Believe it or not, there are nurses who make more money than attorneys.
If your goal is too make money there are easier and faster ways to make money than a law school degree, especially for nurses. Nurses can get a MSN and do the CRNA or NP route or start a business providing healthcare-related services.
If you want to practice law, then go to law school but here is my advice for nurses:
1. Keep your law school debt to a min; don't MAX out with student loans.
2. Continue to work as a nurse while you are in law school to pay for your education and increase your marketability after graduation;
3. Consider attending law school part-time and working full-time or part-time as a nurse;
4. Network your a** off while you are in law school and attend as many functions as you can, participate in law school clinics for practical experience, and try to clerk during the summers for a law firm or another agency for the experience and extra cash;
5. Choose your law school carefully. There are tiers of law schools and this can be important depending on your plans after graduation and your career path. Consider the tier of the law school vs. your plans for the future. Don't select a law school just because you received a full scholarship. Do your research.;
6. Develop a 5 year plan for law school and post graduation and include this in a law school journal/diary so that you can track your progress.
Don't Black Swan or Black Cob yourself just for the hell of it! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/
7. Consider other graduate level degrees including an MBA, MSN, MPH and the JD. What are your goals and what is your career plan?
8. Research nurse attorneys and nurse lawyers. Review the blogs and websites and other information;
9. If you want to practice law (criminal, family law, personal injury, med mal, etc.) spend a day at the courthouse and observe the attorneys and court personnel; and
10. Ask yourself how do you plan to combine the nursing and the law and then try to find an attorney in your area to mentor you while in law school.
Bottom line: Don't take the Nestea Plunge without a pool of water, tea, or Kool-Aid behind you.
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