Florida Coastal School of Law...should I go? (Jacksonville, Miami: high school, college)

[FCSL_08]

Wow - quite a bit of activity on this thread lately.

The whole point of bashing FCSL is so that potential students will not go there and waste three years of their lives and be forced into a life of indentured servitude. A J.D. from that poop hole is practically worthless.

Yes, the system is screwed up (i.e., schools suckling at the teat of fed loan programs), but FCSL's tuition is in to top 15% in the nation despite being a fourth tier joke that admits almost 1,000 student per year; I therefore consider FCSL among the worst of the worst and pity anyone wasting their time there.

This is coming from one who graduated with VERY high marks and was on law review.

P.S. Is everyone aware that Coastal was sued in a class action by former students last week?

[904jax]

Here is a piece on the Florida Coastal lawsuit mentioned by FCSL_08:

Florida Coastal named in suit alleging false job placement stats - The Financial News & Daily Record - Jacksonville, Florida

[ElectroPlumber]

This is an interesting and somewhat funny thread. I mostly practiced probate and estate planning with a heavy real estate closing practice. I also had an attorney working for me that did PI and I litigated in the early years of my career.

I would just say that law was a lot more fun in 1986 when I passed the bar than it was as in the years that followed.

I sincerely feel sorry for young lawyers today in that the opportunities are just not there like they were in earlier years. No way would I go to law school if I had it to do over. I would instead go to engineering undergrad school at the best school I could get into and then shoot for Silicon Valley. I had the grades and the ability to do high level math, etc. but I thought at the time that law would always be an easy way to stay employed so I didn't bother to get an undergrad engineering degree. Rather, I picked a major where I could maintain a very high GPA so my chances for getting into a good law school would be enhanced.

It's surprising to me that so many kids today seem to ignore the job market and continue to enroll in law schools, even when the evidence clearly shows that lower-tier schools especially are not giving them a great chance at being employed.

[FCSL_08]

Well put, sir. The available positions at firms are vastly outnumbered by the volume of qualified applicants.

Plus, the "versatility" of a J.D. is questionable at best, and so contrary to what many students believe it doesn't provide much leverage for non-legal positions. An MBA is more highly regarded in business, and about 1/3 (or less) of the cost.

[fsquid]

no doubt, I still am amazed at the people who spend over 100k to major in art history or english lit

[FCSL_08]

A childhood friend of mine went to Full Sail University in Orlando and studied something like "Recording Technology" and got his "Bachelor of Arts" degree (although the credits were not recognized by any school but Full Sail when he tried applying for grad school); he spent well in excess of $100k.

I guess even Florida Coastal grads have someone to pity.

[ElectroPlumber]

Originally Posted by FCSL_08

Plus, the "versatility" of a J.D. is questionable at best, and so contrary to what many students believe it doesn't provide much leverage for non-legal positions. An MBA is more highly regarded in business, and about 1/3 (or less) of the cost.

Yeah, that's really true today. One of the things I was told in the 1970's when I was in undergrad school was that a J.D. was a great degree to have for a multitude of other jobs. The common way people put it was that "You can do a lot of other things besides practice law if you have a law degree."

What I found out when I started thinking about doing one of those other "things" is that a J.D. qualifies you to do exactly one thing and only one thing, assuming you also have a law license in the state you want to practice in.

I think the reason that this became the case is that even if you have a legal background, companies would still rather hire someone who actually knew how to do the particular job, rather than hire a lawyer that they still would have to train. Companies abhor training anyone today.

Maybe the exception would be a lawyer becoming a real estate broker (which I did just for fun) but that's because if you can generate sales, the agency is going to keep you around regardless.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by ElectroPlumber

...I would just say that law was a lot more fun in 1986 when I passed the bar than it was as in the years that followed.

And it was probably even more fun when I got out of law school in 1971. Robyn

[FCSL_08]

Yep, no one wants to train new employees - and who can blame employers? It's a buyer's market in every sense of the phrase.

Robyn, I have a question for you: based on your experience, what would you estimate the average plaintiff's firm partner salary to be in the Jacksonville area? I am asking in terms of upper tier work, e.g., catastrophic injuries and not volume work like PIP, slip and falls, lizard bites, etc. How would that compare to the same on the defense side?

Just curious what your estimates would be. I've never seen any data specifically for this market(although the last I checked the average partner salary in Florida was approximately $120,000 per the Florida Bar).

[ElectroPlumber]

Originally Posted by Robyn55

And it was probably even more fun when I got out of law school in 1971. Robyn

No doubt. That's what all of the senior practicing lawyers used to tell me when I first started practicng.