Moving to JAX? Florida Coastal School of Law?

[USMCPOG]

Originally Posted by seainjax

I'm not sure if either of the other two responses are from lawyers or people with experience in the legal arena, but I myself am a graduate of FCSL. I have heard all the talk about the school and I can say my experience was profoundly different than all the "trash talk" that is floating around about the school.

My only serious complaint was that the Bar prep program needed some work, which apparently has been changed significantly since I graduated in 2012. I am now a practicing attorney in the exact area of law I wanted to get into and I had no difficulty finding a job after graduation. Everyone I know that graduated with me has a job although some of them had a difficult time finding a job for a few months after graduation, others did not start out making as much money as they would have liked, and very few of them are not practicing law. As far as I am aware, all of the ones who decided not to practice did so of their own volition. Many of them moved to other cities to practice as well.

Just like at every other law school, students should expect to get out of the experience what they put into it. If you don't do internships or otherwise try to gain legal experience during law school, you will find it very hard to get a job after graduation, no matter what law school you attend. A top tier law school may look nice on a resume, however your success as a student and as a lawyer lies predominantly on your shoulders, not on the law school you choose to attend. Good luck!

I used to work at the Duval Courthouse (albeit not as a lawyer) and can tell you that a noticeable difference between lawyers who attended FCSL and those who attended top schools is that the ones with FCSL degrees usually went to work as public defenders probably making 45-50K a year. That's good money, especially in Jax, but not when you're in $130K debt. It depends on your priorities too. If you plan on going into criminal law, you can probably get a job as a public defender when you graduate FCSL, but its going to take you a while to put in some work before you get a reputation to be a prosecutor.

Also, if you plan to graduate and then move to another city, your degree isn't going to hold much weight in other areas of Florida. If you move to major metros like Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, or Tampa, you better have more on your resume because you'll be going up against UF, FSU, UM, and FIU grads who are held in much better light.

If it was me and I wanted to go into law, I would probably choose FSU because it maybe the most affordable program with the best reputation for price. Law seems to be a really "snobby" field, so credentials seem to hold more weight than in other professions where the entire package is looked at and people are given chances. OP can go to FSCL, but he needs to ask himself if starting out at 50K is really worth the $100K-130K+ debt he's gonna rack up?

[904jax]

Here is a Jacksonville Times Union article detailing Florida Coastal students' passage rate for the most recent bar exam (July, 2014) in which Florida Coastal had the second lowest passage rate out of Florida's law schools. The passage rate was about 58 percent. Florida Coastal School of Law graduates finish second-to-last in passing the Bar | members.jacksonville.com

The article states that the average Florida Coastal student incurs $175,000 in debt. That's a massive amount of debt both individually and in the aggregate. Who is going to pay this debt if these students are unable to become lawyers?

[tacosman]

Originally Posted by 904jax

Here is a Jacksonville Times Union article detailing Florida Coastal students' passage rate for the most recent bar exam (July, 2014) in which Florida Coastal had the second lowest passage rate out of Florida's law schools. The passage rate was about 58 percent. Florida Coastal School of Law graduates finish second-to-last in passing the Bar | members.jacksonville.com

The article states that the average Florida Coastal student incurs $175,000 in debt. That's a massive amount of debt both individually and in the aggregate. Who is going to pay this debt if these students are unable to become lawyers?

ummmm...who is going to pay this debt even after they become lawyers? I'll tell you who- me.

[kokonutty]

Originally Posted by tacosman

ummmm...who is going to pay this debt even after they become lawyers? I'll tell you who- me.

Are you a repeat offender?

[tacosman]

Originally Posted by kokonutty

Are you a repeat offender?

huh?