Once upon a time, I wanted to go to Law School. Well, not really, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I took the LSAT and scored out of this world (99th percentile) and so I thought, what the heck.
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| Bullocks Wilshire - saved from the wrecking ball by Southwestern School of Law |
Now, I couldn’t get into UCLA – I convinced myself it was because they didn’t want Alumni from the school, not my 2.93 GPA. I got into South Western Law School – which I liked because they were in the old Bullocks-Wilshire building. Not the Bullocks on Wilshire – but the actual, beautiful Bullocks Wilshire!
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I also applied and got into Loyola Marymount School of Law. They had just opened their new Law School designed by Frank Gehry. It was one of his first big designs and it was (34 years ago) sooo cutting edge.
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In fact, my LSATs were so good, after I applied I got a wonderful phone call from Loyola saying, “We think you made a mistake and sent us a draft of your essay. It has so many mistakes it cannot be your final essay.” I apologized profusely and had a friend do an edit on my essay and sent in the edited copy. (Remember children, this was back before spell check and word processing. I had to t-y-p-e it on a typewriter – which was a machine that you physically hit keys and they would make a permanent mark on the page.)
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| Yes Virginia , we once "typed" on these. |
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I also got into USC – but that was totally my safety school and I had no desire (and not enough funds) to attend.
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“So Scooter,” I hear you ask, “why didn’t you go?”
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Well, I worked for a summer at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Tunney. At the time, the Democratic law firm in the West (Charles Manatt was head of the Democratic party, Stuart Rothenberg is now a leading political strategist and John Tunney was the ex-Senator from California). It was a fine summer of work and very interesting, but I got this great advice from one of the lawyers. She pulled me aside and said, “Don’t go. You are smart enough to make it through Law School, but you don’t really WANT to be a lawyer. I am the same. I finished, have a great job here, work 80 hours a week and hate this job every day I am here. If you are dying to be a lawyer, do it. If you aren’t, then find something else. Anything else.”
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So I didn’t, and regretted it for a while. A short while. I think I am much happier now. I don’t have the killer instinct you need. And I don’t like being around people that do.
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Also, when you choose what Law School to attend based on architecture, that is probably a bad idea.