In conversation with somebody from town, JW told him that I was studying for the bar. "Are you doing Barbri?" he asked. "A friend of mine from Suffolk was doing that, and this guy from Harvard asked for his notes because he missed class. Can you believe that? He was pretty annoyed, but he gave him the notes. The Harvard guy never went to class again and just studied from my friend's notes, and he passed the bar!"
"That's not right," I said. "I wouldn't have given him the notes for every class."
"No, it's not right! My friend was really upset. And you know what else? My friend has been practicing law in Massachusetts ever since. The Harvard guy didn't even become a lawyer -- he left to go work at a think tank or something."
"A lot of Harvard people see their degree as a stepping stone to something else," I replied.
"Yeah, those Harvard guys don't stick around, and half of them don't even practice law."
"Those Harvard people," I agreed. "You can't count on 'em!"
"So where did you go to law school?" he asked.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
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5 comments:
Funny. Why does anyone mind if someone doesn't practice law? (Beyond the HLS free-rider in the story.) I mean, if large numbers of JDs go off and do things that are related but don't use a law license, does that make them flighty or arrogant or something? It's just a criticism I haven't heard against my rebel of a husband yet.
Haha. Nice.
I think it's just part of the general hostility toward Harvard lawyers in Massachusetts. I don't think they'd care if a Suffolk grad went to go work at a think tank, but when somebody from Harvard does it, it's evidence that these guys feel so entitled that they get their fancy degree and don't even use it.
Ha. I think you're right - lots of Suffolk grads go part-time and use their degrees to get better, but not necessarily lawyer jobs in state and city government. I think the locals don't really know how to consider PF because they mostly think he went to some mid-ranked public school called the University of Chicago.
This was a while ago now and you may never see this, but just for the record, I think the hostility is specific to Harvard. If you went to Yale or Chicago or Columbia or something, people think, "Wow, you must be smart." If you went to Harvard, it's, "Oh, you think you're so smart."
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