Seeking Advice on Attending Law School

[AKS2024]

 

After accepting a law school offer, I'm considering whether to go or defer next year. 

Since undergrad, I've worked in strategy at a major corporation for almost a year and in management consulting for two years. However, my consulting team was laid off a couple of months ago. 

I'm feeling kind of burnt out and considering postponing law school for another year to do something fun or a more low-key job.  

I am concerned about how recruiters in the 2L recruit will perceive a gap in my employment history and the impact of potentially taking on a shorter-term role during this period. I also don't want to put myself in a situation where being laid off comes up in an interview. 

I would appreciate the current lawyers' views on my situation. 

[BHC1]

37 minutes ago, AKS2024 said:

 

After accepting a law school offer, I'm considering whether to go or defer next year. 

Since undergrad, I've worked in strategy at a major corporation for almost a year and in management consulting for two years. However, my consulting team was laid off a couple of months ago. 

I'm feeling kind of burnt out and considering postponing law school for another year to do something fun or a more low-key job.  

I am concerned about how recruiters in the 2L recruit will perceive a gap in my employment history and the impact of potentially taking on a shorter-term role during this period. I also don't want to put myself in a situation where being laid off comes up in an interview. 

I would appreciate the current lawyers' views on my situation. 

Law school isn’t that hard (depending on what your goals are) and can actually be a lot of fun. But if you need to defer it, defer it. No point going forward into a program if you’re not ready for it. Any loss to your career prospects will be insignificant, particularly if you are going to be working in any event (lower stress job or otherwise). Mental health is really important. You’re actually wiser than a lot of lawyers for realizing this now.

Take care of yourself. 

Edited April 10 by BHC1

[GoatDuck]

Being burnt out is a good reason to postpone. But I would not defer for a year based on your recruit concerns. Some firms might ask you about the gap (only one firm asked me during the interviews, and I had two one-year gaps on my resume), and I think saying that the team was laid off, without going into too many details, is fine. If it comes to this question, you can always spin the layoff positively, talking about how great you were in handling the layoff and what you learned. 

If I were you, I would base this decision more so on the personal value of taking a year to do something more fun weighed against the opportunity cost of starting law school a year later. But I would not worry about the recruit-related concerns.

[LMP]

Echoing the above, I don't think a gap will really do you any harm in the recruit. Especially if you end up doing something a bit lighter for that year. 

Having said that, law school can actually be pretty relaxing if you're coming into having worked before. I find it is mostly those without prior work experience who think it is the worst thing in the world.