[tophcfa]

Just remember that half of all lawyers, and doctors, finish in the bottom half of their classes. Reminds me of a joke. What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom dwelling scum sucker, and the other one is a fish : )

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Two of my cousins are lawyers, and I've read the entire Connecticut General Statutes, the paper version at the public library - voluntarily, because it was interesting. Does that count?

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Jazuela

Two of my cousins are lawyers, and I've read the entire Connecticut General Statutes, the paper version at the public library - voluntarily, because it was interesting. Does that count?

Cannot say that I have read all the Minnesota General Statutes. Lots of them in many areas though. That is one of the ways they teach the law at a public university in some state. You get a lot of that state's law touched on by classes and most of these involve business of some kind.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Just remember that half of all lawyers, and doctors, finish in the bottom half of their classes. Reminds me of a joke. What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom dwelling scum sucker, and the other one is a fish : )

The top twenty law schools though have quite the reputation. If you graduate from one of these you do have a few steps up the ladder from those who graduated from lower ranked schools. And the top five law schools grads get a lot of breaks no matter where you were in that class.

Same with medical schools I assume.

Degrees from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and the U of Chicago do make a big difference. Access Denied

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Cannot say that I have read all the Minnesota General Statutes. Lots of them in many areas though. That is one of the ways they teach the law at a public university in some state. You get a lot of that state's law touched on by classes and most of these involve business of some kind.

It started out because a neighbor wanted her ex-boyfriend to relinquish any claim on their son so her fiance could start adoption proceedings. Ex-boyfriend was out of the picture since before the fiance met the neighbor, before the baby was born.

So I volunteered to look for her. First stop - the library, CT General Statutes to check on state custody law. But first I had to figure out which volume of the CTGS it was in, since there are like - 20 of them, a few of them 2 inches thick.

I started with the index - which was its own volume. Found some interesting topics so I wrote those down to get back to them another day. By the end of my visit I had two pages of "interesting things to read when I have time" and still hadn't found the custody info.

After a few months I had all the info for my neighbor, and had gone through every volume of the CTGS.

[Kenswing]

Originally Posted by Jazuela

Two of my cousins are lawyers, and I've read the entire Connecticut General Statutes, the paper version at the public library - voluntarily, because it was interesting. Does that count?

Only if you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express..

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Jazuela

It started out because a neighbor wanted her ex-boyfriend to relinquish any claim on their son so her fiance could start adoption proceedings. Ex-boyfriend was out of the picture since before the fiance met the neighbor, before the baby was born.

So I volunteered to look for her. First stop - the library, CT General Statutes to check on state custody law. But first I had to figure out which volume of the CTGS it was in, since there are like - 20 of them, a few of them 2 inches thick.

I started with the index - which was its own volume. Found some interesting topics so I wrote those down to get back to them another day. By the end of my visit I had two pages of "interesting things to read when I have time" and still hadn't found the custody info.

After a few months I had all the info for my neighbor, and had gone through every volume of the CTGS.

That makes some sense now.

Some of my clients in the Clinical program Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners had me looking at a lot of MN law as well as Federal law. A lot of those cases involved divorces, child support, name changes and the like.

Law librarians just show you how to use some source and leave you to find what you might need.

Some libraries now seem to be hiring social workers to help those dealing with some kind of trauma when they come into a library which is quite an improvement IMHO.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

That makes some sense now.

Some of my clients in the Clinical program Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners had me looking at a lot of MN law as well as Federal law. A lot of those cases involved divorces, child support, name changes and the like.

Law librarians just show you how to use some source and leave you to find what you might need.

Some libraries now seem to be hiring social workers to help those dealing with some kind of trauma when they come into a library which is quite an improvement IMHO.

I love looking stuff up. I'm a google freak, and I get a kick out of weeding through the chaff to find the wheat. My "bathroom reading material" is the weekly local paper, the AARP bulletin - and a reverse dictionary. Discovering new things that I didn't know before is fascinating to me, and I'm not particular about the topic.

Law is fascinating, only because there's so much I don't know about it, that I can learn about it. It's probably why I didn't become a newspaper editor: I learned everything I needed to learn, in order to become one. And then it ceased to be interesting. The process was what grabbed and kept my attention.

I've learned a lot about medicine too, dentistry in particular. I became a certified aromatherapist because an accident and subsequent surgery to repair bones left me with aching muscles near the incision site, and the doctor recommended wintergreen. So I looked it up and just kept going.

I have no doubt at all that with enough sincere, personal interest or fascination with a topic, someone with good retention skills can learn enough about anything, to qualify to pass a test in that subject. That doesn't require formal training or schooling. It requires interest and dedication to the discovery process.