24 Hours with 24 Lawyers: Profiles of Traditional and Non-Traditional Careers *Book
Are you thinking of attending law school or switching legal careers? About to graduate and wondering which path to take? Are you curious about what lawyers in different fields do in a typical day? Then spend twenty-four hours with twenty-four lawyers through this innovative book, 24 Hours with 24 Lawyers. Whether you want to be a full-time corporate lawyer, work as a legal consultant while pursuing your music career, or anything in between, this book gives you a unique "all-access pass" into the real-world, real-time personal and professional lives of twenty-four law school graduates. These working professionals each present you with a "profile" chronicling a typical twenty-four-hour day in their traditional and non-traditional careers. You will read actual twenty-four-hour accounts from the perspective of a venture capitalist, Wall Street lawyer, lobbyist, entertainment lawyer, IP attorney, sports broadcaster, JAG officer, prosecutor, criminal defense lawyer, mediator, and politician, just to name a few. From the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed, each professional illustrates what their position entails on a day-to-day basis and will give you invaluable, informative, and honest insight above and beyond what many brochures, guest lectures, career workshops, or law firm website descriptions can provide. After reading 24 Hours with 24 Lawyers, you'll be better prepared to determine which career profile may suit you best before accepting a new job or investing in a legal education. About the Author Jasper Kim has worked in various traditional and non-traditional careers as - a lawyer, banker, consultant, author, columnist, and academic - since graduating from law school. He is department chair and associate professor at Ewha Womans University, where he was director of the university's Global Career Management Center, and is adjunct faculty at Pepperdine University's School of Law. He was previously a lawyer and investment banker with Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, and is now a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, CNBC TV, BBC TV, and Bloomberg TV. Mr. Kim has been selected as a 2011 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Read more
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Why Must Read 24 Hours with 24 Lawyers: Profiles of Traditional and Non-Traditional Careers?
The book certainly provided some interesting details and accounts of what it is like to be a lawyer for 24 hours. The most interesting and, in my opinion, important insights from the book were the lawyers' descriptions of their interactions with both co-workers and clients. It shows that being a lawyer is much more than simply studying the law like in law school, interaction with others is a very important aspect of being a lawyer. My qualms with the book is that the days do not seem representative for the various lawyers. For instance, the chapter on a prosecution lawyer is a day in which he took off early for a week-long vacation! Obviously, this day is not going to be a representative day since he was adjusting his schedule to his vacation, which makes the chapter of less value for someone looking to see what an average day in a prosecutor's life would be. I also found that many of the accounts of the lawyers' days were unusually busy. Certainly being a lawyer is a very demanding and busy profession, but I got the sense that the book wanted to paint a picture that almost all lawyers will be working from when they wake up until they go to sleep, which does not seem representative of what I have seen in the average day of many real-world attornies. However, it should provide an ample warning that if you are not planning on working hard and long you should not attempt to be a lawyer, so I think that it does serve some good. Another issue with the book is that many of the lawyers are international lawyers, but there is not a non-international lawyer to represent that same area of law. Most American lawyers are not working outside of the U.S. so it is unfortunate that some chapters have an area of law that is only represented in the book by a lawyer working outside of the U.S. Overall, I would suggest the book if you want to read some interesting accounts of lawyers and see a personal narrative of their days, but not if you are solely buying the book to get a representative account of what a normal day of a lawyer is since there are not enough accounts.
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