Also, I have been doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for five years and I know many other attorneys who do compete as well.  There is nothing unusual about this guy’s hobby.

Also, I have been doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for five years and I know many other attorneys who do compete as well.  There is nothing unusual about this guy’s hobby.

Guest: 

Option One:  Depends on where he is standing.  You do not necessarily need your own hands to complete a triangle choke so if he is completely behind you the best option is to defend your head with your hands until the chokee goes limp.  Another option is to apply a few elbow strikes to the face of the chokee.  These will cause extreme pain and are likely to either incapacitate the chokee in their own right or give him a serious attitude adjustment (a good elbow strike will require stitches to close).  Now turn your attention to the head kicker and make him pay.  If you can fight your way up – do so.  Take him down and either choke him out or use a good armbar to hyperextend that elbow or break the forearm.  If you cannot get up, chances are that his legs are exposed.  Apply a heel hook with extreme prejudice to blow out the head kicker’s knee.  This should render him incapable of standing (let alone fighting).  Now fight your way up, ensure there are no other attackers and that the two dirtbags are no longer standing.

Option 2:  Release the guy you are choking and fight your way up.  Draw the Glock you should have brought in the first place and order the two dirtbags face down on the concrete.  Double-tap to the chest if they do not comply.  You did, after all, try non-lethal means of dispute resolution first.

Guest: 

Option One:  Depends on where he is standing.  You do not necessarily need your own hands to complete a triangle choke so if he is completely behind you the best option is to defend your head with your hands until the chokee goes limp.  Another option is to apply a few elbow strikes to the face of the chokee.  These will cause extreme pain and are likely to either incapacitate the chokee in their own right or give him a serious attitude adjustment (a good elbow strike will require stitches to close).  Now turn your attention to the head kicker and make him pay.  If you can fight your way up – do so.  Take him down and either choke him out or use a good armbar to hyperextend that elbow or break the forearm.  If you cannot get up, chances are that his legs are exposed.  Apply a heel hook with extreme prejudice to blow out the head kicker’s knee.  This should render him incapable of standing (let alone fighting).  Now fight your way up, ensure there are no other attackers and that the two dirtbags are no longer standing.

Option 2:  Release the guy you are choking and fight your way up.  Draw the Glock you should have brought in the first place and order the two dirtbags face down on the concrete.  Double-tap to the chest if they do not comply.  You did, after all, try non-lethal means of dispute resolution first.

Re:  The practice of law is not just about money.  Are you fucking serious?  That is ALL the practice of law is about and anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Re:  The practice of law is not just about money.  Are you fucking serious?  That is ALL the practice of law is about and anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Get money how ever you can to pay off those loans.  Lie, cheat, and steal if you have to, but get rid of them and move on with your life.

For all of the crowing about Obama’s consumer protection bureau, one would think that they could do something about all these ripoff shop law schools like Cooley, Thomas Jefferson, Stetson, etc.

Credit where it’s due:  Best article I have seen from Brian in a long time.
 

That’s pretty close to what I get paid five years out of law school.  Quit bitching and find a new career.  That is what I am doing.

My recommendation:  Be an asshole.  And when I say asshole, I mean you need to hang up your own shingle and be a complete and total dickhole to everybody.  I am about to enter my 6th year of practice and I tried doing the right thing and playing by the rules during my first four and a half years of practice.  The result?  People walked all over me and I made no money.  How is has the changed now?  The money is the same, but my clients are no longer the center of my existence.  They know their rightful place in my life.  In other words, if I save enough money to take a vacation I do it (even if I have to file a continuance motion).  I screen my phone calls before 9 am and after 5 pm.  If I want to go hunting on opening day, I go do it.  An important phone call while I am hunting?  I don’t even answer it because I am not being paid enough to interrupt my hunting to deal with whatever emergency you have today.  Rates?  Pay in full up front or find someone else, unless of course you are willing to put up your house, car, or business as collateral.  Someone files a grievance against you?  Sue them.  Another attorney claims his own lien on a settlement check?  Sue him.  The same dickhole files a sanctions motion against you for being an asshole?  Most judges don’t have the cajones to grant them, so don’t bother showing up for something that is going to be a waste of your time anyway.  Trust me.  You won’t make any less money and your life will be more fulfilling.

I have thought of doing a bit of my own advertising.  A good catch phrase might be “Even when you’re a hammer, you’re still just a tool”

The only reason to go to law school is if you can do so for free.  Take the scholarship money and go to the tier three if you simply must go.  That way, when you find that you can’t get a job, the only thing you will have lost is your time.

I have an idea.  Instead of suing the law schools, why don’t disgruntled graduates sue US News & World Report alleging that these law school rankings constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices.  If the ranking of law schools was something that could get a publication into potential legal trouble, nobody would do it.  Maybe then law firms would have to look at the individual instead of just the law school they went to.

 Agreed.  No school outside the T14 prints a degree worth any more than the paper it is printed on these days.

 Agreed.  No school outside the T14 prints a degree worth any more than the paper it is printed on these days.

 If anything, Kyle Bristow will bring Toledo’s rankings up.  He is a brilliant kid.

 If anything, Kyle Bristow will bring Toledo’s rankings up.  He is a brilliant kid.

 Do NOT got to Stetson.  I went there.  Five years later I am out of work.  My opinion:  If you can’t get into a T14, find something else to do with your life.

 Do NOT got to Stetson.  I went there.  Five years later I am out of work.  My opinion:  If you can’t get into a T14, find something else to do with your life.

 Which is why I moved to this state in the first place.

 Barack Obama:  Gun Salesman of the Year for the Past Four Years.  It’s simple.  People want to purchase what they want now before November before he begins working to get Heller reversed.

The top story is a huge reason I am leaving the profession.  What is a client telling you when he only wants to pay a contingency fee?  He is telling you that he doesn’t think your services are worth anything.  I am giving this whole law practice thing another two months.  After that, I quit.  I’m done.  Nobody will ever see me again.  I could make more money as a cop.

At least this guy knows the value of a law degree (about the same as the paper its printed on)

I developed a great way of dealing with people who file – or even threaten – grievances:  I started suing them.  Now it is well known in the area that people who want to grieve me over a fee do so at the peril of being sued.  Not that it matters.  I will probably be leaving law practice this year to pursue a career in law enforcement anyway.  The last article about “slow times” doesn’t help me pay my mortgage.  I have completely lost my patience with this profession.

This makes me pissed that I went to Stetson instead of Tulsa.  Not that it matters, I am leaving the legal profession in a few months anyway to pursue a career in law enforcement.  What a waste of money.

Maybe it is because the dogs don’t rob our homes, kill our police officers, smoke weed, and then write rap songs about it.  Thugs like Martin on the other hand….

Interesting.  American lawyers will likely be taking a very similar oath when Barack Obama routs Mitt Romney to win a second term (and, in so doing, destroys the Constitution)

I totally agree with this.  I have my own firm and I only show up to work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because gasoline is to expensive to justify going in on any other day.  I bring work home with me to do at home during the Tuesdays and Thursdays I work from home, but I never work Saturday or Sunday unless I have a trial on Monday.  Clients that call me after hours are billed extra.  Period.  

I am a lawyer and a Texas CHL instructor.  This is a CLASSIC “no shoot” situation.  I don’t even think he can claim protection under the law here if he was the first aggressor.  From what I have heard about the facts, his use of any force (especially deadly force) in this situation was totally unreasonable – which means the law may not protect him.  As for the law being racist, I do not see how one can claim that it is racist unless one is willing to admit that minorities are responsible for more crimes in this country.  If you want to admit that, fine.  Otherwise, I yield to what I teach all my CHL students and tell all my clients:  If you shoot someone who is a different color than you are – even if you are 100% in the right – you can bet your life savings that you will be prosecuted for doing so.

I agree with you completely.  My plan for the worst is simple.  The bills that get paid first are the mortgage, the car, the electricity, the water, the gas for my car, and the federal student loans (since they can garnish your wages).  I could do that and still afford groceries on around $2,500.00 a month.  As for the private loans, if I was in that situation I would simply tell them to go fuck themselves.  Their only recourse would be to sue me (assuming they got around to it within the statute of limitations).  The judgment would be completely uncollectable.  Collection calls?  That is why FDCPA cease and desist letters were invented (and you can always change your phone number).  I am paying back all my loans now, but if my situation changes, I would certainly consider default as a viable option.  They can’t collect blood from a turnip. 

I am going to agree with Elie on this one.  Education is an investment.  Just like buying a house or starting a business is an investment.  Most people who make poor investments, have no way of ever repaying their creditors, and want to get a fresh start have bankruptcy as an option.  Heck, even people who ran up their credit cards so they could live high off the hog still have bankruptcy as an option.  But students who relied on employment statistics provided by a school and invested accordingly?  Nope, they get the shaft.  If we are going to have a bankruptcy system in this country, we need to have a fair one.  It is fundamentally unfair to give a pass to those who make a bad decision in business while sticking those who made a bad educational choice with a lifetime of indentured servitude.

This is why I only hire graduates from third tier law schools:  They graduate with the expectation that they will have to work for a living and that BigLaw is unlikely to throw them a proverbial titty to suck on for the rest of their life just because they are a member of a minority group or just because their mommy and daddy gave a large enough endowment for them to get into Harvard or Yale.

Lawyer and Defender of the 2nd Amendment?  Damn right.  Gig’em Ags.

Correctius – the day they ban guns in this country is the day I renounce my citizenship.  No allegiance is owed to any government that turns people into slaves through disarmament.

I am an attorney and on weekends I teach CHL classes.  Last weekend I gave a free course to any college student at the University of North Texas who wanted to show up.  I did the classroom portion on the campus and (obviously) we did the shooting qualification at a local range.  I already have students asking me when and if I am going to do it again, so I am probably going to keep having these once a month until every student at that school who wants a CHL can get one for as low a cost as possible.  And guess what?  There is not a damn thing anybody can do to stop me – because I believe everyone has a right to keep and bear arms for defense of their person.  It is not a right that ceases to exist on school grounds.

According to Mystal, if the SPLC says something it just has to be true.  What a crock. 

And that’s a damn shame, because next time they are going to have a very difficult time finding someone better.  Unless of course their idea of a “defender of the Constitution” is Morris Dees.  :: vomit ::

Sorry, I don’t like reading books by racist shitbags any more that Elie Mystal.  Thus, I have no desire to read Morris Dees biography

It would be a good talking point – except Kyle never wrote a book by that title.  Mystal lifted that from a left-wing blog, which posted it in an attempt at humor.

Are you smoking crack?  Toledo received ABA accreditation in 1939.

This Mystal idiot is an absolute disgrace.  How the hell does he/she/it still have a job?

You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet – especially if it comes from “Above The Law”.

This article is quite possibly the biggest load of bullshit I have read in my life.  If ATL has any self-respect, Elie won’t have a job tomorrow.  If I were Kyle, I would be getting ready to sue this rag.