Replies

• William Fuess

  26 June 2008 | 17:51

  Dear Tulika,

  I respond (1) as a patent attorney, and (2) from San Diego, USA, and things may be different in the UK. However, I should think the answer to your question “would it pay?” would be “no”, at least economically. A related question, not asked, is “should I go to law school?”

  Considering earnings only, and not personal satisfaction, it is somewhat secret that in the US —a society rife with lawyers—earnings in the practice of law trace a curve the rough shape of the back of double-hump camel, or dromedary. And your place on this curve is almost exclusively a function of the law school you attend; graduates of elite schools making record earnings as matters contested at law become more and more momentous, while graduates of mediocre law schools—and the preponderance of women—practice store front” law” dealing with matters like divorces, petty criminals, and landlord-tenant matters.

  Both areas of course require ethics, and persons trained and sensitive to ethical rules in the area. With your PhD you might be able to enter into some challenging, and rewarding, career in bio-ethics—although service in higher levels thereof may be dependent upon an illustrious prior law practice and reputation—but your entire path to success may be a function of the prestige of the law school, or other source of your proposed course(s) of study, that you start from.

  In summary, if you are on, or can “play into” an “elite” track in your higher education, then certainly “play out your hand” for so long as you can afford to do so. On the other hand, ir you are simply “collecting credentials” from undistinguished sources, then please realize that thousands of others are doing likewise, and that you might better pursue success in the rough and tumble world outside academia.

  This answer does not originate in elitism, nor snobbery, nor insensitivity to the struggles of a young scientist. It is simply the truth. If you hope to enter into activities where you might ethically advise potentially powerful people, potentially telling them things that they do not wish to hear, then your own credentials, and stature, must be impeccable. Do you, or can you, inspire awe and respect, like as to a great judge? Or, perhaps frustrated at the laboratory bench, are you only interested in accumulating specialized “book learning”, postponing the “day of reckoning”? Good luck in understanding yourself, and in making the correct decision accordingly.

  Bill Fuess
  San Diego USA