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I'm finishing up my degree in just general stuff but wanna do law (NOT corporate), mainly doing paperwork kinda crap or meeting clients in private, not so much actual court practice as I'm not a great speaker. Anyways, from what you guys have seen or if some of you are employed in the field, what is the overall feeling of the acceptance of long-hairs in this field? Lotsa discrimnation of conservative suit and tie kinda stuff or does it depend on the kind of law?
Thanks
I know a number of long haired lawyers, and am aware of others who I do not know in our community. It all depends on the employer My guess is even in a firm that might hesitate to hire a long hair, that good work will overcome prejudice as hair gets longer.
I think there is far more latitude in most fields than we sometimes think, so we just need to test the limits.
James
I'm a patent agent, working in a small law firm in downtown Washington DC. There probably are some law firms that wouldn't hire me because of my hair, but I don't think it's as big a problem as most people think.
Patent prosecution is a good example of an area of the law where you don't often appear in person, although if your first degree is not technical it would be difficult for you to go into this area.
I think about the only jobs where long hair is really a career killer are actors, police officers and the armed forces. I think there are even a few police forces and armies of certain countries that allow long hair, and some actors with long hair (who tend to be typecast as bad guys, grrr).
I don't think long hair will stop you practicing law. There will always be some law firm that will hire you, and you can always set up in your own practice.
Awesome. I'm doing an IIT degree (technical I presume) and was thinking exactly of doing patent or civil rights.
I'm not quite sure what IIT is, but I assume the IT part is Information Technology.
If I assume that you are in the US, the problem is that the Patent and Trademark Office lay down certain titles of degrees to sit the patent bar, like Computer Engineering, not IT, and in that particular case I think it has to be accreditted by either ACIS or ABET. Failing that, you have to show certain combinations of credits in particular technical subjects. If you haven't finished your degree yet, you probably need to check out what you have to take to sit the patent bar, as it is bound to include some stuff that you don't need in order to actually graduate.
Again, assuming that we are talking about the US, you have to pass the patent bar to do patent prosecution, or alternatively you have to become an attorney to do litigation. As you say you don't want to do litigation, so you need to pass the patent bar. The good news is you don't necessarily have to go to law school and become an attorney, you can just pass the patent bar and become a patent agent, but patent attorneys tend to get paid (a lot) more than patent agents for doing the same work! BTW, an attorney who does patent litigation but hasn't passed the patent bar is _not_ a patent attorney.
Law firms in the US generally have two tiers (really like social classes) of people, called professionals and staff. Patent agents are considered to be on the 'professional' side of that divide because we sign legal work product and do billable work, but sometimes don't make much more than some of the better paid 'staff'. For example, most paralegals have college degrees, and some get paid in the same range as patent agents, but they are only 'staff' because they can't sign anything. Professionals and staff don't have the same conditions of employment, so there are still advantages to being a 'professional'.
WOW! What about politics, heh! I work in Government and I'm getting into real real trouble despite my hair not having yet reached my shoulders...
