Legal News

An Inspirational Tale for All Those Adrift, Unemployed, Woeful JDs

By Ashby Jones

It’s about time.

It’s about time we blog something from McSweeney’s, an outlet we discovered and grew quite fond of after reading Dave Eggers’s first book about a decade ago.

And it’s also about time that we come across a piece as funny, well-written and genuinely uplifting as this one, from McSweeney’s, about a 2007 U.C. Davis law grad who managed to teach himself enough bankruptcy and foreclosure law to help a family stave off foreclosure.

The story’s too long to describe in any meaningful way, but trust us, it’s a good, nay, great read. It’s the Pelican Brief (sorta) meets Erin Brokovich (well, that’s a stretch) all written in a voice as lively as Bill Simmons’s.

Let us excerpt here just a couple paragraphs.

Ali, on meeting his clients for the first time:

I was hoping they would never guess that despite being a licensed attorney two years out of law school, I was utterly paralyzed with fear-and earnestly praying to Allah that my potential clients were not about to call me out as an incompetent charlatan, punch me in the face, storm out of the office, and call the state bar seeking to disqualify me.

I was the guy who was going to save these people from being evicted from their own home? Who was I kidding?

Ali, on his post law-school situation:

But given the economy . . . instead of being employed at all, like thousands of others who were unlucky enough to graduate law school in 2007, I ended up in my old bedroom, sharing the family home with my parents and my grandmother.

Despite being thoroughly emasculating for a twenty-eight-year-old, living at home certainly has its benefits. You never have to cook, given that your mother, a culinary Jedi Knight, makes fresh Pakistani food every night. You avoid doing the laundry and the dishes, because your father has a “specific system” that only he has mastered. Also, you have your own personal “prayer factory” in the form of a very pious grandmother, who constantly sends duaas and blessings your way-and reminds you nonstop that the only reason she’s still living is to see you married and with kids. And for a solo attorney without any money, home can also serve as a convenient and rent-free law office.

And Ali on DIY law:

Tired of being rejected, I decided to venture forth and learn the law on my own. It didn’t take a genius to figure out we were heading toward a full-blown recession . . . [O]ff I went to Google.

I typed in “Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy guides” and found the trusted and respected Nolo legal guides for less than thirty dollars apiece. These guides are manna from heaven for aspiring attorneys; they ostensibly teach the layman all the fundamentals of how to “do it yourself ” so you won’t have to spend money on people like me, but it turns out they’re just as useful to law school graduates living with their parents.

I devoured every bankruptcy book I could find, and then turned to my associate legal counsel, Google, for more (free) information on bankruptcy law. Somewhere along the way I read an article predicting a rise in foreclosures due to the disastrous economy, and realized the rate of Chapter 13 bankruptcies was going to increase exponentially as people desperately tried to save their homes.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 25, 2010 (boomark / email).