Sleep deprivation can be entirely amusing.
I do have to ask though, anything you remember she said about law school?
She had a mantra she frequently repeated. It went something like this:
"I hate the world and everything in it!"
If you go to law school, expect to have no life. Expect to pay or borrow a shit-ton of money for 3 years. For the latter, expect to graduate $150,000 ($137,000 is average) in debt (including loans to live on while you take the bar/find a job). Then realize that the economy downswing hit the law profession particularly hard. State governments aren't hiring, neither for the most part are firms. In fact about 1.5 years ago, 1/3 of the lawyers working for firms in Chicago were laid off. And even if you can find a job, the whole lucrative pay thing is unlikely. The average public sector job (i.e. judicial clerkship, state's attorney office, etc.) will start you at $55,000. Yes, that's average. On the high end you might actually make $70,000 if you're lucky. Granted, you get great benefits and don't work much in excess of 40 hours a week like you would at a firm, but a firm pays more. However, the whole six-figure income at a firm thing is no longer appropriate. Expect a firm will maybe pay you $10,000-$20,000 above what the public sector pays, but also expect to work much longer hours than the public sector, so your per-hour salary isn't that much higher than public. And in order to get one of the few jobs, you have to work, for free, while you are in law school, and participate in honors teams (i.e. Moot Court, Mediation Team, etc.). Liz has worked both for the state's attorney office and has clerked for a Cook County judge, as well as participated in two honors teams. None of these pay. In fact, her current clerking externship (an externship is essentially an extended internship) is a guaranteed position once she passes the bar. But notice I said "current". She still won't be paid, but her judge will at least let her keep gaining experience. He'd like to hire her for real, but he's already got a full time clerk, and so he cannot pay Liz due to the fact that judges can only have one paid clerk under the current setup, and his paid clerk is doing a fine job, so it wouldn't be fair to the paid clerk to fire her in exchange for Liz.
Now, Liz does have some options. She has made it on the short lists (i.e. competing with 200 or so applicants at this point, when thousands of people apply) for clerking for the Illinois State Supreme court, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the International Court at The Hague.
But she worked her ass off in school, which is why she has these possibilities. She went into law because she is passionate about it. She enjoys it. She'll say that if you are going into law because you are interested in it, then do so. But if you are going into it for money or you think you will easily find a job, don't waste your time.
