The path from high school graduation to practicing law takes around seven years. First, you obtain an undergraduate degree in any major, although a pre-law track can provide you with helpful knowledge and tools. Next, you take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and apply to law schools. 

“One of the things that I think I took from law school, and what many of my friends and colleagues took from it, is learning how to do things that are very hard,” Oberst said. “In many ways, a big part of the profession is that we handle hard problems and tackle hard challenges. Law school teaches you how to do that, and that process is as important as the subject matter and content of what you’re learning in law school.”

You must pass some more testing from there, such as the state bar exam and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), once law school is complete and in order to be sworn in. Some people secure job offers while still in law school, but it is completely normal to engage in the job search for longer as individuals discover the lifestyle they want. 

While Oberst specialized and remained in environmental litigation, Gargalis initially wanted to be a criminal defense or district attorney before she went into legal malpractice defense for 10 years. Her interests switched once more, currently practicing insurance law. 

“I do insurance bad faith defense, and I’ve done this for the last maybe five years,” Gargalis said. “If you have any issues at your house, you submit a claim to your insurance carrier. If they deny it, and you think they’re wrong, you sue them for breach of contract. Then, if you think that they’re unreasonable, you sue them for additional damages. I defend the insurance carrier.”  

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gargalis did a lot of remote work, which led her to realize that she preferred it over in-person office hours. In addition to going remote, she focuses on appellate work.

“Basically reviewing the file, looking at the deposition transcripts, reading the discovery, reviewing documents that come in so you understand the facts, researching the area of the law to find cases on point to know what you have to establish, and then writing the motion,” Gargalis said. “I just try to get the case smaller and smaller, until I have another motion to try to get rid of the entire case.”

Before fully committing to law school, it is most important to ask yourself why you want to do it. Have you involved yourself in extracurricular activities to be provided with insight into the career? Or maybe you’ve reflected on your personality and found that it matches well with your prospective career? 

“I don’t like losing,” Oberst said. “I probably get more joy in not losing than I do in winning. I’ve always sort of been that way, although I try to balance that as best I can. In a sense, my competitive nature is what drives me, but over time, I’ve tried to round that out. In terms of being motivated as much by learning and growing, helping my clients and my teams, mentoring, being a good role model for my family and my kids and being a good member of the community, all of those things also come with the job if you work hard at it and have success.” 


If you are still deciding if law school is best for you, it may be better to take your time than to hurriedly make a decision that could waste your time and money. 

“Most jobs that you’re successful at are hard,” Oberst said. “What makes it less hard or what makes it worth it, is if you connect with the work in some way, in a sense you enjoy it. You find it stimulating, you find it rewarding and it’s a challenge that you want to face every day. If there’s something about the practice of law or going to law school that makes it seem like a good fit for you for those reasons and just the other stuff comes with it too, then I’d say it’s a very good thing worth exploring and I absolutely recommend people going to law school and being a lawyer.”