Is it worth it to go to law school?

[BushHasGotToGo]

I am an biomed engineering major with 2 years left with a GPA in the low 3s (I have had law school books and friends tell me that 0.3-0.4 points are added to an engineering GPA. Plus, I have 2 years left and I am doing a grade appeal for depression on a semester and a half worth of straight Cs).

The average salary for a BS is $45,000 with the top salary at $50,000 and the bottom at $40,000.

Top law schools pay $100000+ in private practice. However, thir tier law schools like Baylor, Texas Tech, and University of Tennesseee pay from $60000-$75,000. Below that pay $50,000, but I doubt I'd want to do that.

Law School takes 3 years (pluss maybe a clerkship). So should I plan to go to law school or should I go and get a job right out of college?


The salary on the far right is the private practice starting salary.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

No. Law School
State Median Salary Public Median Salary Private
1 Boston College MA $41,000 $125,000
2 Boston University MA $42,000 $125,000
3 Columbia University NY $45,716 $125,000
4 Cornell University NY $43,326 $125,000
5 Duke University NC $41,000 $125,000
6 Florida State University FL $45,000 $125,000
7 Fordham University NY $45,000 $125,000
8 George Washington U. DC $42,500 $125,000
9 Georgetown University DC $43,000 $125,000
10 Harvard University MA $44,222 $125,000
11 New York University NY $44,352 $125,000
12 Northwestern University IL $40,000 $125,000
13 U. of California (Hastings) CA $40,000 $125,000
14 U. of California-Berkeley CA $40,000 $125,000
15 U. of California-Los Angeles CA $44,500 $125,000
16 U. of Chicago IL $44,000 $125,000
17 U. of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI $43,326 $125,000
18 U. of Pennsylvania PA $42,000 $125,000
19 U. of Southern California CA $46,000 $125,000
20 Yale University CT $45,000 $125,000
21 Santa Clara University CA $51,388 $122,000
22 Brooklyn Law School NY $45,000 $115,000
23 U. of Virginia VA $50,000 $115,000
24 American University DC $42,800 $111,250
25 Cardozo-Yeshiva University NY $46,000 $110,000
26 Howard University DC $43,000 $110,000
27 Vanderbilt University TN $35,000 $110,000
28 U. of California-Davis CA $44,221 $107,500
29 Stanford University CA $37,500 $102,000
30 Rutgers State U.-Newark NJ N /A $101,089
31 U. of Texas-Austin TX $40,717 $100,114
32 Emory University GA $43,000 $100,000
33 Franklin Pierce Law Center NH $35,000 $100,000
34 Loyola U. Chicago IL $39,738 $100,000
35 Tulane University LA $44,000 $100,000
36 U. of Georgia GA $40,500 $100,000
37 U. of Houston TX $40,833 $100,000
38 U. of N. Carolina-Chap. Hill NC $40,562 $100,000
39 U. of Notre Dame IN $40,000 $100,000
40 U. of San Francisco CA $52,500 $100,000
41 Villanova University PA $38,000 $100,000
42 College of William and Mary VA $42,500 $95,000
43 New York Law School NY $46,000 $95,000
44 Northeastern University MA $41,800 $95,000
45 U. of Illinois-Urbana-Champ. IL $42,000 $95,000

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81 Baylor University TX $41,000 $68,000
82 U. of Cincinnati OH $41,227 $67,500
83 Texas Tech University TX $36,000 $67,000
84 Wake Forest University NC $40,000 $67,000
85 Duquesne University PA $34,000 $65,000
86 U. of Louisville (Brandeis) KY $32,000 $65,000
87 Wayne State U. MI $45,000 $65,000
88 Cleveland State U. (Marshall) OH $41,377 $62,000
89 Quinnipiac University CT $36,750 $62,000
90 U. of Hawaii HI $43,500 $61,000
91 U. of Kentucky KY $34,000 $61,000
92 U. of Tennessee-Knoxville TN $33,000 $60,750

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[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. Money aside, what do you WANT to do?

[BushHasGotToGo]

2. I like law (and politics) a lot

I spend almost all of my time involved on here or on other political boards.

However, I am really good at math. I want to be well off (100Kish) as an adult so I can support a family in an upper middle class setting. However, I don't really need to be filthy rich, nor do I want to be.

[supernova]

8. Do you think you would like studying law?

It's easy to think about what size paycheck you want. It's entirely another to do the work required to get there.

Studying law is case studies, it's working in study groups, it's logging lots of time in the library. Do any of those things appeal to you?

[newyawker99]

34. Congrats BushHasGotToGo!! 100 posts

A :toast: for your first milestone!! :-)

[DagmarK]

3. Engineering (of any kind) and Law = BIG BUCKS and job security!

It's HARD to find lawyers with engineering degrees.

So hard in fact.....that Intel Corp here in Oregon has had an opening for a patent lawyer since at least 1999! AND, Intel will pay you a salary AND pay for law school if you take a job with them. And they haven't been able to fill the position! They need a patent lawyer who KNOWS what the hell the patents are about.

How's that for a good deal!!!

Now, that's not biomed engineering......but it's an example of how you can mix a technical degree with law -- and basically get your law school paid for, and a nice salary and no doubt stock options WHILE you go to school.

Do a little research.

Oh yeah, it's worth it.......

AND......always good to keep an eye on a career move LATER in life to becoming an expert witness -- whether that is for the tech aspect or the legal aspect of the bio-med industry. Expert witnesses (and consultants too) make 10 times the money that attys make. It's INSANELY lucrative...........

But remember.....you will most likely work for the guys in black hats -- unless you end up working for a plaintiff's class action boutique..

[Melsky]

5. Really?

because I am married to an unemployed patent attorney! He got laid off a year ago, and we were lucky enough to be able to make a big profit on selling our house so he took a year off. But he really doesn't want to go out of the so cal area.

You can get good jobs as a patent attorney. It is really worth it to talk to many people who are in the specific field that you will be working in. My hubby is a mechanical engineer, and he has had to work with a lot of clients that were skating on the edge of the law. Or just downright crooks, people with an enron type mentality. It was kind of a good thing in a way when he lost his job because the stress was killing him.

[Lady President]

4. Patent law

You can only take the patent bar if you have a degree in the science field, so you have a great opportunity that may others don't have.

I really wouldn't pick any field based on salary. Law school is incredibly time consuming and if you don't really want to put forth the energy and make the sacrifices, you'll be miserable and thinking about your earning potential won't help.

Many, many law students work for a few years (or more) before starting law school. If you're not sure, you could take a job right out of your undergrad program and see if you're happy. With some luck you could be a part-time law student and have classes paid by your employer. :)

[whirlygigspin]

6. can you study law online?

I'm on a tropical island in South China sea...pineapple anyone?

[newyawker99]

35. Congrats whirlygigspin!! 300 posts

:toast:

[VermontDem2004]

7. I know a really good book to check out on how to help you pass

I was looking for a book to help me get through the SAT, but I checked out the wrong book Cracking the LSAT. It actually got me thinking about getting into a career in law school because the book seemed so informative and interesting.

[lastliberalintexas]

9. Do you want to stay in Texas?

Since you focused on Texas law schools, I assume that you are in Texas. If you want to stay here, there are a number of things you should consider.

The Lege just passed EXTREMELY strict tort reform legislation, and in September we will be voting on an amendment to write the tort reform into our state constitution. This is going to have devastating effects on the legal profession here, and there are a number of people who have practiced law for years who will have to refocus their practice. Understand if you want to stay in Texas, you will be facing a verrrry tight job market. Even if you speciallize in something like patent law, you will still probably find it tough to find a job in the Texas legal field in 5 or 6 years.

Have you ever worked in a law office? If not, you MUST do so before you decide to spend the time and money needed to go to law school. The practice of law in real life is nothing like what most people think, so you should be exposed to the legal environment before you make a final decision. If you know any lawyers personally, talk to them and ask them as many questions as you can. You can PM me if you'd like my perspective.

Also, please don't think that the practice of law has anything to do with politics. Although a number of people who enter politics were attys, the 2 fields don't always go together. And realize that there are many attys who are repubs, especially in the areas of the law in which you are likely to make a great deal of money. When you work for a plaintiffs' firm, you have the opportunity to make money depending on the bonus structure, the cases you settle or win, etc., but the base salaries are often much lower than those of defense firms. If you can stomach working for the likes of Baker & Botts or Vinson & Elkins, then you might still be able to make the kind of money that you are looking for.

If you are truly interested in politics and math, you are probably better off getting a masters or doctorate from the LBJ School of Gov't at UT, maybe with a focus of some sort in statistics.

Don't focus so much on what your salary will be in a particular field. If you are not happy working as a lawyer, it probably won't matter how much money you make while you're working those 50-60 hours each week (not to mention the stress of the legal field). Think about what makes you happy, what you enjoy doing, and then see what job opportunities there are in those fields. You'll be much better off in the long run.

[LoneStarLiberal]

21. Politics and Math

I'm working on a PhD in Political Science right now in a department with a very quantitative angle.

Of course if you are looking at your career choices through the prism of money, a graduate degree in Political Science isn't going to pay you as much as the field you are in nor as much as a law degree might.

My background in social science, statistics, and politics isn't ever going to make me a millionaire. But it does qualify me to go to work in a field of my choice when I'm done; a field that I want to work in and that makes me happy.

If you would like some more information about some of the top schools for quant political science, PM me.

[primavera]

28. Poli sci vs. law

Make no mistake, these are two very different options. Professional options are greater for lawyers, simply because there are more diferent things they can do, but policy jobs represent the elite in the legal community and it's typically only the most ambitious amongst an already pretty seriously ambitious community that attain those positions. How do you feel about 80 hour work weeks and generally having no life? Are you up for the kinds of student loans that the Ivy League law degree needed to land those high prestige policy positions will entail? Bear in mind, policy positions don't pay as well as corporate ones do, so your ability to pay back $100K in loans is going to be less.

And have no illusions: law school is very hard - just about every lawyer I know (and I know quite a few) agrees that law school represented the three worst years of their lives. It's incredibly confrontational - law students aren't allowed to ask questions, only to frame arguments, which the professor and other students will do their best to reduce to kindling - and much of it is not the fascinating philosophical discussion of "justice" that one might expect, but rather the rote memorization of fantastic quantities of code law which just is, whether it makes sense or not.

Conversely, a polic sci background can usually be funded, so you aren't looking at the same debt load, but poli sci PhDs aren't generally lobbyists: advocating for revision of laws is most often the province of lawyers. Most of the poli sci PhDs I know work in more program development or analysis positions, or academia if they're lucky enough to get a job at a university. Then, of course, there are those working as busboys because, in this economy, there are so few jobs for anyone other than gun-toting thugs.

Be sure to consider as well where you want to work. If you pursue a law degree in a certain state, it's going to be much easier to pass the bar and practice in that state - a lot of lawyers for that reasons end up working in the state where they attended law school. Moving to other areas is similarly challenging - you have to be able to gain entrance to the state bar (or be waived in) wherever you want to move to. That's by no means impossible, but it can be kind of a hassle.

Similarly, if you do a PhD in something fairly esoteric, you may find that your expertise is only marketable in places like DC that have sufficient interest in such things to afford employing an expert on your narrow topic. Those kinds of highly specialized positions are also extremely vulnerable to available funding: in a weak economy, you may well find that your employer can no longer afford the luxury of having someone with your obscure specialization (this is precisely what's happening to me at the moment). If you're looking at university careers, you'll have to go wherever you're lucky enough to find a university that's actually hiring, whether you happen to like that community or not. Take it from someone who is grappling with this same question: there's a lot to be said for having career skills which can be utilized anywhere and in a variety of professional contexts.

There are a lot of different issues to consider here, I recommend you give it some serious thought before you plunge into anything. Good luck!

[flyingfish]

10. Parents who are lawyers

Many of the graduates of top law schools have parents(usually fathers) who are lawyers.
And guess what?!
Thos graduates go to work for their parent, thus making more money than they would if they were not working for a relative.
The salary scale is very deceptive.
You must remember that little tidbit.

[GumboYaYa]

11. Do not make the decision to go to law school based on salary.

I have many friends who did that and are out of the profession or living in misery. There are plenty of ways to make money in the world, but there are few paths to happiness.

I decided to become a lawyer because the concept of helping people was compelling. I looked at medicine and decided I was not ready to dedicate my life to my profession. As much abuse as lawyers take, good lawyers do make a difference in people's lives and it is very gratifying when you get the chance to do that.

I love my profession. I could not be happier with my choice, but it is not for everyone. There are lots of grueling hours of work both in law school and in the profession.

[Township75]

12. I too considered that once...

I am now working on my PhD in chemical engineering and while I was working on my MS, I considered stopping there and going to law school to be a patient attorney.

Fortunately, I have a friend who followed the same path and a read a very informative book that convinced me NOT to do this. Here is info:


1. Read the book The Lure of Law. I gave it away, so I don't have the authors name. It was written in the early 90s by a lawyer. He interview many people from 3 catagories: Those in law school and their spouses, those just starting to practice and their spouses, those that got out of law and their spouses. He concluded that most people in law are unhappy. Most lawyers are conservative and boring people (his words not mine). The fell for the LA Law myth of lots of money, excitement and sex in the law field whereas it is very different.

2. Expect to work in a white collar sweatshop. My cousing works in a law firm and she said there is so much pressure ot become a partner, and for new lawyers to rack up billable hours that they never go home.

3. Dress code and behavior are severely hampered at law firms. My attorney friend said that if he doesn't drive a nice new top of the line snobby automobile to work, he would never be considered for partnership.

4. Law school costs money, and only the first tier of schools give you an education that is worth anything.

5. Don't worry about $ too much. If you ahve a ton of $ and no time to spend it, are you really going to be happy? I was making $53k at age 22 with my BS. I hated my job and could only put up with about 2 yrs of it before I decided ot return to grad school. I now make $19k and have never been happier. My philosophy is that if I have enough $ for food, clothing and essentials, then I will be a happy man.

6. With tort reform on the horizon, the law field will likely shrink, become more competitive and maybe even pay less. I don't know if this will continue into patient law, because they need lawyers there, but this is what I have been told.

7. In the late 80s or early 90s, a study was done on lawyers about how much they liked their job. The answer was they don't, many wished they hadn't become lawyers. They end up devoting all of their lives to peddly squabling over money between crooks. It just wansn't what they envisioned when they entered law.

It sounds like you are motiviated by $ and politics. First off be honest, don't be ashamed to tell yourself the $ matters alot if that is the case. Secondly, if you really want to get into the politics side of law, you will likely have to work for a non profit and make at most $35k.

Definetly talk to people who are in law NOW, not those in law school. But if nothing else, talk to as many people in the field as you can,even if it is only law students, to get an idea of what it is like.

Good Luck

ps - if you work as an engineer, you can always go back to law school

[WilliamPitt]

13. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Everyone in my family is a lawyer. Everyone. Only a few are happy with it, and those few had to take a beating such as I would never wish on anyone to carve out that happiness. The process of law school in itself is a horror. It is a year longer than it needs to be, the reasoning being that you will be further in debt and thus go to work at a big corporate law firm defending big business...against people like us...to pay it off. You want to know how Big Business gets away with murder? They have the best and the brightest lawyers working for them, people like you who start out with noble intentions but wind up as hired guns to pay off school. You'll tell yourself "I'm just doing this for now" so you can sleep at night...but the clock will tick and you will piss your life away.

Maybe...MAYBE...you will land that one in a billion dream job out of school and actually use your JD to further the cause of justice and save the world. But odds are you'll be another grey suit on the train feeding the machine.

Trust me on this. It is not worth the paycheck.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

14. Counterpoint

Will is right about it being a year too long. He's also right about you most likely being in debt, and probably having to work for a big law firm to help pay off those debts.

BUT.

If what you're looking for is financial security (which it appears you are, from an earlier post), then it's a damn good field, ESPECIALLY if you go into patent law. Even during the worst doldrums of this Bush economy, there have been tons of job postings for patent attorneys. DO NOT necessarily place complete faith in the median income figures for the law schools, your salary will be dependent on your geographical location and the quality of the firm you work for. In Los Angeles, for example, 1st-year lawyers at first- and I believe second- tier firms make $125,000. Tough to get those jobs, it's true, but it will probably be easier if you go patent law.

As for the whole "selling out" concept, Will's relatives' experience has been nothing like my own. I've worked at a bunch of big firms, and I was NEVER forced (or even pressured) to work on a socially objectionable litigation or transaction. Most of the time, it was Corp A suing Corp B in complex commercial litigation, or Corp A doing a deal with Corp B during the ordinary course of business. As long as you don't have a fundamental objection to either our civil court system, or capitalism, you will be able to do morally supportable work. That's the thing about big firms...even to the extent a big law firm takes on a reprehensible piece of work (and hopefully you can avoid these firms), the firm is almost always big enough to support a diverse array of clients and legal work, so socially-minded associates are able to avoid those matters.

Regarding job satisfaction, I again agree with Will, there are a LOT of lawyers who hate their jobs (I'd guess a slight majority, based solely on anecdotal evidence). But I love mine, and I know others who also love theirs.

But if you want a secure and prosperous life, it's a good field, especially if you go into patent law. And you can do it without compromising your principles. And while you might not have time to do a ton of political activism, most firms will allow a certain amount of "pro bono" legal time that you can donate to worthy causes, and moreover, you'll hopefully be in a position in a few years (after paying down your inevitable law school debt) to put your money where your mouth is, and start DONATING to political causes and candidates you support.

One final note on law school debt. I am a product of a good state school, and between the relatively low tuition and well-paying summer associate jobs (which are NOT a guarantee or even close any more, I warn you, but they paid $1,300 a WEEK when I was in law school, and they can pay much more than that now, on the order of $2,400+ a week), I was able to get out without a ton of debt. In fact, I was out of debt about 2.5 years out of school.

Hope this helps!

DTH

[WilliamPitt]

16. More than a slight majority

The ABA did a study recently - widely read in the legal field - documenting the fact that a vast, vast majority of lawyers are pretty profoundly unhappy with their chosen vocations.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

17. What Were the Numbers?

I'd be really surprised if it was over 2/3's. Huh. Maybe I'm just one of the lucky few.

:shrug:

DTH

[DoveTurnedHawk]

18. One Study I Found

After a quick search, was a young lawyers' study by the ABA:

http://www.abanet.org/yld/satisfaction_800.doc

Here is one table from that study:

Table 14
Satisfaction with Current Position and Practice of Law*

Current Position Practice of Law
Level of Satisfaction 2000(N=806) 1995(N=696) 2000(N=787) 1995(N=664)

Very satisfied 40.1% 36.8% 26.9% 21.2%
Somewhat satisfied 40.2 40.4 48.2 51.2
Somewhat dissatisfied 14.1 16.4 19.2 20.6
Very dissatisfied 5.6 6.5 5.7 6.9

*Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

DTH

[lastliberalintexas]

20. Well, here's another study

They had quite different results.

http://www.abanet.org/lpm/newsletters/articles/newsarticle12294_front.shtml

I would just recommend that BHGTG actually research the legal profession personally, and WORK IN A LAW OFFICE, before making this decision. Especially in Texas. Y'all have no idea of the legal market that we are going to be facing after 9/1/03.

[WilliamPitt]

23. Bingo

"Managing partners and firm administrators are trying to come to grips with what precisely is driving the unprecedented associate-level attrition rates, which range from just under 10 percent for first-year attorneys up to 81 percent for associates in their eighth year."

[DoveTurnedHawk]

25. Totally Different Stat

I am not endorsing the big firm life forever; it's a good first step in a lawyer's career, however.

There certainly is a lot of attrition at big firms, I never claimed otherwise. People get tired of the hours, mostly, or realize they're never going to make partner. Then they go off and do other legal work, most of the time.

I left the big firms after almost 5 years, choosing to move in-house. I have no regrets.

DTH

[northzax]

30. misleading statistic

in most of the big firms, at least in DC, if you are still an associate after 8-10 years, they're looking to get rid of you. Partners pretty much know after two-three years who's making partner. and the rest are gently, or not so gently, encouraged to seek other work.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

24. Excerpts From Your Study

<...>

The study found that, while more than half (53 percent) of working adults in all industries reported the balance between personal and work life is better than it was five years ago, nearly half (45 percent) of all attorneys say the balance between work and personal life is worse than it was five years ago. In response to a subsequent question, only about three in ten (30 percent) attorneys believe that employees at their firms are encouraged to create a balance between work and life outside of work.

Given no other choice, only half (51 percent) of attorneys would prefer a 10 percent increase in pay to a 10 percent reduction in work hours. More than four in five (81 percent) in the general workforce would choose the pay increase.

Most Planning to Leave Within Two Years

It has long been a common assumption that legal professionals, particularly attorneys, viewed changing firms and mobility as potentially damaging to their careers. We now have a benchmark, however, that illustrates just how much these traditional values have evolved over time.

The study found that more than half (63 percent) of all attorneys in law firms report they are most likely to change jobs within the next two years, and more than a third (36 percent) will do so within the next 12 months. In dramatic contrast, the 1999 general workforce survey found that just one-third (33 percent) of the total workforce said they will look for work with a different employer within two years.

Moreover, the study debunked the myth that being a lawyer is a lifelong career, as just two in three (67 percent) attorneys say they intend to remain in the legal profession for their entire career. In fact, job satisfaction among attorneys (only 37 percent are satisfied) is considerably less than that of non-attorney legal professionals (45 percent satisfied) and the general workforce (56 percent satisfied).

<...>

I don't really see how this study is too terribly inconsistent with my general beliefs posted earlier. It's not really all that surprising to me, either; lots of lawyers I know were dissatisfied with big firm life, and only wanted to do it for a while before moving on to a new and different legal career. Few lawyers I know changed careers entirely.

I certainly agree with you on exploring the field, first. I'm not entirely sure how valuable it would be to actually work in a law firm first, however. I imagine there is a major difference in the work experience of a paralegal, legal assistant and/or file clerk, and a lawyer.

I am ignorant of the legal climate in Texas, so I can't comment on that.

DTH

[lastliberalintexas]

26. It is awful

We have very tough tort reform measures that will become effective on 9/1, and people here are worried about the future. Our Lege (the same one trying for the re-re-districting fiasco) was bought and paid for by the insurance companies and medical industry (not necessarily doctors, mind you). There is even more legislation waiting in the wings, and it will cripple the mass tort litigation cases in Texas. We are about to be the testing/dumping ground for corporate America. I can almost see the ads for the State Dept of Economic Development- "Have a product that's unsafe? Send it to Texas- they can't sue you!" And it's only a joke b/c we have no such department.

I am not sure that I will even still be praciticing 5 years from now, and I am only 31. In the meantime, I have already started to refocus my practice from plaintiffs' work to more corporate matters, and I am even looking into family law, despite the fact that I have zero interest in those areas. It is just not something I would recommend to anyone at this time, IF s/he wants to stay in Texas.

[GOPisEvil]

27. Ooooooohhhhh...I need to tell you about Prop. 12!!!

There is thinking that HB4 (Tort Reform) is actually against the Texas Constitution. So, they have devised Prop. 12 which basically gives Constitutional authority to this madness. I think the election is Sept. 13th. Of course that is a Saturday, which means low turnout, which means the election was purposefully scheduled for a Saturday at an odd time of year.

VOTE NO ON PROP. 12!!!!! Edit - actually vote no on all the props. They are all sponsored by Republicans...:-)

Edit - no need to tell you - maybe I should read ALL the posts! :P

[lastliberalintexas]

29. Save Our Courts

is an organization that has done mass mailings to voters and should have some TV ads on soon. And it's headed by former Justices Hankinson and Baker, both repubs believe it or not. But the polling is against us, and it looks like Prop 12 will pass, the constitution will be amended, and tort reform will be set in stone.

I actually think that Prop 12 is unnecessary given the current makeup of our state Supreme Court. Earlier rounds of tort reform were declared to be unconstitutional and violative of the Open Courts provision of our const. But I would be very surprised if the current 9 found anything wrong with these bills.

None of this leaves me with much hope. I've been wondering what else I could do with a law degree? Moving to another state is always an option. :-)


BTW- Rebecca's pictures from the rally were good. It looked like y'all had a lot of fun, even in the heat. I am so sorry I missed it!

[GOPisEvil]

31. I took some pictures too!

There's around here somewhere! It was oppressively hot that day, but we had fun anyway.

Rep. Eddie Rodriguez is heading up the local effort against Prop. 12.

You never know with this TXSC - they refused to get into the redistricting/quorum thing. Every now and then, they show some brains.

[DagmarK]

33. that's EXACTLY why I didn't go to law school!

Because I KNEW that I would be forced into servitude to the evil big firms to pay off my debt.

Law school lures very idealistic people to it -- and the problem is: law has ZERO to do with truth, justice, and helping people. (well, 3% of it does.....but you can't pay off your student loan.....so you shelve that).

Problem is......to make a good good wage with a stinking liberal arts degree, I HAD to become a paralegal. So...I really shot myself in the foot. I ended up working for the evil law firms with ZERO of the money and perks.

If I had it to do over.....I would have gone to YALE law school and studied several foreign languages and worked in foreign policy or international public service ....... Ah......to be young again.

And really...if you want to be in politics on the good guy side......go to YALE for law school. A Yale law degree could get you in some very interesting doors......

[DoveTurnedHawk]

15. By the Way, Where Did You Get These Rankings?

Harvard #10? Yale #20? Stanford #29? There's just no way in hell.

DTH

[mac56]

19. No

Spent a year of my life in law school in 1980-81. It was easily the worst year of my life.

[northzax]

22. question:

do you WANT to be a lawyer? There are tons of people running around this country with expensive law degrees, and a three year hole in their lives, who have never actually practiced law. I'm 28, and in DC alone, I know four people my age, with law degrees from top twenty schools (the real top twenty, not the ones above) who have never actually practiced law. In addition, law schools are packed, who's going to hire all of them?

think about it.

[cap]

32. yes, because...

the Progressives will rise again and they will need attorneys to draft new legislation.

[NicoleM]

36. It's not worth the money

I went to law school for one year. It was okay, I didn't think it was that hard. There were a couple of reasons I didn't finish. One, it's expensive. I would have had to sell my soul to some corporation for years to pay off my student loans. I figured by the time I paid them off I'd be so burned out I wouldn't want to be a lawyer anymore, so I would probably never make the big money. This is exactly what is happening to one of my good friends right now. She hates being a lawyer, but she's stuck.

The second was my classmates. Almost all of them were really cool outside of class. But when they were in law-student mode, a lot of them started to suck. SO competitive, always wanting to know where you were gradewise so they could figure out where they fell in the pecking order and who they could feel superior to. I realized one day that these were the people I would be spending my working life with, and I didn't like who they were. And I didn't want to be them.

I'm living a very modest life now, making much less money than I could have out of college. But I never saw the sense in working 80 hours a week for a house you'd hardly be in and stuff you'd never be able to use. And your children will rather have you than a lot of money.

[Nikia]

37. I've considered law too

Some big deterrents for me are: my grandparents see law as the most dishonorable profession for different reasons based on their own experiences, law school is expensive and time consuming, and my husband's father was a lawyer and my husband rarely saw him because he worked all the time. I personally find law very interesting and my current profession very unintersting. You might want to work in your industry for a couple of years to find out whether you find it meaningful and whether you can find employment with a good company. If you are unhappy then, consider law school.