The Blue Board

Why is that? No jobs in the field?

DON'T DO IT!!!!

It's a combination of 2 things:

1) The cost of legal education is higher than you think. It's not only tuition; unless you're a part-time student, the ABA does not let you work during your first year of law school. That means at least your first year is all scholarships, grants or loans. That includes your room and board; campus housing is o.k., but I preferred to have an apartment where I could shut out the dumb noise. In any event, law school is going to cost you $30,000 - $50,000/year at least. It's 3 years; you graduate with essentially a mortgage, plus interest has been accruing for those years. I went to Loyola - Chicago and the interest on my federal loans alone was over $12,000 by the time I graduated.

After that first year, you want to work to save some $$ . . . but realize that even a 15-20 hour/week job at a firm is going to feel like overkill given a full-time law school schedule. You're going to work harder than you ever have before in your life.

2) It's hard to get a job that can support your loan payments unless a) you're in the top 10% of your class and/or b) you're at a top 14 law school. Schools will often use their average starting salary as a selling point, but let me tell you something almost no one makes what the average salary is . The top legal jobs in the top market start you at $165K (NY, CHI, DC and LA). Just about every other big city is at around $135K.

There's a big drop-off from there, and those jobs are highly selective. If you're a State's attorney/public defender, you're looking at $35K-$55K starting. Most small firms are between $40-$60K starting. When schools average the few $165K people with the $40-$60K people (and trust me, they can only go off what's reported; the high salary people are more likely to tell the school how much they're making than the low), they're comfortable making a statement that "Our Graduates average starting salary is $85K/year!"

In reality, only those top few students at the biggest firms can afford the loans and have anything close to a normal lifestyle. Thus, you have to either go to a highly regarded law school, OR finish in the top 10% (sometimes top 5%, depending on how prestigious your school is; it's a sliding scale).

Here's the kicker: if you're going to succeed in law school (i.e., going for that top 10%) you have to WANT to be a lawyer. It's hyper-competitive, and I'd say 90% of the 1L's (first year law students) think they're going to end up in the top 10%. After all, they did well in college and got a decent LSAT score. That's not enough; law schools are pretty much taking the best of the best (even the not so good ones), so you're going up against people that are just as smart as you are. Hard work is what separates the wheat from the chaff (yes, I used a Midwestern farming analogy) and the people that are just in law school because they had nothing else better to do are the ones finishing at the very bottom.

That's where the legal market really screws you over; it used to be that the bottom of just about any law school could still find an o.k. government job; now those jobs are being taken up by the mid to upper level students who would normally be at big to mid-sized firms.

Sorry for the novel; I like being a lawyer, but it's certainly not for the "lifestyle". If you're thinking of it as a way to get rich, save your time and $$; get an MBA instead.

Do not go to law school. You'll be miserable and you won't have the drive relative to the other students necessary to get the grades to do anything.

Unless, of course, you have an extra $100K - $150K laying around. Then do what you will.

FWIW, accounting/tax isn't a bad background for law; I have an LLM (masters of law) in tax and that's what ended up making my career take off.

You'll do better interning for campaigns or with state government. Or just move to DC and start offering sex for favors.

I've been a lawyer for almost 7 years. I know maybe 2 lawyers who are glad they are lawyers. I am familiar with a group of lawyers that are happy being lawyers because of the "good" work they do that genuinely helps people, but they don't make crap for money. I wish I could be in that group because maybe it would make the job tolerable, but I can't afford it. So, (a) don't be a lawyer, and (b) for damn sure don't go to law school if you don't want to be a lawyer.

This x 1000

Assuredly, but that's asking lawyers in private practice to use their free time (when they could be out getting business to keep their practice afloat) to edit some trumped up furniture salesman's mistaken use of the term "convey".

In other words, there isn't the hardcore dedication to the review process that you'd get if the attorney was full-time devoted to the project. Since the State's aren't going to pay outside counsel those fees, the expertise is best gained in-house; i.e., lawyers as legislators.

Really, the ABA needs to step up and stop accrediting these crap law schools.

In my opinion, it is generally a mistake to go to law school planning to do something besides practice law. It works out that way sometimes, but many times people get stuck in jobs they hate so they can make the loan payments. My advice would be to hold off on law school until you get your foot in the door somewhere in the political world and get to the point where you need an advanced degree to continue to progress.

A law degree gives you versatility down the road, but not without some experience. I would work on getting the experience first, if I were you. It's a huge gamble to do it in reverse.

There are definitely too many law schools. At least restrict the lower tier ones so that they can maybe issue JDs but not a JD that qualifies you to take a bar exam.

I'd gladly give some hours to review drafting of legislative changes impacting my practice area. Would save myself time and my clients a lot of money down the road. Shoot, maybe I should be a lobbyist. I'd make a lot more money.

Off topic, I had a hearing yesterday and saw opposing counsel get fired by his client right in the middle of it. It was quite funny.

Now there's the way to get the education. My stepsister-in-law went to college at UNC and then joined the Navy for med school.

Have you considered the JAG program?