Why Law School Might Not Be A Good Call

The Stimulist:

It's come to me slowly, a revelation of sorts: I went to the college they promised me. I went to the school of the catalog quote-box, a "hotbed" of aspirant genius. Perhaps it's nostalgia (or epiphany, some four years late?) but it seems now you superstars were everywhere. I watched you running your civil rights rallies, heard your a capella singing, saw your experimental plays--and I always assumed that your passions would somehow become your post-college careers.

Actors, I assumed you'd audition, unrelentingly, until getting a small role, then a bigger, then a big; activists, that you'd travel, teaching English to children, before landing a choice gig at (or starting) an NGO; writers, that you'd get yourselves MFAs you didn't need before wowing Michiko Kakutani with your debut bildungsromans. . .but never that I'd find you all in the law adviser's anteroom. Much less, that I'd be in there with you.

And yet, here we are. Wandering from our LSAT prep course to the McKinsey Q&A to the Teach For America informational, we're looking for something: a paying job, any job. A benefactor.

Read the whole story: The Stimulist

Comments

[Hdaryl01]

I'm a lawyer, and have been for 12 years. And, I have been expecting a revolution of sorts on this topic for at least as long. Yet prices have continued to skyrocket, well outpacing inflation. Today, the average newly graduated, newly minted lawyer graduates with $150,000 in student loan debt (undergraduate and law school). The vast majority will never make even close to the "rock star" wages of White Shoe firm partners, or John Edwards style Tort litigators. In fact, the vast majority of all lawyers nationally make well less than $100,000/year. Just to service the loans, depending on maturity, takes between $1,000 and $2,000 a month-$12K­-$24K/year­-for 15, 20, 30 years...To service this debt, and live as well, you must make well over the number at which student loan interest becomes non-deductible, thus these payments are after tax, and one would be in a high tax bracket, if not the highest. It absolutely, unequivocally does not cash flow for the vast majority to become lawyers. And, it has become progresively worse over the 12 years since I became one. For my MBA Thesis in 1992, I ran the numbers on a welder, pipe fitter, electrician who graduated high school and went right into the trade, compared to a lawyer who foregoes 7 years of earnings, and accumulates masive debt. Factoring in lower tax rates, lower earnings, faster ability to buy a house, quicker start for families and deductions, the tradesperson wins-soundly......

[rlugbill]

I graduated from law school 10 years ago. Went to work for a small firm, then practiced on my own. Now, I'm working at the Public Defender's Office.

Before that, I had several different jobs. I did very well on the LSAT and got a scholarship at a state school that is not top ten (I was admitted to top 10 schools, but chose not to take on the debt).

There might be a misconception out there that lawyers are high-paid. The truth is some lawyers are high-paid, but most are just getting by. And you will probably have to sell your soul to be one of the high-paid ones.

Most law students are more than willing to sell their souls, especially after all the student loan debt they take on.

I remember talking to lawyers before law school and they looked down their noses at "lesser-pr­ofessions"­. And many women wouldn't take you seriously as bf material unless you were in a "serious profession". Once I started law school, the gold-diggers came out in force, and I married one of them.

So, I stupidly bought into their values and now I look back at the great jobs I did back then and wish I could do them now. But, with debt, mortgage, family, etc., I can't do that anymore, so I feel stuck doing something I don't really like, but can make a reasonable living at. I hope someone can learn from my story.

[antaeus]

"Most law students are more than willing to sell their souls . . . "

We hear it in high school and college, yet we still try to disbelieve it.

Wasn't my old neighborhood impressed when a local kid got into Harvard Law? Some of us felt pressure to emulate.

Too late we discover he graduated Harvard Law and went on to do tobacco defense--in the bad old days. And that is the proverbial rest of the story.

[cucumber]

Why did you marry someone you consider a "gold digger?"

[Trilby]

But law school does NOT actually prepare you to practice law. It does not even prepare you to pass the bar exam! Law school is great fun, I loved it, but being a first year associate is a special kind of hell. Do not try this when you are older! It takes incredible stamina and the willingness to work like a horse and stuff your feelings about it. You have no autonomy for years, and if you are "lucky" enough to become a partner someday, you will spend a good deal of your time overseeing billing and finding new business. Good luck!

[rainbowblue]

This article is just one added pin in the push pin collections of things I hate about high school. In high school it was all about the University. Pick the best one...the one with the best programs/t­eachers...­whatever. What they don't tell you is that jobs care little for your education and more about your experience. It's more important to have good internships that give you a rounded advatage to do whatever. Smart means nothing if you have no experience.

Advice to any college grad without internship or any other kind of experience, set your bar low and look for entry level positions. Advice to highschool kids, pick a college/university that is in a city with a lot of oppertunity, it matters more than the "quality" of your education.

[antaeus]

"Misguided are we who envision a PoliSci playground for polymath and public servant alike. Like an amplified version of 'vocational training,' law school is designed to prepare professionals for their practice."

Any liberal arts student considering law school should reread that quote.

You can be a bright student, a gifted writer, have a 98th-percentile LSAT, and go to a top-10 law school, but if you are arriving there from the humanities, then you just might find the business emphasis of the curriculum to be as uninspiring and misery making as anything you've ever done.

[dbg2]

56% of male Harvard grads go into finance (Wall street) .... 90% hate their jobs

[Sensiblebg]

What a ridiculous article.. Why would anyone go to law school if they dont want to be lawyers?? These people get what they ask for. Lets be real, you went to law school to make money and you fell flat..

The title of this article should say: "Dont go to law school unless you want to be a lawyer"

[HuffyAmy]

I didn't read the article but a lot of people legitimately go to law school who don't want to practice law because the knowledge gained there will help them in any number of other careers. Teaching or government.

[naschkatze]

Journalism, politics.

[rainbowblue]

You have never been in that position of just graduating and not knowing what to do. Law school seems right, that it might open doors beyond being a laywer, but one also realizes that law is probably not for them. It's a hope to a better future, but that road seems unpromissing.

I've considered law school, even contemplating that I would use the degree to beome a public defender. Than I thought hard and realized I hate law classes and would probably hate being a lawyer no matter what kind of law I practiced. The biggest thing is that being a lawyer isn't experience in anything. Just ask our President, how lost do you think he is in everyone of his briefings. He has limited knowledge in foreign affairs, economics, the environment, science and technology, health care, he doesn't even have experience in public management and policy (not at the executive/­bureaucrat­ic level).

Law school seems like the promise land until you realize that there are better ways to go.

[ThoughtAboutIt]

Do you expect a president to have graduated from President's School? I do not think President Obama is lost in ANY of his briefings. He is likely as intelligent any president America has ever had.

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

Wow....off track much?

I'm currently in law school and do not intend to practice law when I am done. I entered law school to enable me to become more effective in my current vocation..­..nursing. The bulk of my patients are low-income with chronic illnesses, and my legal training will help me be a better advocate for them as a nurse, not a trial attorney or mass tort litigator.

It may not fit into your idea of normalcy, but to call it 'ridiculous' is showing a tremendous lack of logic on your part.

[fulanita]

Maybe not ridiculous but certainly an odd way to help...

[sonoffestus]

Nurses are some of the best folks I have ever met and you are taking it to a whole other level. Good for you and all the best!