You might have just achieved your undergraduate diploma. Or you may have been out of school for ten years. It makes no difference. You have concluded that you want to attend law school.
But why?
Certainly, the first step in determining whether law school is worth your time and money is to understand your personal motivations. Many people go to law school for all the wrong reasons: family pressure, pursuit of vast wealth, fear of leaving academia for the “real world.” If you base your decision primarily on any of these reasons, you are likely to be sorely disappointed once you set your first foot into the law school lobby.
It is true that there can be large sums of money to be earned, and a J.D. can sometimes enhance a run-of-the-mill undergraduate degree. But such rewards come at the risk of great sweat and treasure. American law school curriculums require three years of full-time study and nearly six figure’s worth of tuition dollars. Lucrative law firm jobs are readily available to maybe only one-percent of the law school graduate pool that enters the workforce every year. And three years of blood and tears is a long time to delay the inevitable job search simply because you aren’t quite sure what to do with your life.
In deciding whether or not you really want to be a lawyer, it is important to understand the truisms of law school and law practice in general. Legal practice consists mainly of analyzing a client’s fact pattern and applying applicable law to that client’s situation. This translates into countless hours of reading, writing, and research. Quite honestly, most client situations are boring and not very exciting. Was the defendant negligent when he rear ended my client? Is my client able to seek a remedy from his employer for the busted knee he sustained when he fell from the company ladder? Can the State prove all the elements of the accused’s misdemeanor DUI charge beyond a reasonable doubt? Unlike television and Hollywood, the work of a lawyer can be quite mundane. If you are banking on trial work to add some excitement to your legal career, keep in mind that approximately 95% of all civil lawsuits never make it into the courtroom. They are instead settled out of court. And for you burgeoning prosecutors out there, many criminal cases are settled via plea bargains before a jury is even selected.
Law school, like practice, also demands countless hours of reading, writing, and research. But instead of receiving a paycheck for your time, you get a letter grade for all your effort. And because first year classes are curved, not everybody can be at the top. Considering that only the top echelon of students easily obtain jobs after graduation, pray you earn no less than a “B.” This is not always as easy as it sounds. Unlike undergrad, law school is full of your intellectual equals, and is therefore very competitive.
If you really want to go to law school, make sure you know what you’re in for. Make sure you understand the statistical probability of being weighed down by massive loan debt, yet only being able to land a mid-50k job to start. Understand that you really need to enjoy reading, writing, research, and analyzing in order to love being a lawyer. Realize the intense strain upon your relationships with loved ones it is capable of placing. And overall, understand that going to law school is a very serious decision and commitment. There is much at stake.
There are indeed benefits and joys of going to law school and practicing law. Prestige, guiding clients through difficult situations, and intellectual challenge are just a few of them. Being fully informed of the negatives that come along with them is only necessary before you can accurately determine whether or not you’ve correctly made such an important choice.
