If you’re reading this, most likely you are, at the very least, already considering law school. Maybe it’s the allure of high salaries and compelling court cases. Maybe it’s your inner Jack McCoy, or your inner Harvey Specter, calling out to you. Or maybe—and just maybe—you simply don’t know what else you can do with a liberal arts undergraduate degree. Before you dive right in to three years of law school, take the time to consider whether or not a law degree is right for you, and review the following points.
Why You Shouldn’t Go To Law School:
1) Law School is Expensive
…and will only become more expensive as fewer students apply. The average law student in 2012 walked out of school with $108,293 in debt.[1] To put that into perspective, that is twice the average cost of a master’s degree, and four times the average cost of a bachelor’s degree.[2]
And the sticker price has consistently gone up, far past a reasonable adjustment for inflation or increased operating costs. Next year, private law school cost is projected to increase 4%, while public law school costs are projected to increase 6%.[3]That is adding to the $278,444 you would already pay to go to law school here at GW.[4] With prices spiraling out of control, one has to truly consider how much a law degree is worth to your career goals and interests. There needs to be, first and foremost, a reasonable expectation that your loans can be repaid.
2) Law is Not What You Think It Is
Suits, Law and Order, A Few Good Men; the fantasy lawyer genre has exploded in popular culture. The image of the lawyer, stern-faced and commanding attention in the courtroom, delivering a compelling argument against a narcotics drug-lord-kingpin, has defined what we see and expect our lawyers to be.
But it goes without saying that these are completely inaccurate representations of the life of an average lawyer. Trial work is a very small fraction of what lawyers actually do on a day-to-day basis. Work is largely done in offices and libraries, conducting research for cases, peering through thick texts for small lines of legal background.
And the work environment is little consolation. 50-70 hour weeks, Monday-Friday, and working with distraught clients who bring you their legal troubles.[5] It is not often a rewarding line of work.
3) Law May Not Pay as Well as You Think
You may have read the first debt figure and scoffed, thinking that, as a lawyer, $100,000 in debt is chump change. And that refers back to the perception of the modern lawyer as some high-flying, scotch-drinking moneymaker. Which is, as I’ll say it again, far from reality. The entry lawyer today is paid $63,000 a year.[6] If that is upsetting, remember that this is an average: Half of these lawyers will make less than this.
In addition, if you do not attend a T14 school (apologizes to the other 188), chances are that you will struggle to find a paying job to begin with, much less a job in the legal field. The T-14 schools run the gamut between Yale Law School, with a 7% admission rate, an average 3.9 GPA and 173 LSAT, to Georgetown Law, with a 19% admission rate, and an average 3.75 GPA and 168 LSAT.[7,8] If those numbers don’t match what you have right now, it will be a steep curve to fight against in admissions, and in securing a job after graduation if you don’t get into one of these schools.
Crime does not pay off, but law certainly doesn’t either.
4) And That’s Assuming You Find a Job…
Every month now you see a former law student suing their alma mater for, the trend is, misleading advertising about job prospects after graduation. The simple, cold hard truth is that there are not that many jobs that require a JD anymore. For one, there are many legal resources that can be found online: some Internet companies have already taken to many of the duties law firms once had.
The bottom line is, 17% of law students from 2012 are still unemployed.[9] 28% are only employed part-time.[10] These are staggering numbers that highlights the difficulties law students face in a job market saturated with competition from new Internet upstart companies, an abysmal job environment, and the sheer number of new law students flooding the market each year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there are 73,600 new lawyers fighting for the 5000 new legal positions created each year.[11] The odds are stacked against most entry-level lawyers.
These law students who end up suing their schools do so because they are working jobs in retail, fast food, and really wherever else they can find employment, far different from what was promised to them before they started law school. And this is not just true of law students, but of students in every other career as well. The job market is difficult: the question one faces today is not just whether or not you should go to law school, but whether you should go to school at all?
Why You Should Go To Law School
Though there are certainly a great number of reasons why not to go to law school, there are plenty of reasons of why you should.
1) It’s What You Make of It
Unlike the student who majored in petroleum engineering hoping to turn in a huge profit, your degree does not confine you to an oilrig. The law applies to everyone, and thus every firm or company will undeniably need legal counsel in his or her operations. There is a wide range of opportunities to practice law, ranging from the tech industry to wildlife protection organizations.
And if you are so inclined to run for public office one day, a law degree, regardless of whether or not you’ve used it in your career, is certainly beneficial towards understanding and creating legislation. It’s unsurprising, then, that over 200 members of Congress have law degrees, far greater than any other advanced degree. President Obama was not only a lawyer, but also a law professor, teaching Constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Many distinguished lawmakers and statesmen today have had extensive legal careers, and if this trend holds true in the future, perhaps a law degree may be your start in politics as well.
2) There Are Financial Options
Yes law school is undeniably expensive, there is no sugar coating that. But there are endless opportunities to lighten the financial burden. For one, schools often offer need-based financial aid (though certainly not as generously as they would for an undergraduate). Outside scholarships from law associations and other groups often provide smaller grants. Federal loan programs, like the Stafford loan, are also available for affordable loan rates.
But perhaps the best option for law school funding is from the US Military JAG Officer Candidate School program. Depending on the branch you decide to serve in, the military can provide a full-ride scholarship to pay for your law school tuition, in return for a commitment to serve as an active-duty officer after law school and Military Justice School. But in an economy where even Big Law is seriously looking into payroll cuts, having a guaranteed job for four, five years is an incredibly desirable position. Not to mention the unique opportunity to concurrently serve in the military and practice law.
3) If You Love It
There are no guarantees of action-packed, thriller-mystery type cases. Law school will be hell, the first few years of your career will likely be hell, and only until the middle of your law career may you truly begin to appreciate the intricacies, and the authority law brings with it. If you are a naturally analytical, argumentative, and simply love the letter-of-the-law, by all means, law should be the career for you.
If you still have some doubt as to whether or not being a lawyer should be the career for you, there are plenty of other ways to learn about a law career without having to make a commitment to law school. Interning at a law office is certainly a good step—becoming a paralegal may be an even better one. 72% of Harvard Law’s 2016 class spent a year out of college, 52% spent 2 years, likely exploring their careers prior to committing to law school.[12] Taking time to explore your career options may even prove beneficial in your admission chances.
In the meantime, the best thing to do is to continuing researching on your own, and forming your own opinion on the matter. It’s simply not worth reevaluating your entire career path because of a few poor projections. Numbers change, economies change. But do think through how law school will fit into your career plans, and weigh the benefits against the detriments before you start hitting the LSAT books.
References:
1: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/the-short-list-grad-school/articles/2013/08/13/10-law-degrees-with-the-biggest-return-on-investment
2: http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/reform/projects/Non-Discounted-Cost/
3: http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/08/22/rising-law-school-tuition-examined-in-new-book
4: http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/reform/projects/Non-Discounted-Cost/
5: http://people.howstuffworks.com/becoming-a-lawyer.htm
6:http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/average_starting_pay_for_law_grads_is_on_downward_shift_drop_is_largest_for/
7: http://www.law.yale.edu/admissions/profile.htm
8: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-financial-aid/jd-admissions/full-time-part-time-program/faqs/General.cfm
9: http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2013/06/law_school_graduates_face_a_di.htm
10: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2012/06/26/why-attending-law-school-is-the-worst-career-decision-youll-ever-make/
11: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Legal/Lawyers.htm
12: http://law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/classprofile.html