There’s been a lot of buzz about the value of a law degree lately, with the economy struggling and the legal job market in particular hurting. People give advice on law school (generally: don’t go) and provide lists of reasons why your desire to go to law school is misguided.
I’m not going to conclusively refute this advice, but I am going to provide my own perspective as a fairly recent law school graduate.
First, a lot of people say it’s wrong to go to law school as the “next step” after college. I disagree with this. I studied English and History in college because that’s what interested me, not because I was planning to make a career out of it. When I sat down to think about what my career would be, I realized that I didn’t have a “passion” for anything. I didn’t have a calling. What I did know, was that I wanted a job where I would be valued for my intellect, a job that would continually challenge me, and a job that wouldn’t entail the same things every day.
It seemed to me that being a lawyer would satisfy these goals. And looking back, my reasoning wasn’t misguided. Lawyers are valued for their writing skills, their ability to solve logical problems, their attention to detail, and yes, their creativity in crafting arguments and meeting challenges.
There’s nothing wrong with a smart and hardworking college graduate deciding to go to law school as the next step. You don’t need to have a “passion” for the law in order to go to law school, because you’ll never know what law school and being a lawyer is about until you’ve started down that path.
Second, there are enough options for legal jobs that many personality types can find a fulfilling career. It’s been said that you should only go to law school if you want to be a lawyer. Well, this isn’t completely true, because lobbyists and policy wonks gain a lot from a law degree. But even if we accept that conventional wisdom as correct, there are as many types of lawyers as there are Lady Gaga wigs. There are litigators for large corporations, who rarely see the inside of the courtroom and produce lots of written work. There are personal injury litigators, who argue in front of juries more often. There are corporate attorneys, who never argue in court and often are negotiating for parties that want to build something together. There are government attorneys, who defend laws and prosecute offenders. There are family lawyers, who mediate divorces and work on behalf of children in custody battles. There are public defenders, who get paid by the government to represent indigent defendants. There are in house counsel, who oversee the legal strategy of companies. And there are lawyers for nonprofits, who seek to provoke social change through bringing cases that challenge the status quo.
The list goes on. Each type of lawyer draws on different skills, leads a different lifestyle, and is exposed to a different area of the law. There is no one formula of a lawyer.
Law school does cost money. A lot of money. I can’t argue with that. So a decision to attend law school should be well thought out, because you need to be able to recoup your investment in school. Some say you should only attend one of the top 14 law schools. This is ridiculous. The top 14 law schools are ranked that way because they have national prestige and their graduates can find jobs virtually anywhere. Which is great. But there are a number of regional schools that offer lots of local job opportunities for their graduates. It would be a mistake not to research the job placement and reputation of law schools that you might attend. But it’s also a mistake to assume that going to a non-top 14 law school is a death knell for your career.
The legal job market sucks right now. This is also true. Again, you need to do your homework before you decide which law school to attend, because where you go to school (and how well you do there) dictates whether you will find a job. One of the reasons that the job market is so poor now is because state and local governments, frequent employers of new law school graduates, have instituted hiring freezes due to budget shortfalls. And of course, the economy has had a hand in fewer private legal jobs. I’m no economic expert, but I would hope that the economy has rebounded in four years, which is when a law school applicant now would be graduating. If it hasn’t rebounded, we’re all screwed.
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I agree that it is important to do your research in order to decide which is the best law school for you. Where you attend and how well you do will directly impact your future career, which makes this one of the most important decisions you will make. I would recommend checking out Vault. I used them when I was looking to attend law school and they were really helpful. They had a ton of insider information that helped me make my decision and put me on the right path.