<p>I’m convinced. If my S, who I think would make a very good lawyer, decides to go to law school, it should be a public law school with reasonable tuition.</p>
<p>“to bring them on essentially fulltime with no benefits?”</p>
<p>The article did not say that they had no benefits. It’s my understanding that the “career associate” position does have benefits (though probably not as generous as what partner trackers get). These aren’t contract attorneys – that’s a different category.</p>
<p>“What about kids at top 5 law schools?”</p>
<p>Well, it’s much much better for them than for fourth-tier graduates. But it’s not the guarantee it used to be.</p>
<p>“What about people that don’t want to be lawyers?”</p>
<p>For the most part, they are very foolish to borrow a dime to go to law school if they don’t want to be lawyers. Jobs in legal journalism, government policy, etc. are very hard to come by and pay poorly if you do get one. For this crowd as well as others, if your family is rich and can afford to pay the tuition, sure, go to law school. But everyone else needs to proceed with extreme caution.</p>
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<p>After going to law school can you do something other than practicing law?
Yes.</p>
<p>Do you need a law degree to do those other things?
Absolutely not. As such going into debt to go to law school and then not becoming a lawyer doesn’t make much sense. </p>
<p>If you can get the degree without incurring debt and want to do it for a purely intellectual exercise then great, but otherwise you’ve got to look at it like an investment. Incurring six figures of debt to end up with a job that pays $65k is NOT a good investment. </p>
<p>Will the law degree give you a leg up on others when trying to go for those other positions?
No, not really. Those going to law school typically have little to no real world (i.e. outside of school and internships / low level positions) experience. Such experience is going to be valued a lot more than a law degree. </p>
<p>That’s the opportunity cost involved… person A has three years of relevant work experience and person B has a freshly minted law degree. Who’s most likely going to get hired to do the job that doesn’t require a law degree? It’s not rocket science. </p>
<p>Furthermore, with these high profile articles in places like the New York Times (it was the most e-mailed article on the site today) the tailspin of the legal profession is very much in the public eye. Even if one never really intended to practice law when going to law school they’re going to have to fight really hard to not just be thrown into the “oh, so your another one of these wanna-be lawyers that can’t get hired as a lawyer” bucket.</p>
<p>When I ran the sales support contracts group at a major Fortune 100 company we hired a few lawyers to do redlining and contract negotiations on the more complex contract terms, outside the work the actual legal team did. It did not really pay more than those who had an MBA. After a number of years in the group, the salary would be similar to the starting Big Law salaries. They might now however be similar to the non-partner track salaries. It was not really wheeling and dealing, the sales team took the lead on that aspect. But it was to make sure all was in compliance with company polices or approvals had been received when the agreements were reached. I would not take out big loans for that. </p>
<p>BTW- I am not an attorney. I had the Director position with an MBA. After I left they did replace me with an attorney. But they hired their practicing attorneys from the law firms they used. They never hired graduating law students for the corporate positions.</p>
<p>Re Corporate Law: After I graduated from law school, I specialized in pension law and estate planning. Unlike “The Good Wife” I spent most of my days in my office drafting estate/pension plans. Not very glamorous or exciting, but over time I was sought after because I had skills in a niche area of the law. Most companies that hire attorneys are not looking for trial lawyers, they are looking for lawyers who have practiced in their company’s field. I was hired after a few years by a pension consulting firm to do the same thing I was doing at my firm, but in their in-house legal department. We had six lawyers in the department. Another friend who specialized in estate planning, went to work for a bank in their Trust department. Corporate lawyers are hired because of the expertise they have developed within their law firms, they are rarely hired right out of law school.</p>
<p>If a kid really has interests in the field of law, I wouldn’t discourage him from law school but I would certainly let them know what the realities are of the job market. Going to law school just to have something to do or with the idea you are going to make a lot of money is not a wise thing to do. </p>
<p>However, each year I see kids graduating from many different law schools and doing just fine. It seems to me that if you do well academically and either go the nationally know law schools or to the local ones and look for jobs locally, you can do well. Unless you have connections, going to a mid level law school that is not local to where you will be looking for work seems to be were one can have problems in finding a job. </p>
<p>i have a lawyer brother who went a law school that is not tops and has been very successful. He had an entrepreneurial streak in him and getting the law degree and knowledge gave him the option of applying it that way. He has a small but very successful law firm and is encouraging his D to go to law school. it’s a family business for him. He says he would probably be selling tires or being a realtor or other small business owner, but he loves what he is doing. Would not be possible without the studies and degree.</p>