<p>Yup. The salary distribution for lawyers is bi-modal with the two peaks around $45k/year and the other at $135k/year. </p>
<p>[Ask</a> Dr. Salary: Median vs. Mean Lawyer Salaries: Is Law School Worth It?](<a href=“http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/09/median-vs-mean-.html]Ask”>http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/09/median-vs-mean-.html)</p>
<p>If you’re, let’s say, $150k in debt, it’ll take you forever to pay off that with a $45k/year salary and you’re never going to get out of the hole. There are tons of horror stories of people basically going bankrupt because of this, and with education loans, you can’t default them even if you declare bankruptcy.</p>
<p>If you get a job that isn’t in biglaw, but had 0 debt, you’d still be doing what you wanted to do (practice law), and can actually make a decent livelihood at 45k-60k/year since you won’t be under all that debt and the compounded interest on top of that.</p>