<p>I was considering going to grad school for Disability Studies and then heading on to law school. I'm very passionate about disability law and would love to spend 2 years getting my master's degree, but is it worth it? Is it worth it for law school admissions, and is it worth it for a future career?</p>
<p>I would first suggest talking to people who work in “disability law,” whatever that means. Are you looking to do policy analysis? Work in the state? Be an ALJ for disability appeals? Work in plaintiff’s litigation? </p>
<p>Pardon me for not knowing this, but what on earth is a master’s in disability studies, and what on earth does it teach you?</p>
<p>I have all the same questions as ariesatheana. If you want to sue people under the Americans with Disabilities Act, there’s definitely work there. I can’t imagine “disability studies” would help you though.</p>
<p>Getting a master’s degree is of very little help getting into law school. If you’re really interested in disability law, I’d suggest working in the area as a paralegal, etc., rather than getting a master’s degree.</p>
<p>I looked up a “master’s in disability studies” and the impression that I got is that it is a clever way of extracting tuition money from college graduates and is only helpful in a field that relies more on credentialism than on competence. (Was that harsh?) CUNY’s description of its master’s is as follows:
</p>
<p>I know people who do some “disability law,” but they are working in firms that represent people who are seeking SSDI. That work is very formulaic, relies more on volume than anything else, and is focused on the nature of the disability and the effects on a person’s ability to work. </p>
<p>How on earth would a knowledge of “creativity in disability culture” help you to make a living off being a lawyer for people with disabilities? Please, look at the “make a living” part, because few 0Ls, let alone idealistic ones, think about where their paychecks come from. Yes, you can be a plaintiff’s attorney or represent people before the SSA, but you get paid from a chunk of what they received. Do you want to spend your life knowing that you made your money by getting a fraction of a meagre disability payment?</p>
<p>"Do you want to spend your life knowing that you made your money by getting a fraction of a meagre disability payment? "</p>
<p>These days, disability law is much more than getting SSI payments for a client. A substantial amount of the legal work is about The Americans with Disabilities Act. </p>
<p>So…“Improvement in quality of life and justice for people with disabilities;” could actually help if working with this population is a certain focus for the OP.</p>
<p>If your plan is to go to law school, the time and expense of a master’s degree is not worth it. There are a lot of reasons that it’s a waste of money, not the least of which is that you may not be able to find a job upon law school graduation practicing disability law.</p>
<p>2boysinMA: I don’t understand your post. I wrote above and outlined some of the ways in which someone can be in “disability law” and asked which ones the OP was interested in. So why are you lecturing me about the scope of disability law?</p>
<p>The goal of disability law is to improve people’s lives, yes, but how does a master’s in disability studies help that, specifically? As in, please explain in precise detail how this master’s degree would actually make this person a more effective attorney. Then please explain, in precise detail, why a potential lawyer ought to spend two years and fifty grand (or more) before law school on this degree.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Just wanted to offer a bit of a counterpoint to the person who asked " Do you want to spend your life knowing that you made your money by getting a fraction of a meagre disability payment?"</p>
<p>I’m a disability lawyer (though my salary isn’t paid through contingency fees). I actually don’t have any problem with the way most Social Security claimants’ representatives get paid–usually they charge no money up front, but if the client wins the lawyer gets the lesser of $6000 or 25% of the retroactive benefits payable to the client. </p>
<p>Lawyers have to eat too. No one is forcing someone to hire a lawyer for their SSA claim–Social Security does a lot to make it pro se friendly, though obviously navigating a legal proceeding can be very difficult for folks–and I’ve definitely seen many cases where having a lawyer makes the difference between being denied and being approved. </p>
<p>So being a disability lawyer isn’t some horribly unethical job where you’re ripping money from the hands of poor disabled people for no reason. I like my clients, I’m proud to help them, and I think I do a really good job of it. </p>
<p>With that said, I do think it’s a waste of money to get a masters in disability studies. It won’t help you get a job most places…I suppose it could be a tiny plus factor for some fellowships or think tanks. Getting a PhD in the subject plus a JD might help with being a law professor but there are so few academic jobs and the opportunity cost is too high to take the risk.</p>
<p>And I say this as someone who has actually considered getting a master’s in the field for a very specific reason: SSA is only hiring policy folks through the Presidential Management Fellowship right now, and only recent grad students can do PMFs. So if I wanted to go work for SSA, going back to grad school would make sense. I’d only do it if I were desperate for a policy job at SSA and could do it with a lot of funding and a part-time program that let me keep working. OP’s situation is obviously quite different.</p>
<p>Stacy: you didn’t rebut what I said; you just sugar-coated it.</p>
<p>Two questions for you, stace: how much, on the average, do your disabled clients receive every month in SSA benefits? How much do you, on the average, take in your fees? </p>
<p>(Incicentally, I already know the answer to the first question.)</p>
<p>My SSI-only clients get a maximum of $710 a month. In many states, though not mine, qualifying for SSI also provides Medicaid, which can be a significant benefit for people with high out-of-pocket medical expenses. Those who get a combination of SSI and SSDI get $730 a month. SSDI recipients receive as much as $2533 a month (though few of my clients get that much) along with derivative benefits for some spouses and children, plus Medicare. All these dollar figures will go up 1.5% in 2014. </p>
<p>It’s not a lot, I’ll give you that. And I support advocacy efforts that would increase it.</p>
<p>As for how much I make, I receive a flat salary from my employer, a nonprofit. It’s about a quarter of what I’d be getting now had I accepted the offer from the BigLaw firm I worked at my 2L summer. I don’t get any money directly from my clients. So when I defend the typical disability benefit attorney’s fee structure, I don’t do it from my own self-interest.</p>
<p>Most disability attorneys make, as I said, the lesser of $6000 or 25% of their client’s back benefits…if the client wins. For a typical SSI recipient who has waited 2 years to get benefits, that works out to paying their lawyer about $4200. Some people would feel that’s a ripoff. Others would think that if they spent two years trying to get SSI on their own unsuccessfully and could hire someone to make it happen, it would be money well spent. People get that choice. Nobody has to hire an attorney–to defend them in a criminal case, to review the documents when they purchase a house, to represent them in a Social Security hearing, or to handle their corporation’s IPO. People do it because they feel they’re getting a service and they want a lawyer’s expertise. </p>
<p>You obviously don’t like disability benefits lawyers, and I admit some are shady (though worse than other types of lawyers? I highly doubt it). But how would you structure the system differently? What do you think is the right amount for someone to pay to have someone gather and read medical records, write and submit a brief, and attend a hearing? Would it be better for the claimant to pay up front rather than a contingency fee from their retroactive benefits? Should there be a taxpayer-funded system where everyone who applies for SSI gets appointed a lawyer? I don’t think the system we currently have is particularly bad but I’m curious how you’d improve it.</p>