No matter what the field. “burdened with debt” hardly ever works.
It’s funny - whenever I talk to just about any parent, they will tell me, “We told our kids NOT to go into the fields their parents did!”
A relative of mine graduated a 3rd tier law school right into the buzzsaw of the recession with $150K in loans. She worked by day as a roaming free lance lawyer doing closings and grunt work earning squat while tending bar at night to pay the bills. After about a year, she landed a real job, though still low paying. After bouncing around a bit, she landed at a firm, just made partner and is doing great. Those loans don’t seem so crazy. She was all-in though. Not your typical millennial. She refused to be a statistic.
You friend definitely bucked the trend – the lesser law schools are seeing steep drop offs in applications. Cooley (Who ranked themselves second to Harvard) is tanking and closing a campus http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2014/10/09/cooley-law-school-closing-ann-arbor-campus/16960617/
I got a law degree and I love my work in a law-related field. It saddens me that law does not now seem to be something I should recommend to young adults, not because of the work but because of the difficulty of getting the work.