The best way to look at it is that law school is inherently a risky financial bet, and all prospective law students should view it as such. There are ways to mitigate that risk.
1)The best way to mitigate the risk is to attend a top law school that places the majority of its students in large law firms. That isn’t just the T14s, as other posters have pointed out, and there are many top tier schools not in the T14s that have equivalent placement rates in BigLaw, but the lower down you get, the fewer students get jobs in BigLaw. Once you get down into the Tier 2 and Tier 3 schools, it’s still possible to get a job in BigLaw, but much less probable as a statistical likelihood. So, if you’re taking out full loans to attend a school that is a lower ranked school, then you’re taking a big financial gamble. You could win the lottery, or you could end up working at a small firm making $55k - $65k a year and struggling just to pay the interest on your loans.
2)Another way to mitigate the financial risk is to attend a lower tier law school but on a scholarship where the cost is greatly reduced. Then if BigLaw doesn’t happen (as is the likelihood at lower tier schools) you’re not screwed.
3)Finally, there are the students who want to go into public interest, and if they’re very committed and very careful about how they set up and pay off their loans, they might be entitled to federal loan forgiveness after 10 years. But, that requires 10 years of dedicated public interest work, while diligently paying down the loans on a tiny public interest salary. Not easy, and really only for those committed to that type of work.