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Your GPA and Lsat matter way more than where you work. However, your work experience does have an impact. It's a sliding scale. Shit grade and Lsat, no good school will care where you worked.
Lawschool is worth the money if you actually want to be a lawyer.
Emphasis on actually want to be a lawyer.
I’ll add the caveat that the money spent should be proportionate to your anticipated salary. Not everyone wants BigLaw and that’s fine, but that probably means you shouldn’t take on debt that only BigLaw can pay for.
Just be calculated and intentional with your choices.
Good news is you’re in just about the perfect position to figure out whether or not you want to be a lawyer. Listen to what the lawyers around you are saying about their work and lives.
Whatever you do, don’t go into a ton of debt to go to law school. You might be surprised to learn that some of those young partners with the fancy watches and handbags are still paying off student loans.
That's a big reason why I took this job. I didn't want to go into that much debt without first knowing whether the legal field would be the type of place I'd like to spend my career in. I've seen a lot, but the jury's still out. The work looks interesting and satisfying when done well, but most of the attorneys seem stressed or overworked.
The problem with law school is the cost - 1. The actual coast assuming you aren’t on a full ride 2. The opportunity cost of making money and gaining experience of doing something else.
Since the only way to really know if you will like being a lawyer (or doing any job for that matter) is to do the job. So going to law school is effectively a $200-400k gamble more if you do it later in life. And because most other professions don’t regard a law degree as a particularly valuable assets (just like attorneys don’t particularly value MBA and engineering degrees highly) you will only ever get value out of your degree by practicing.
So I would recommend trying to figure out what you want to practice first and then talk to as many people as you can who do that to see if it’s worth that gamble. I know in my law school class probably 25% wished they hadn’t gone to law school about 2 years out.
Law school is only worth the money if you want to be a lawyer. It's also not just about getting into law school. Your experience can help you after law school too but remember the reputation you build where you work now can impact your job options after you finish law school.
There’s a lot to unpack here. The most
important question being—do you even want to be a lawyer? If you do, then I would turn to the cost question. Being a paralegal is a good experience to help you learn more about the legal profession but it likely won’t make a huge difference in your admissions decisions.