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Ask yourself if it’s worth it to you to take three years off work, get into substantial debt, work hard, etc then end up in a job that pays less than your current job and requires significantly longer work hours, and provides little stability. Unfortunately that’s what most lawyers are dealing with.
For the lucky few that make it into Big Law, they will have high paying, but extremely demanding, jobs. And those jobs come with an expiry date if you don’t make partner (which is probably less than 5% of all associates in big law make partner in big law).
All this to say, from my view, while the job is interesting, the work environment is just not great. And the financials don’t make sense when you take into account the risk of not landing a high paying job.
Completely agree with everything A2 said. I haven’t spent thanksgiving or Christmas with my family in 3 years because those holidays fall during Q4 & Q4 is insanity for my practice area.
The anxiety caused by the job is just something I don’t think you can understand until you’re in it. You’re taught to believe perfection is mandatory, so you lose sleep at night stressing out about every choice you make. (I used to think this was an experience issue, but it happens to the partners i work with also.) Novel issues are super interesting on a law school exam...but they’re terrifying when you’re trying to advise a client on something without a charted path & you know that mistakes are viewed as unacceptable. Law does require critical thinking, there are far more sustainable careers that do as well.
Practicing law can be very interesting...but it can also be mind-numbing. I work on super sophisticated transactions, but after 5 years everything feels monotonous & formulaic...despite still being terrifying. Every day I vacillate between boredom & anxiety.
If you honestly feel like law is a calling - go for it. However, if you’re just looking for something interesting that requires critical thinking then I recommend that you keep researching other options.
Also, if you want to know more about why lawyers are miserable - listen to the Former Lawyer Podcast. Every episode is a former attorney talking about why they stopped practicing.
Unless your tuition is completely covered in some way don’t do it.
Agreed, not having to worry about loans allows you to pursue jobs for the sake of interesting and fulfilling work rather than paying your bills and having your life (or what qualifies as a life in between billing way to much or feeling miserable for not billing enough/not making enough).
Assuming you can go to law school for free* (better yet if you have significant savings so you can cover all your other expenses during school so you can focus on being good at school and not need a job for 3 years), law school is great. There is a need for creativity and critical thinking in the legal profession but most people are too overworked/underpaid to do that.
Consider listening to podcasts by lawyers and talking with more lawyers in the fields your like or different practices (public, private, big law, small law, etc) to see if you actually like the day to day work not just the stuff in the news.
I saw somewhere on this bowl someone has a TikTok friend who makes big law money doing art remotely. Do that.
But in all seriousness, I like the critical thinking aspect of the job and was motivated by that to go to law school. But unless you are doing for the academic aspects rather than the money aspects, I don’t think it is worth it personally. If you want money, you’re going to have to give your all to big law. Then you’re looking at working outlandish hours for the salary. Even then, you can probably land another non-law gig that gives you a better return on the time you put into the job. Choose wisely.
Have you considered strategy roles? (Presumably you’d need MBA first.) More intellectually challenging than recruiting and can be a launching pad to pretty much any other business function.
Info interview with practitioners. Law has a fair amount of critical thinking but it’s got its own drawbacks—usually stress, hours, and job insecurity. In some practices the day to day is less critical thinking and more memorization, reviewing documents, and writing. In others it’s critical thinking plus all that stuff. Sometimes it pays less than ordinary entry level jobs. Interview with a range of places (never know how you’ll do grade wise) to understand the day to day, job security, exit options, stress, hours, promotion possibilities, and compensation. Is this the kind of job where it’s okay to consistently spend time with family (ask for how many hours a day bc some people think a half day on the weekends is enough time)?
Be honest with yourself about how you’ll react to losing half the time. More if you do criminal. How will you feel if you have to advocate for a client that’s wrong? What if they’re right and you lose? How will you feel if you’re always a slow month or a bad break from unemployment? How will you feel after years of opposing counsel sending you invective laced emails and/or targeting your career or you personally? Some people hate fighting against other people every day. How will you deal with knowing that a single big mistake in court could end your career or get you personally sanctioned?
Obviously this can be an excellent career, but you need to be willing to gut it out for years before you get there. You need to not hate it.
Ask you current job to pay for a MBA at a top school or go part-time at a top law school and have your current job contribute to the tuition.
What are your salary needs/expectations? That will help us give you better advice.
Does that account for the potential mountain of debt if you pay sticker price for a program? And are you expecting to make that amount working the same hours and with the same levels of stress that you currently experience?
I only recommend law school to people who (a) can go relatively debt-free or (b) have a true passion for helping others in vulnerable positions (think public interest work). BigLaw pay is not guaranteed. Neither is a cushy practice area. I know a lot of brilliant attorneys who are saddled with debt making $40k in the public defender’s office. Some are happy. Most are not.