Should I go to Law School?

ProtoAttorney over at AttyWorkProduct put out a general call for reponses to that eternal question, 'Should I go to Law School?' (or, as I've more often seen it, 'I'm going to law school, don't let your facts get in my way.')

My answer is probably the most common and least popular one - Maybe. Probably not.

Like Proto, I was also not a green kid wandering into law school. I was 28, had been developing a career in non-profits for about ten years. Between undergrad and law school I managed a political campaign, worked in a rehab facility, did grassroots organizing, worked for a national non-profit agency (*cough*) and an international environmental organization (*cough cough*). I was also usually working at least two jobs at any given time to make ends meet, so I had many concurrent jobs as a baker, barrista, and substitute teacher.

I was frustrated, though, because I rarely felt like I was accomplishing anything significant in my non-profits. It always seemed like it was either too little or too late by the time the issue landed on my desk. I wanted to live in the sticks, I wanted enough income to only need one job (a rarity in my community), and I wanted to maintain some work-life balance. I know this will sound absurd to any other lawyer, but in my small town in Alaska my only friends who had the trifecta were lawyers. I also knew that social workers and librarians, my other ideas, tended to get laid off at the first budget cuts - I knew this because I was once at the grant-giving end of the system and that's always what happened when we had to reduce funding. If I was going to invest in another degree I at least wanted the option of a broader field or more income, if I were to get laid off.

So law school. Even once the idea took hold, though, I wanted to be sure. First point: BE SURE. If you don't know what lawyers do, if you don't know what their day looks like, do not go to law school. Seriously. Would you buy a house or an insanely expensive car without ever seeing or test-driving it? No, not unless you were a complete idiot.

So, not wanting to buy a few decades of debt for a profession I'd hate, I got a job in the courts. I highly recommend this. If you're serious about law school it is well worth the time as a paralegal or clerk or a volunteer for CASA. Talk to a lot of lawyers and listen to what they say about their jobs. There's something about the law school applicant that blinds us/them to any negative information. If an attorney tells you there are no jobs, listen.

The remainder of my story. I worked for a year as a clerk in a district court with a criminal (felony) / civil docket. I had a great judge, and I learned a lot. I knew that I wanted to be a trial lawyer and got to see a lot of trial lawyers in action. I learned from watching their unique styles what worked and what didn't, and because my job was to manage juries I heard after the verdict was returned how the jurors viewed each approach. I also knew in advance how public interest lawyers like me were viewed by the court staff, jurors, and the public. I knew that my side doesn't get to win often, that the pace was brutal, and few clients were grateful regardless of the outcome. But I also learned that the job was never boring, that it worked with people at a critical moment in their lives, and the type of person drawn to the field was my type of person. There's a lot to be said for working with people who share your values.

Because I knew I wanted to work in public interest law, I prioritized price and scholarships in the schools I applied to. I will say - look carefully at the terms those schools attach to their scholarship. Do you need to stay in the top 10% to keep it? Be suspicious. Assume you will lose that scholarship and do the math accordingly. Do they have a healthy LRAP program? Do they send students into your field, and maintain contact for mentoring? The job market still sucks, so keep these things in mind. OCI, at least in my area, is pretty much dead. You'll need to work your connections. Also, tuition at my law school went from $6,000 a year in-state in 2002, to $17,000 a year in 2008, to $31,000 this year.  And that's in-state. This is not an isolated phenomenon.

So, I did my homework, knew the sub-speciality I wanted to work in, developed a backup plan and connections in another sub-speciality just in case, applied for scholarships, found loan repayment and forgiveness programs, and worked my connections like my life depended on it. And in the end I got my job offer in my field, over hundreds and hundreds of applicants for one of a handful of positions. (Another note: don't assume that public interest can be your fall-back. The competition can be just as intense and many PI employers value a showing of commitment - interning in 2L and 3L - over grades, rank, or your law school pedigree.)

My advice - if you know what a law job looks like, have dipped your toe in to see if it suits you, have looked into the legal market, have really given serious thought to the debt and repayment, and have talked to lawyers and been open to negative information they might give you - if you do all that and still think law school is for you, go for it.

But if you're thinking of law school because you don't know what else to do, because your uncle/dad/neighbor told you you should go, because you want to wait out the down job market, because someone told you law degrees are portable outside the legal field, because you think a law degree confers prestige or comes with a huge income - DON'T GO. Seriously.

Go to law school because you want to be a lawyer, based on real facts with a real plan for the debt. It is, and ought to be, that simple.