Is it worth it to go to law school?

Answer 1

Yes it is!

These days, unless you are in the upper portion of students, and can attend a high-powered law school, the answer generally is NO.

The US is currently experiencing a glut of lawyers (too many lawyers, not enough work). Frankly, this is one of the reasons behind the current highly-litigious society we seem to living in, in that much of it is driven by lawyers trying to find work for themselves.

A big indication of the value of a degree (law or otherwise) is the rate of employment upon graduation (plus, of course, the rate of pay that such newly-employed graduates command). Excluding those lawyers graduating from the top-20 law schools, employment rates at graduation have been steadily falling over the past two decades, and now averages well under 50%. More importantly, the average pay for a lawyer is now about $110,000. While this may sound like a lot, this number is heavily skewed by the large lawyer firms in the major cities (which pay very well to a select few new laywers). New lawyers can expect to earn well below that average most places. Those employed by a large firm can expect to be required to work near-slave hours (well over 80+/week) for several years before being moved back to slightly less horrid ones (60+). Opening one's own firm is incredibly difficult, as the aforementioned competition for clients is ferocious.

Honestly, if you aren't at one of those top-20 law schools, well, your best bet for work is in either your local Prosecutor's Office, the Public Defender's Office, or Legal Aid (or similar non-profit). The pay there is very significantly less than the private sector (say $60k or so starting out in a Big City). The hours aren't good there either, though not as bad as the initial hazing at private firms. Promotion possibilities are much worse, though. And, remember that most people will be coming out of law school with very, very significant student load debt.

Overall, being a lawyer isn't a good economic choice anymore, unless you happen to be very talented, an excellent student, get into a top-flight school, and are willing to work like a slave for 10 years or so (including your time at law school, which can be brutal at a top-level school) before getting to live a more normal life. If you aren't such a student, and still want to do law, then your best choice is to go to school at night or other part-time school - don't wrack up any debt doing so, and your degree is just as good as someone who went to something like a mid-level state law school. You can then take more modest-paying lawyer jobs at thing like the aforementioned Public Defender/Prosecutor's Offices, or do work for things like non-profits. You'll get a decent (but not outstanding) pay, and not have to work insane hours, and you won't have a big student loan debt to pay off.