What Prospective Law Students Need to Consider

Nowadays, people make all sorts of claims about lawyers and the legal profession. During the financial crisis of 2008, the legal field did experience a decrease in available jobs. However, this drop tends to be exaggerated, it was basically on par with the rest of the job market. Regardless, people will say all the time that the legal market is saturated, and that law school is a horrible investment. To be frank, these folks have no idea what they are talking about.

Prospective law students should keep in mind a few things in mind when making a decision to attend law school. First, what type of goals do you have? If your goal is to argue in front of the Supreme Court someday, and change the course of history as we know it, then you probably need to go to one of the top 14 schools in the country—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc. However, if you are looking for a decent living, with a potential to make some serious money, then your regional university will suffice. Law school is not worth attending when you go to some no name for profit school that requires you to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of debt, only to find out that you might never practice law.

The key to law school is your LSAT score. If you can score in the 95^th percentile then law school is a no brainer. You can go to a regional school for dirt cheap, or attend one of the top law schools with debt that will be easily manageable with your $160,000 starting salary.

Most importantly though, find out if law is right for you. We encourage all prospective attorneys to do their research and figure out what practicing law actually entails. If you think law school is a glamorous profession filled with sexy people who are good at arguing, then you are wrong—at least about the former. The practice of law is about hard work, integrity, and service to the community. If this sounds like something you can get onboard with, then by all means embark on the struggle of becoming a lawyer.