I watched a fantastic documentary last night on Netflix. It’s called A Lawyer Walks Into A Bar and follows six-ish people as they finish up law school and study for the bar exam. It’s set in California which had – at the time of filming – the lowest pass rate of any state for passing the bar (it was 39%).
Of course I was immediately sucked in – my secret spidey power is test-taking – and I spent the whole thing thinking, “I could do that.” They had these hilarious examples of actual bar exam questions – one was an essay question that was all, “If you were forced by a friend in the middle of the desert to do drugs and you killed your friend, what could you be charged with?” I was, of course, yelling “involuntary manslaughter” at the TV, because I’m a know-it-all and think that was the answer. (No, I don’t know for sure.)
It was engaging and fun and I wished I could remember the names of all the people so I could look up the ones that didn’t pass and see if they had websites and were lawyers now.
It also had me wondering…when I am finished with school…should I go for my law degree? Economics is becoming a great undergrad major to go to law school with, but it would be three more years of school. The payoff could be amazing, or it could be a waste of three years when all I really wanted to learn was quantitative economics.
Do you know anyone that’s a lawyer? Did you make the choice to go (or not go) to law school? Why?
One of the fun facts that really made me perk up was that of 106 concentrations studied law was the only one where pessimists did better than optimists.
That’s a statistic I can work with 
LOL
One of the reasons I went for a post-grad paralegal certificate was to see if I WANTED to go to law school. I figured I’d get a job in a law office to see what being a lawyer was like, and then decide if I want to go on for the bigger degree. Well, it turns out I’ve decided not to go to law school.
Why? Well, I finished my paralegal degree almost 2 years ago and have been trying to get a paralegal job since then. I’m having a heck of a time, and you know why that is? ‘Cause the legal profession was hit HARD by the failing economy, just as I got my sheepskin. Also there is a big glut of paralegals on the market caused by the “legal profession will need TONS of paralegals by 2012″ predictions of a few years ago.
Firms ain’t hiring paralegals, and they are firing legal secretaries too (at least here in Chicago). Instead, they are hiring law clerks (2nd and 3rd year law students) to do paralegal/secretarial work, and paying them the lower paralegal salary. Lawyers are taking the less glamorous paralegal-type jobs just to be able to pay off their law school debts. (Which makes for even MORE competition.) For the firms, it’s a good deal. Now they can have extra lawyers, but pay them a much smaller salary, and in this job market, they know no one is gonna complain.
I know this ’cause for fun (and networking connections) last year, I joined the local Bar Association Symphony Orchestra, which is full of lawyers and other legal professionals. I’ve noticed that unemployment is a serious concern for many of my fellow musicians in that group.
I also do part-time clerical work for a long-established court-reporting agency in Chicago. Business is NOT booming right now.
It does look like this trend may finally be starting to turn around, but meanwhile law schools (and paralegal programs) have been churning out new graduates every year.
At any rate, there’s a lot of debt involved in becoming a laywer. It’s a good idea to think hard before picking up $150,000 worth of it.
Here’s a site that might provide further illumination:
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2010/01/who-should-and-shouldnt-go-to-law-school.html