Posted on 01/26/2015 8:20:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Should you go to law school? The average debt of a 2012 law-school graduate who took out at least one loan was $84,600 for public school and $122,158 for private school.
To determine whether law school is a good investment for you, figure out where you'll end up after graduation. The data offers a clear picture based on which school you attend, and how you rank among your peers.
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This is very true. If you are in the bottom 50% of pretty much any law school other than Harvard or Yale, good luck finding a legal job. If you are in the bottom 75% of most law schools, good luck finding a job. And if you are in any % of lower-tier law schools, good luck finding a job. There are a glut of law schools and the country just doesn’t need as many lawyers as law schools produce. Law schools know this but it doesn’t stop them from suckering kids in with the promise of a six figure salary and being set for life once they graduate. Its a crime and a fraud what law schools do to a lot of gullible students. But then again, its a crime and a fraud what most universities do to most kids. The whole system — undergraduate, graduate, law school, everything — is rotten to the core.
Last I heard all you have to do is to pass a state bar exam and have some kind of formal training.
There are some awfully rich personal injury lawyers out there that never heard of Yale or Harvard.
Would you like to subpoena some fries with that?
I am proud to report that over the past 3-4 years, I have convinced at least 10 people to not go to law school. The one who didn’t listen quit after just one year after realizing his mistake.
Even though 57% of law school graduates have jobs requiring a law degree, a VERY large majority of them pay very little.
A good plumber who starts his own business is going to make a whole lot more money than most attorney’s and have far fewere working hours and much less stress.
“...The rule is, for the big firms, they hire only from Harvard and Yale, period. ...”
And one wonders why few - if any - of us have any respect for the law any more.
Revolution II will occur in a large part because we have allowed such idiots to do something other than pick their noses.
I worked for a number of law firms over the years. The glut of attorneys has been going on for ages. Today it’s worse. I still keep in touch with employees of the firms I worked for. They tell me those firms are downsizing. Even if you graduate from a major law school in the top 10& of the class, you still might not get a job as an attorney.
A lot of colleges (including law schools) have free tuition for the children of faculty.
This is a little known benefit of teaching at the college level along with tenure.
I have four children and I have estimated this one benefit alone is worth about an easy million for just their undergraduate degrees. And this is a top notch private college by the way
tax free by the way :)
RE: There are some awfully rich personal injury lawyers out there that never heard of Yale or Harvard.
Johnny Cochran ( of OJ Simpson fame ) went to Loyola Marymount Law School.
F. Lee Bailey Bailey received his LL.B. from Boston University.
Chris Christie (former Atty. general of NJ ) got his Law Degree from Seton Hall.
just to name three..
Waste? No more than any other Doctoral Degree and less than most.
But there are amazing schools in different regions and in those regions the same rule applies. Most of the extremely successful professional IN THOSE REGIONS go to the top schools in THOSE REGIONS.
What has confused the matter is that up until fairly recently in history the population of the US was heavily weighted to the North East. That is no longer is the case. The North East is shrinking in fact while the South and West are growing extremely fast.
Yes....all noteworthy....my contribution is John Edwards, J.D. from University of NC....made millions as a shameless PI lawyer, and you know the rest.
I think there have been repeated attempts to force law schools to disclose true placement rates and true salary results for their recent grads, using consumer-protection laws at the state level.
These efforts have consistently been turned back by the law schools themselves.
Many lawsuits have been brought by recently-graduated lawyers against their schools, on the grounds that they were sold a bill of goods by their recruiting offices, that their earning potential is much less than was represented and that their job prospects are nothing like what they were told.
I think these are usually turned aside, and in the few cases where the plaintiff prevails, the settlement is made under strict conditions of confidentiality.
There are some awfully rich personal injury lawyers out there that never heard of Yale or Harvard.
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And, there are some awfully rich corporate lawyers out there that never heard of Yale or Harvard.
All this depends on the philosophy that making a lot of money is the only reason to enter a career. Maybe some people would rather be a lawyer than a plumber and can’t get into or afford Harvard or Columbia. Going skiing is a waste of money too, except some people like to go skiing.
The whole thing hinges on the definition of “good” law career.
I have a friend who graduated five years ago from a state university law school in the top half (barely) of his class. He got picked up as an associate and earned $40K a year, which isn’t a bad salary for where he lives. After he saw that he wasn’t going to make junior partner any time soon, he and two friends formed their own firm. They aggressively marketed their firm and are doing well. Mostly corporate work for smaller companies. He says he is going to make over $100K this year.
If you define a “good” law career as moving up the ladder of one of the big firms in New York, Washington, Chicago or Los Angeles, then they are right, pickings are slim. But if you are an entrepreneurial minded individual, then you can still do well in law.
What are those people doing now? Are they happy?
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