Law school isnt a get rich quick scheme or lottery ticket

Law school is great if that’s what you want to do… Not so much if you think it’s a get rich quick scheme:

If you are going to go to law school, you better love the law so much that you’d practice it for free. If you expect to get paid for your services, take a number; it might be a long time before the legal economy gets around to serving law graduate 45,001.

-Above the Law, More Evidence That The Legal Job Market Is In Terrible Shape

The fact that the world might not need as many investment bankers and insurance brokers isn’t a problem per se. But the fact that it could need fewer lawyers is. Outside of a few elite MBA programs, not many people get a degree specifically to become the next Will Emerson. But roughly 45,000 students do graduate from law school each spring. Most of them have taken on significant debt. And despite the old saw about being able to “do anything” with a law degree, they don’t have the specific technical or quantitative skills to go into faster growing fields. While the overall unemployment rate for lawyers is a microscopic 2.1%, that doesn’t take into account the trouble recent graduates are facing to find work that will soon pay off their debt. The industry is entering a period where it will be well oversupplied with talent. Unless a whole lot of old lawyers start retiring ASAP, that situation probably won’t change.

via The Atlantic, What Do Lawyers and Bankers Have in Common? They Lost Jobs in 2011

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