Should i become a lawyer?

Rathorien L

First, keep in mind that the current recession should not be major factor in charting your post graduate education and career path if you should choose to go that route. You still have over a year of high school to complete and then 4 years of undergraduate studies at a university and the economic environment and employment market opportunities could be radically different in half a decade compared to what they are now.

At this point in time your career path should be influenced most by what you find interesting and stimulating because one thing holds true and will probably remain steadfast by the time you graduate from college, and that is that post graduate professional jobs generally entail working lots of extra hours beyond the now almost obsolete 40 hour work week. Doing what you find appealing is going to go a long long way towards your satisfaction with your career with those kind of long hours. Going for dollars rather than job satisfaction is one of the reasons why many lawyers are unhappy in their career choice, and almost any career path has a huge range for salaries based on experience and particular area of employment for which a post graduate degree would be a qualification.

Concentrate on getting excellent grades so you can get admitted into a top university and continue to excel in your undergraduate studies. For many graduate degrees, your major in college is not nearly as relevant as your grades (with the notable exception of graduate degrees in the sciences and even for science based graduate degrees many universities now offer programs that tack on an additional 1 to 2 years to the curriculum for students who lack the sufficient science undergrad courses so they can take them as part of the graduate curriculum if their college grades were high enough) so draw upon your experiences in your first and even second years in college to discover what interests you.

Finally, don't feel obligated to go straight from college to a graduate program. For many careers, it can be worthwhile for you to actually go into the general career field area for which a graduate degree is geared to get exposure to it and see if it is really for you. Law is a perfect example where you can try your hand as a paralegal first, get some real exposure to the field, and decide if it is something that you really want to commit to for the rest of your life before investing hundreds of thousands of dollars on a law degree.

Larry R

You are correct. There are more lawyers than there is an economic need for, and this will probably persist for at least the next 30 years.The only exception to this are Intellectual Property and patent lawyers, who have to have both a hard science degree AND a law degree. There aren't to many of them.

I know a great many lawyers. Almost all are unhappy in their careers. Lawyers have an extremely high rate of alcoholism. .

I would suggest you find something you enjoy studying, and find a way to get paid for doing that.

What you take in High School is pretty much irrelevant to your future career anyway.

Psychology is even more awash in useless graduates than law.

CatLaw

Do not go to law school unless you really, really, really want to be an attorney. Law school is expensive and there is zero guarantee that a person who graduates law school and passes the Bar Exam will get a job.

Recently there was a survey on jobs for new lawyers and the average starting salary was around $40,000. That is not much considering a new lawyer has around $100,000 in education debt. The only attorneys getting high paying jobs are those who graduate top of the class from a big name school like Harvard or those whose daddy passes on the family law firm.

The medical field seems to be the only area that is not being hit with recession. As more and more boomers are aging they will need more medical attention.

You may want to speak with your school counselor about taking those tests which show what field you have an aptitude for. That may help you. Try to not look for the "high paying job" but for one that you will love. If you can work at something you love, then the money will come.

Lawyer2B

NO..GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL. BECOMING A LAWYER IS MORE COMPLEX THAN AN INFANT DRESSING THEMSELVES(PROPER SCHOOL SELECTION, ACTIVITY CHOICE, INTERNSHIP, SERIOUS BACKGROUND CHECKS, EXPENSIVE TEST AND LSDAS FEES, JOB SEARCH, BAR PREPERATION, POLICTICS, AND SO MUCH MORE). I ENCOURAGE YOUTH TO SEEK FULFILLING CAREERS, BUT PLEASE RESEARCH CAREFULLY AND DONT MAJOR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE!

lance m

go to chiropractic school!!! cleveland chiropractic college in kansas city etc. excellent career! lawyers are dime a dozen and people are too broke to afford lawyers today!!! most of the cases in the system today go to the public defenders office as people cant afford legal representation! good luck!

mailaccount63

No!! Do not become a Lawyer!

Warning! Jobs in the field of Law are drying up FAST!! This is NOT a good field to invest in! Many reasons. Main reason?.....We simply have WAY TOO MANY Lawyers - we have a GLUT of Attorneys!

So.....even IF you finish law school, you probably won't be able to find a job when you are done.

The law schools know this, yet they continue to churn out graduates. Law students are easy money for law schools - they have to make very little investment in a law student. But the law schools know the truth: the economy/market is SATURATED.

Suggestion: Consider and look into the field of HEALTHCARE! <<< this is where the jobs are! and scholarships!

Good luck.

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