Should I Go to Law School

[NineOneFour]

Hi, all, first time poster.

I have a keen interest in employment law, civil rights law, and other government law. Ideally, I'd like to get a law degree and work for the government, although I wouldn't be upset if I had to work for a private firm.

I'm not afraid of hard work, but I don't want to work nights and weekends consistently. I'm pretty sure you are required to do that at Big Law, and maybe other places as well. But I really don't know, and it seems impossible to talk to anyone who knows.

I've also heard that becoming a lawyer right now is a thankless task as the industry is swamped and positions are hard to find. Unless I can make enough money to support myself, my wife, and our cat in a large east coast city, I don't know that I want to proceed. Of course, it would take me three to four years from now, and the situation could be very different then, who knows?

A difficulty might be that I am currently 41 years old. I am not certain if that would be a plus (more life experience) or a minus (go away old man). I do have a Masters Degree in History and a decent work history, although not law-related, it shows that I regularly speak in public and do very technical research. I also have a GPA of 3.71 if you count only undergrad courses. If you count graduate courses, it goes up from there since I got straight A's.

I can get a loan for at least a third (or all of it, depending on where I am admitted) of my legal education from my father, and probably another third or so from my in-laws.

This is premature: I have not taken the LSAT yet and I might do poorly. Additionally, I might not be able to get into a top-tier law school regardless. Many apply and few are chosen. I realize this.

So my question to the board is: should I pursue this, or is it a fool's errand?

I am not sure this is the correct part of the forum to post this: if I have erred, please feel free to move this thread.

Thanks, I await your feedback, however positive or negative.

[aaron]

Here's a look at the present economics of law school.

[NineOneFour]

Well, okay. I skimmed the article. Lots of graduates in general, few jobs in general. Does that change if you don't go to what is essentially a diploma mill as the school in the article is portrayed (probably justifiably)? If I'm going to do this, I'm not going to mess around with a low-ranked law school. If I can't get into a decent school, there seems to be no point anyway. Does the job market improve for anyone going to a top 20 law school?

[Dogmatique]

If you're interested in civil rights and government law, have you considered focusing afterwards on international civil rights law perhaps? That area of law would appear to be not-so-saturated and you may have opportunities outside of the country and indeed in other areas of civil service. Some might argue these jobs are ultimately more rewarding (though perhaps not financially...).

[NineOneFour]

That's interesting. Yes, I could be persuaded. What sort of a career could I expect? Would I need to travel to places like North Korea? I wouldn't mind Europe or North America, but Somalia seems an unpleasant choice if I am forced to go to there.

[NineOneFour]

Any ideas where I can find answers to my questions on this? Are there any online resources, fora, etc.?

[Dogmatique]

This truly isn't a Careers Advice Center. That is not the purpose of these forums.

[NineOneFour]

That's fine. Where should I look? It would be great if you let me know of a better place to ask these questions.

[Dogmatique]

Really, if you can't manage to find resources yourself you're going to be a spectacular failure when it comes to the legal profession!

[NineOneFour]

That's very kind of you. I've come here for help and have been quite polite in my requests. Is it usual on this forum to randomly insult sincere people looking for advice? It's great that you know everything, but I don't have the background in the legal profession that you do. It would be very helpful if you could render advice instead of petulance.