Wow, no one mentioned the Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAPs) offered by a few top tier law schools. Perhaps that's how rare they are, but they are worth investigating. Your school may actually pay off a significant portion of your student loans if you work in public interest.

I'm often reminded of the Navajo people's public Legal Aid Services, mentioned a lot in Tony Hillerman's novels. The Navajo name for the service translated roughly literally as "People Who Talk Fast and Help The People Out." In my observations of the legal system as a juror and as a defendant (of traffic tickets), I found that description pretty accurate.

For the love all humanity and life on earth would someone make an ai lawyer app that has accsess to all presceedents and legaleze translator. This is too important to be monetized by greedy or endebted people!
Lawyers are literally ddestroyi.g the earth for profit..destroying our only chances at utopia.

Ah, optimism! I have a literature Ph.D., too. Tell your caller that law school is intellectually challenging -- fun -- but law practice is not so much fun. If you're getting the degree to do something else, such as run for office or become a journalist, that's fine. But the choices for practicing lawyers are not as many as people might think. Public interest (no money), government (not much money, and dull), a firm (long hours and uninteresting work) or a small practice (hard work, little $$).

If I had to do it over again, I'd do the public interest work at an organization with a day care center, stay in the tiny apartment (baby in our bedroom; us in the living room) and hope that we had enough to eat.

I listen to WNYC at work so that I don't go crazy. That's how little intellectual challenge law provides once you've graduated. Sotomayer was lucky -- she had no kids and could dedicate herself to social activism. Remember: Barack ran for the State Senate, but Michelle bankrolled him by working at the Univ. of Chicago for $450K per year.

To pull back from this a step, if you are a smart, ambitious, well-educated female from a "minority" group, with the sole responsibility being to developing and using your talents -- I am guessing that many good and even fairly paid doors will open to you!

Hopefully such folks take her advice to heart (and at least some also figure out how to balance work and family life).

@John Hendrick actually there are many professions that are regulated and licensed by states. In New York you can see the list here: http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/

We need more lawyers just as we need more doctors, but the issue is what type of practice do they follow, and how do we guarantee that they earn a living wage, and not be forced to prostitute themselves for the sole purpose of paying their student loans. The nation as whole needs to recognize that what we often regard as professions must be treated more as vocations, but that will be difficult to achieve in this society which is far to focused on conspicuous consumption, and the profit motive at the expense of nearly all cultural and ethical values.

I went to law school about 10 years ago (eek!), with the purpose of doing public interest work. But I learned that the public interest groups all wanted people who went to top schools (I went to top tier school, and graduated with honors, but that's not top enough) and have some white shoe firm experience. I do have lots of friends who went to firm route, and now a whole lot of them are no longer practicing, and many of those that are are looking to get out. It seems rare for lawyers to be happy in their careers. I now work in the public sector, and the only way I can pay off my loans is because I borrowed as little as possible, have a very low interest rate, and am very thrifty. But the prospect of having enough for a family, etc., is scary indeed.

I have to wonder how lawyers who are so deeply in debt can afford therapy!

WHY DOES EDUCATION DEBT® HAVE SO MUCH BEARING ON WHAT A STUDENT CHOOSES TO STUDY??

For-profit education.

We live in a very SICK country!!

Well, try finding a lawyer willing to represent you for a rate of 100/hr. Most lawyers will outright refuse the work and most of the lawyers won't even pursue the merits of the case because you can't pay large sums of money. Just look at all the pro se cases out there!

Hey can anyone give me some advice for an older career changer? If I went to law school I'd get out in late 40s. Would it be a waste of time and energy? I'd probably want to do advocacy law and I won't want to take loans as I'm still paying off some loans from grad school. I would try to go to a small or state school.

I know someone who paid for law school with an AMEX and got enough bonuses from the AMEX that law school paid them.

So what I'm hearing is that "Suits" isn't depicting the reality of being a lawyer?

Seriously, the lawyers I have ever had to deal with have been hardworking folks that seem to be trying to make a living just like the rest of us.

J. Sotomayor is definitely being too idealistic. Caring cannot pay the bills. The debt is crushing, the job is often soul crushing, and the job market is the worst its ever been with no sign of improvement in sight. Its a matter of supply and demand. There are too many lawyers for the number of jobs available. Even being at a top tier law school does not protect you.

Its true, only the very few lawyers at the largest top law firms make a lot of money. The average attorney makes $65k but has well over $100k of student loan debt. You are playing into a fantasy if you think you're going to win the golden ticket of the large law firms that actually do pay a lot of money. Even if you do, most lawyers are there for only 2 - 4 years. That might pay off the students loans (MIGHT) but then you're in the same position as everyone else.

I am a lawyer who had planned a career in public interest. I graduated from law school -- Columbia, a good degree -- in 1990. By that time, I was married with a child. Justice Sotomoyer did not consider the choices that women (and men) with families must consider. I could not accept a public interset job, earning $35,000 per year, pay back my loans, and help to support my family.

Every lawyer I know who practices in the public sector has a spouse with a "real" salary. Private practice -- corporate law -- pays well (I earn over $275K per year) but can be grueling and unrewarding.

Public interest is cool, if you can afford it. If you're supporting a family, you won't be able to afford a cool job. Those are your choices; ones that Justice S. didn't consider.

Most lawyers I meet tend to be unhappy ones. Not because of salary (quite the opposite), but rather because of job satisfaction. Many work insane hours for powerful monied interests and corporations--not a winning combination.

Lawyers with more autonomy (in their own/small firms) or other nontraditional routes (legal centers, think tanks, teaching, etc.).

Still good for some, I'm sure. And careers can evolve over time, but not everyone gets Sotomayor's path.

I think she was very wrong about the low paying jobs out there. Even those jobs are hard to get. Many non-profits look for pro bono lawyers in large firms because they want donations. You recently had a NYLAG lawyer on; NYLAG has rejected new lawyers wanting to gain experience, including myself without firm affiliations.

My old frat bro Nat, who became president of our old Brooklyn College fraternity back in the early 1960s, subsequently created one of the most successful law firms in California. Already then he had become an ambulance chaser. He would listen to police radio bands for accidents, and get the insurance company he worked for to the scene ASAP. He was born to be a lawyer. To be a successful lawyer, you first have to be a good ambulance chaser.

Justice in AmeriKa® is for those that can afford it!

you have to be pretty dumb not to go to law school if you have the opportunity to do so.

You will be entering a field protected by the state. The state says no one except people that went to law school can work as a lawyer, if you do you will go to jail.

you think you are better of being a web designer... who the heck will be protecting your web designer license.

The only other profession you can make more money is being a doctor another state protected field.

re Sotomayor's high-minded argument -- why does it seem like the % of smart people who achieve extraordinary accomplishments is *so* biased toward those with no families?

I think we should reconsider how we teach these advanced degrees: Law and Medicine among them. Why not a five year degree that you complete for undergrad/grad to be an MD or lawyer? What is so special about the undergrad classes (that may lead to a major that has nothing to do with law, medicine etc) that is required to be a lawyer?

We should re-do the programs for advanced degrees. Though, not sure how many lawyers we need. What's that joke? What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? - A start.

...said UNLIKE any lawyer I've EVER known or observed!!

Sorry, Sonia!!

Sotomayor is right. I can't think of a single person more idealistic and caring of people, the common good and common sense, than a lawyer.

Jesus Christ.

What America needs is more lawyers. /sarc

It's hard to justify spending upwards of 100k on collage and law school, only to be rewarded with a 35k non-profit job. If one has no passion for law, they may want to reconsider.

I'm an unemployed attorney who went to law school in the middle of my working life. Everyone I know of from high school and college who went on to law school in their twenties (in the 80's and 90's) has done well. Not so for those *anyone* I know who's attended law school in the last 10 years. The industry is undergoing enormous upheaval, and even folks who were happy early in their careers are miserable now. (I've never know so many people who hate what they do as lawyers.) I could list many reasons for not going to law school, but ultimately it is so individual that it's hard to generalize. I would say the following:
-- Understand that "rank" matters more when it comes to law schools and performance in school than in other endeavors.
-- If you are not going to a top 10 school, go to a state school and save money. If that means you move and live and work in a different state for a year or two, consider it just another choice you are making in pursuit of your career.
-- Competition to teach law is fierce. Most professors have attended the most selective schools and have impressive CVs. Some will be great teachers, some will not (and whose will probably publish more and be valued by the school for that reason); their are inspired profs and duds at ALL schools. What matters most to you, as a law student, is their attitude towards engaging with their students and their interest in seeing students be employed.
-- A corollary to the above point: what's most important to you, as a law student, are career services and clinical courses. If possible, meet the career services staff, look at what they do for students from the top to the bottom of the class, Don't just look at whether they get Amlaw 100 firms to interview a couple of people from law review. Do they help middle of the pack students network and find jobs? What kind of support do they give once people have graduated.
-- If you are not top tier school material and you are interested in business law, consider going to school in Delaware. Getting in to the Delaware bar requires internship-type experience with a Delaware firm; they are protective because of the Delaware chancery, and being admitted in Delaware is valuable.