The Downside of a Law Degree

"Going to law school gives you a certain set of credentials that really aren't valuable for anything other than practicing law." -- Stephen Seckler

Uh-oh:

When Dina Allam graduated last spring from Ohio State University with a joint law and master of business administration degree, she thought the combination would catch the eye of employers who could appreciate a mix of analytical skills and business know-how.

But after months of looking for a nonlawyer job that would put all that education to work and help pay off some of the nearly $85,000 in student loan debt, Allam began to think she'd made a mistake by going the law degree route.

"People don't see the value in the joint degree. They think I'm confused," she said.

In hindsight, Allam said she would have forgone the juris doctor degree and pursued just the MBA. But at the time she started law school, she was convinced that a J.D. diploma could open doors to a wide variety of job options...

Law schools and placement professionals frequently tout the versatility of a law degree as a path to alternative careers. But even in good economic times, the advantage of a juris doctor degree in landing a job in another field may well be overblown.

With student loan debt at an all-time high and law schools churning out about 44,000 degrees each year, graduates looking for nonlawyer jobs are finding that they often are priced out, overqualified and undervalued.

My take: Do not, under any circumstances go to law school unless you know without a doubt you want to be a lawyer or have another very strong reason for doing so. (I'm currently in law school on a fellowship to help me better understand the field of law and economics.) In addition to costing huge amounts of money (average law school loans for students attending private schools are $88,00 and are $57,000 for those attending public schools), law school also consumes three years of life to complete and can be difficult, miserable, and boring.

In order to repay their student loans, many law students find themselves stuck -- forced to work in jobs that are high-paying, but life consuming (70-80+ hours per week) for many years. Those less fortunate law grads have to pay back those loans with much lower-paying jobs. Keep in mind this debt has to be paid back with after-tax income.

Think about this -- many people end up spending 3 years in law school, plus another 5-10 years (or more) working in jobs they don't enjoy to repay those three years of law school. America has far too many opportunities for making a decent living to throw away this much life on something you don't enjoy. Especially in these uncertain economic times, you don't want to saddle yourself with over $50,000 - $100,000 dollars of debt early in your life simply because you didn't know what else you wanted to do.

More thoughts on this here and here.

(HT Paul Caron)