The peoplehere who reference legal salaries as 100K or less must know different lawyers than me. My best friends are all attorneys, and they went to tier 2/3 law schools like USD. Our peer group is late 30s. Grades in law school are VERY important, however that shouldn’t be an issue if you’re sharp and know how to work hard and work smart.
Don’t let anyone here kid you: A law degree is a license to print money. My friends make huge $$$ ($300K – $1M – $1M is a Wall Street guy), and the thrill of structuring corporate transactions or working a trade secret case is infinitely more professionally and intellectually rewarding than any 73K/year govt job. Take risks and don’t look back. A law degree gives you a shot at making 7 figures; the govt job doesn’t.
I completely agree with the notion of family first, but one should also think about the message we send to our children through our career choices and actions. If we want our children to aspire to accomplishing great things, shouldn’t we be role-modeling that sort of behavior?
