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I agree w/the majority of the posts that are about too few high paying positions for too many law grads. BUT, there are some people (like me) who want to become lawyers to help people.
I know, i know, i can hear the laughter, but i honestly like working w/underserved communities. I definitely will not make any money doing this, in fact, i may make less than i did as a legal secretary, but i LOVE the wk that i'm doing.
I just couldn't bear waking up w/that sick feeling in my stomach, knowing that i was going to wk to: print e-mails for other people, answer their phone calls when they were sitting 5 inches away from their phones, have someone talk to me like i'm an imbecile b/c they don't know how to open an attachment that i sent them.
Finally, i feel like i am accomplishing something important. And when i can't get a great outcome for someone, at least i know that the work that i put in is toward a good cause. I'm going to be paying back loans until i'm a senior citizen though.
This is a very commendable goal. My research however has revealed that these positions are few and far between, and most of them go to students who attended elite schools and/or wrote for law review or are otherwise in the top 10% of their class or "very well connected."
Unless you plan to fit within the above criterira, it's a career for trust fund babies only, in my opinion.
This is a very commendable goal. My research however has revealed that these positions are few and far between, and most of them go to students who attended elite schools and/or wrote for law review or are otherwise in the top 10% of their class or "very well connected."
Unless you plan to fit within the above criterira, it's a career for trust fund babies only, in my opinion.
Are you kidding?
Elite students from elite schools go on to NYC corporate law and make $160K a year starting.
Legal Aid or other humanitarian / human rights law places would love to have a committed lawyer.
He's right, he won't make very much, but he will certainly have plenty of places that could use him.
Well, the new loan repayment schedule has made it very attractive to go into the public/non-profit/public-interest sector long-term. You can now structure your loan payments based on your income. The lower your income, the lower your payment. That presents a potential problem for people with high loan balances because they may be paying little to nothing toward their principal balance, so 20 years from now they may still be looking at a huge principal balance -- maybe even bigger than it was 20 years ago. But if you make 120 payments on time while in the public/non-profit sector, the rest of your loans are forgiven whether you've touched any of the principal or not.
People who go to the elite (T14) schools don't go into public interest.
The percentages are tiny.
People who are looking at making $140K to $180K starting salary immediately out of school aren't concerned about $100K of debt.
Well they will be once they learn there are far fewer $140K-$180K slots than qualified candidates looking to fill them. The days of walking right out of a T14 school and into one of those jobs regardless of your GPA/class rank/experience/etc. are over -- at least for now, if not long-term. And even if those days come back, let's not forget that new grads at that level are basically entering a tryout/wash-out process and a whole lot of 'em will see their salaries plummet after a couple of years.
Finally, I think a lot of graduates are looking to make that kind of money precisely because of the debt load they're carrying. The new repayment structure takes a lot of the pressure off to lunge at the biggest salary even if it means you have no social/family life and your soul gets crushed.
So even if they don't get the top-dollar jobs, they are still going to find work that pays a hell of a lot more than PI work.
Possibly, but there is some PI work that is considered "elite" such as staffing for a member of Congress, clerking for a judge, working at an international NGO, working at a high-profile think tank like Cato or Heritage Foundation, etc. Some of these positions pay pretty well.
Possibly, but there is some PI work that is considered "elite" such as staffing for a member of Congress, clerking for a judge, working at an international NGO, working at a high-profile think tank like Cato or Heritage Foundation, etc. Some of these positions pay pretty well.
That's not public interest work.
Public interest is legal aid, public defender, district attorney, that sort of thing.
"PI" generally refers to Personal Injury work. It is very well paying. That's why there is so much pressure for tort deform.
I don't feel like typing out public interest.
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