no one made you go to law school, punk:
The law degree that Scott Bullock gained in 2005 from Seton Hall University — where he says he ranked in the top third of his class — is a “waste,” he says. Some former high-school friends are earning considerably more as plumbers and electricians than the $50,000-a-year Mr. Bullock is making as a personal-injury attorney in Manhattan. To boot, he is paying off $118,000 in law-school debt.
Sure doesn’t sound like the law is his true calling, does it?
As for the pain of making $50K/year, tough beans, kid. Choosing to be a lawyer and working in Manhattan come at a cost. Many people make it on $50k or less, according to the census bureau.
Household income in the United States – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In 2006, the median annual household income according to the US Census Bureau was determined to be $48,201.[3] The median income per household member (including all working and non-working members above the age of 14) in the year 2006 was $26,036.[4]
Obviously, some people don’t turn to the law as a career out of a sense of public service or zeal for justice: they do it for the money. I know, I’m as surprised as you are.
Having toiled in the bowels of a law school, this isn’t news. It was pretty clear that law was the path to fancy cars and big houses for a lot of the bright young things: in my day — the go-go Reagan years — we called them “pre-rich” students. But the comparisons between law school and a trade school, like plumbing or truck driving, come to mind. It’s a specialized field, with a large domain of knowledge to master, like many others. CPAs are in a similar situation, with tougher examinations and without the post-graduate prep. (Hey, people who have taken both exams told me that.) And truck drivers and plumbers can make a good living without being seen as obstructive leeches.
I wonder if Mr Bullock has made the connection between the number of law school graduates, the practice areas left to those who don’t get offers from the big firms, and the resulting pay. Did we have this many personal injury lawyers 50 years ago? Or is the explosion in that area a result of too many lawyers chasing too few dollars?
There are some who do want to work for the public weal, to be fair — my nephew is one — but look at those loan figures: signing on with some white-shoe firm is the only some of them can get right side up, financially. And by then, who knows how many cogent defenses of polluters and swindlers they have had to generate? It’s a Catch-22: go to an expensive school in hopes of landing a job with a big firm, incur loads of debt, find yourself working 60-80 hours/week, and hope the bonuses and increases help pay down your loans. You really have to want to do it, and not everyone does. Attrition rates are high, and the workload takes its toll on those who survive.
If there were fewer lawyers, the remaining ones might be more favorably received. But the law schools have no interest is limiting the number of graduates, even as they saddle them with debt they will have to compromise themselves to pay.
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