Depends on the area of law. Divorce lawyers and corporate lawyers may be a waste, but what about prosecutors and defense lawyers?

And, if engineering is so much more important than law, why not pay engineers more than lawyers?

Because engineers don't go to an extra 3-4 years of school and go into 200k of debt to get there.

Someone has to prop up the "higher" education system.

No, we just prop up the conference and technical publication markets. A conspiracy of some sort, no doubt.

Law School programs are all 3 years. Graduating with 200K of debt is really unusual.

Count the undergraduate costs as well. It's certainly possible to do it on the cheap, but those eight clubs, 4.0, and volunteer work that help you make it into a top 10 school likely means you're not working with the lowly peons, especially if you're a product of the Ivy system.

Not to mention the cost of living in addition to law school itself. And don't forget a lot of the top law schools (you did go to a top law school to "guarantee" a top salary (or you know, a job) when you got out, right?) aren't exactly in the boondocks.

I don't want to belabor the point but it goes against evidence. For what it's worth I went to law school and graduated with less than 100K in debt, as did most of my peers. And this number is also in line with national averages if you cared to look it up.

The value of money is at least in some ways derived from laws.

Law school and entrepreneurship aren't mutually exclusive. You learn transferable skills and knowledge. Beyond a gaining a familiarity with the basic legal landscape, in law school you hone your skills in dealing with big abstract frameworks. You also improve your writing and communication skills. With the right mindset a law degree can be great prep to tackle a startup. At least that's what I'm hoping. :)

-a non-practicing attorney, soon-to-be entrepreneur

You definitely pick up some nice skill sets in law school. If you managed to get out without crushing student loans that forces you to work for BigLaw, you can definitely use your legal skills in many exciting fields. Congrats and good luck Jesse. :)

Thanks! My loans aren't too bad, [just] under $100K, all federal. I'll be out of debt in 5 or 6 years while maintaining a good standard of living.

Jesse, I'm curious as to what you're up to. Ping me at [email protected]. I'm also a non-practicing lawyer in tech.

Just followed you on twitter. I'm @jesselamb. :)