anonlaw123

I try and keep perspective that there's way, way worse things than having over 200k debt and making 40k a year while working and living in a modern, Western, industrialized country.

I think the 40k number is worth emphasizing though, not as some terrible torment but as a data point that casts light on the financials of attending law school. In terms of objectively looking at the merits of law school as an investment, a 40k salary outcome is pretty awful. The opportunity cost and direct costs (in loans) are enormous and the risk of getting the low-end outcome is pretty high. There's way, way less risky ways to make 40k, and way less costly ways to position oneself to one day have a chance at a six figure salary.

"Just getting by" and "the only way you can afford your loan burden is by taking advantage of government income-based repayment and loan forgiveness programs" is not the outcome most people expect going to a decent law school, so it's important that people hear that this happens.

What's really funny is if i'd just worked any random job -- food service, shelf-stocker -- instead of getting all this "elite" education, my financial situation would be way better than it is now right now.

And if I, say, decided I wanted to go to school, then, knowing what I know now, I could major in something serious like computer science or one of the engineering disciplines.

I'm too lazy to look for a cite, but I think Peter Thiel has commented on part of the problem of the legal market being the "prestige" that is associated with being a lawyer vs other jobs, and how people are willing to make flawed financial decisions in part due to this perceived prestige.

The legal work I've seen in Asia tends to 1) involve getting a big firm job and then you can perhaps rotate into their Asia office, and 2) tends to want you have some language fluency.

I'd love to go to Asia, and I'm footloose and fancy free -- nothing tying me to the States. Maybe you know something I don't -- did you have a particular market or type of position in mind? Lemme know.

Indeed.

I did the traditional path -- Ivy League undergrad, Top 10 law school -- with the expectation of the traditional big firm job outcome. Got shut out from the big firm jobs due to a below median 1L year performance (I put in lots of effort, but it wasn't good enough). Just graduated. Hugely massive debt.

Grades improved second and third years but only first year grades seem to matter very much.

Law school was an epic mistake. It's also a very tracked profession -- once you're not on the BigLaw track its very difficult to ever get back on.

Now the likely best-case for me in terms of my legal career is that after 10 years of working 40k-a-year public interest, i'll no longer have six figures in debt. So after 7 years of very "prestigious", expensive, and time-consuming education, and 10 years of hard work, I'll have finally broken even, and be looking forward to a flat and low income potential.

That sure wasn't in the brochure.