You touch on a real concern and I'm not going to make any moves until I can put it to bed. Law would be a huge investment and I need confidence I could be happy

You touch on a real concern and I'm not going to make any moves until I can put it to bed. Law would be a huge investment and I need confidence I could be happy in a variety of legal careers. That being said, my motive has always been the work rather than the domain. Of course, law is very prestigious and sounds very impressive, but what really draws me is the chance to research, think and write in a way I haven't since university. I originally wanted to be an academic, but the conditions and the realities of the work are quite depressing. Programming pays well, and I think I'm good at it, but my real skills are more verbal. I actually quite like the idea of combing through complex documents and trying to judge what's truly salient. For whatever reason it just seems my brain is wired to enjoy that kind of work. It's the same kick I got from literary criticism, poring over texts and slowly building an argument from a mass of details. It's a hunch, anyway. Would you suggest any ways to validate it?