I would add a number 8: If you're interested in public service and would like to be either a lawmaker or a government official--but the above passion/connection

I would add a number 8: If you're interested in public service and would like to be either a lawmaker or a government official--but the above passion/connections still hold. (That's the value-neutral version compared to 'power-hungry pol' or 'ambitious bureaucrat'.) If you want to run in those circles, you need to know how to keep yourself and your employer/patron out of court, and be able to squeeze the opposition--legally, of course. The trick remains managing the school debt during the apprentice/ladder-climbing years--but at least you can still think of yourself as a lawyer. Because you are. Until you take the fall. But if you don't see it coming, you aren't much of a lawyer.