I [semi-foolishly] graduated from law school in 2008. I was fortunate, as an employer paid for the cost of my law degree (and for my bar exam), and then laid m

I [semi-foolishly] graduated from law school in 2008. I was fortunate, as an employer paid for the cost of my law degree (and for my bar exam), and then laid me off in 2010 due to the economy tanking (and forgave all of my debt). Since graduating, most of my friends (including myself) have all moved to careers where the law is not the primary driver; most are saddled with a mountain of debt, make between 40 and 80K/year (most first year law grads make less than 60K in their first year). People think that lawyers are glamorous, due to the fictionalization of their career (law and order). You have attorneys who are either left or right wing whackjobs (I went to law school with a woman who was only going to law school so that she could overturn Roe v. Wade) who have no sense going into law, let alone practicing with clients. I'm much happier as a programmer/nerd. Even with being on call, I still sleep much much better at night. I'll still do legal things (contract law, estate planning, and not giving legal advice to drunk people), but, I never call myself an attorney and I rarely admit that I'm a lawyer to anyone outside of my friends and family. With that said, Law school is something that plays on the dreams of these kids. They're saddled with debt from undergrad and post-grad, thinking that they're going to be the next Erin Brokovich or Jack McCoy. My friends joke that Law School made them better drinkers, better readers, and that their 6-figure student loan debts came with a great group of friends. Sadly, that's where most kids come out of law school with these days -- a drinking problem, a mountain of debt, and nowhere to go.