I have been in the engineering world for 16 years now and I feel its time for a change.

Go. I've been thinking about it for years. Too late for me now.

In my 30's, I'd do it.

I may not be much help. A friend went through law school while working, didn't pass the bar (though he was close), and decided he wasn't going to retake as he had come to the conclusion he didn't want to practice law. He still says he was glad he did it as it gave him a lot of insight and different ways of looking at a lot of things.

I almost went to school a couple of years ago to become a Physician Assistant.

When I did the math of what my debt would be, my earnings, my child support, and then contrasted it to the payraise I was going to have by keeping my current career but switching agencies, plus the ability to retire with a pension, I couldn't justify it.

That would be my limiting factor...cost vs benefit. How much is law school? $100,000+? And you don't work for 3 years?

A few here have done it, though. It is possible.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
[H]e had come to the conclusion he didn't want to practice law.

Interesting comment. It was the same that a lawyer said in response to a question about why some SEAL candidates quit BUDS after getting through Hell Week and the worst of the ordeal is over. He said that some law school students wanted to be lawyers, but they didn’t want to practice law. Some men want to be SEALs but don’t want to do what SEALs do.

I’ve often thought that I would have done well in law school and would have been good at understanding and arguing the law. I realized in time, though, that there’s really nothing that lawyers do that I would have been happy doing.

So, my point is: Do you want to practice law and not just be a lawyer?

Average Attorney income according to salary.com is 89K.

quote:

I have been in the engineering world for 16 years now and I feel its time for a change.

Law school is expensive and there is no shortage of lawyers. You may wish to consider speaking with a vocational expert to clarify things. I suppose you could combine the two careers and be some sort of attorney with special expertise in engineering matters. Hope this helps.

I don't know if it is ever too late. I am 70 and still thinking about it. I do wish I had started pt while still working.

I know a few lawyers. Many of them have told me that success can depend on servicing very specialized areas of law.
And the younger ones told me the first five years or more out of school were very lean times.

quote:

Originally posted by Xer0:
Average Attorney income according to salary.com is 89K.

Yup, and does the world need another attorney?

Why do you want to go? If your only reason is because you want a change, I'm not sure you will like where you end up.

If you have a technical (engineering) background, the market will not be saturated for you, but you'll have to work yourself into your niche. That's patent law. A friend of mine in law school (median age for my evening division class was 46, BTW) had a background in biopharmaceutical engineering and took the patent bar before our third year. He's doing very well.

I intended to use law school as a bridge to my PhD (instead of the traditional masters route) and teach young, impressionable college students. I gave up on that plan when I realized that I actually wanted to be a trial lawyer (but not the bad plaintiff kind).

I can tell you that you should NOT go to law school if you don't have the support of your family. They will have to understand in advance that they will have no idea what you're going through and that you will be unavailable for a few years.

I would strongly encourage considering a "part time" evening program. Your adjunct faculty will be coming to lectures with fresh war stories and evening students (second career for the most part) are MUCH more grounded and less neurotic than day students fresh out of college.

Good luck!

-Rob

Ok. Don't do it. It is no longer a rarified profession. The law school industry (and trust me, it is a self serving industry) pumps out more supply of new lawyers than there is demand. Wages for new lawyers are nowhere near the the 89k figure above UNLESS you are in the top 5 or 10 percent of your class and you have a strong desire to work 50 or 60 hours per week (so that you can bill in excess of 2000 hours per year) doing insurance defense or some other interesting work. Sarcasm intended.

If you feel you must go to law school, don't go into debt to do it. Also make damn sure you are in the top 10% of your class. In the end, you will realize (unless you get really lucky) that you make a living on other people's unfortunate circumstances or misery. You will also come to realize that a sizable portion of the bar believes that being a zealous advocate for their clients should actually be defined as being an intractable asshole.

I appreciate the learning I received, but if I had to do it again, I would not have gone to law school.

I never recommend anyone go to law school, and here's why. I worked all day and went to law school all night for 3 and a half years, when I was young and foolish. Without over exaggerating, let me say it was a non-trivial project. When I graduated and passed the bar, I knew that Richard Nixon was no longer President, but wasn't sure exactly why. I recognized no TV shows. I hadn't gone to a party other than family gatherings all that time. It was completely all-absorbing. Few people, and their families, have the energy and commitment to do that, to give it that level of effort for that length of time. Just taking the bar exam was beyond what most people can generate in terms of devotion of resources. The reason I was able to do it was that I wanted to be a lawyer so bad it didn't make any difference how hard it was, or who thought I was nuts to try it... I HAD to do it!

Law school doesn't teach you anything. It is a process of brainwashing, to get you to "think like a lawyer!" This ruins you for most honest work. The interest you are describing is essentially the difference between a lover and a gynecologist. You want to be a lover! You have a growing interest in legal matters & issues, but if you go to law school you will become a legal "gynecologist", not become a lover..... just working on the plumbing, so to speak. Unless you want to practice law for a living, I'd counsel against it.

And practicing law is tough. People hate you, half of them anyway, the ones you beat. Or, if you are not beating them, the losers you represent hate you! Other lawyers are greedy, untrustworthy jerks who lay awake nights trying to figure out a way to make you look stupid, or crooked, or both, and you do the same to them. Most people who practice law become cynical, suspicious and mistrustful of their fellow man, if they weren't already.

Clients are even worse! They bitch and moan about the outrageous fees you charge, and then don't pay as agreed. When you have successfully steered their case to a respectable conclusion despite not being told the whole story, only their lies and half-truths, it is as though it was so easy any dunderhead could have done it, child's play, nowhere near worth what you are demanding for a fee! When they came into your office originally, they wanted to play "Remember the Alamo!", "Victory or Death", hiring you to make life as miserable as possible for those debauched scumbags who were tormenting them. If anything doesn't turn out the way they think it should, they sue you for malpractice!

If I were you, I'd forget it. If, of course, you want to do it so badly you don't give a hoot what JALLEN or anyone thinks, then you might have enough "stuff" to actually give it a go and get through it all.

^^^^^This. Jallen said it much better than I did.

Wow. I think JALLEN said it all. But here's something to think about...

Researchers at Duke University have recently started experimenting on lawyers instead of lab rats. The reasons:
1. There are now more lawyers than lab rats.
2. The lab techs don't get as attached to the lawyers.
3. There are some things lab rats just won't do.

To add to JALLEN and his reasoned post check out Better Call Saul. Great entertainment. There is even a fictional website noted here:
http://www.amc.com/shows/bette...ul/saul-goodman-esq/

quote:

Originally posted by Xer0:
Average Attorney income according to salary.com is 89K.

But it's not a bell curve for the legal profession.

What's your end goal career wise? Where do you want to work and what do you want to do? Can you afford it? Loans vs scholarships vs opportunity cost vs return on investment. Are you tied to going to certain schools for any reason? Are those schools worth attending? Will they provide you with the career options you need?

There are too many law schools and too many law students. Almost anyone can get into a law school. Graduating, passing the bar, and making enough money to pay the loans and provide for self and family can be an issue.

o'sully, feel free to email me if you like. I am happy to give you my two cents.