Whose starting law school in the fall?

[HDPM]

Some lawyers do extremely well financially. You might too. But there are a lot of lawyers who do only OK. Some do less than OK. Most lawyers who do well financially tend to do a couple of things. First, they are good lawyers. I have not met many people really good at something who fake it completely. Being a good lawyer is a lot different than being a good law student though, keep that in mind. There are also some good lawyers who don't do that well financially. You will find good lawyers who go into things like government work or whatever who like what they do. If your goal is money, you might forclose an opportunity to do something you actually like because of the money.

Your definition of big money and how to get it also makes a difference. I have met a lot of people who think anything over 6 figures is big money. So a lot of people go to firms and grind it out and make partner and make some money. Let's forget the biggest best paying firms and look at nice local firms where the lawyers work pretty hard and do good work and make some money. If you are like them you will work your ass off, make enough to live a decent life in whatever big or medium city you are in, won't get to take enough time to enjoy life, won't ever get a 2 week vacation, will have to work 16 hour days to take a one week vacation where you will get called 5 out of 7 days, and you won't enjoy the work all that much. You probably won't retire early.

I can give examples and exceptions. I know or am related to lawyers who went the big firm route. Same with people who made other choices. The people who to me at least seem to enjoy life some and make money do it in somewhat non traditional ways and sometimes get lucky. I always made choices based on what work I wanted to do. This cost me money, but I got to do work that was interesting and ultimately satisfying. It was a choice, but not much of a choice because I hate the standard go to a firm and do civil litigation or desk work crap. I can do it if I can make myself sit there and do a bunch of stuff I don't want to do. But why? So I did other things that don't always pay the money. I also know people really well who do well financially and gdo work that isn't awful in firms that don't suck and not every week is an 80 hour week. You won't see the placement office offering this job and they don't come around to campus interviewing for it. You kind of find it and make it as you go. In any event, you get paid to produce. People who go into law only for money may not have what it takes to really produce; to be really able to do the kind of work it takes to get the big dollars. In whatever specialty. It is sort of like saying I hate golf but will be a golf pro for the money. The ones who do really well don't fake it. Obviously law is easier than making it in a sport because you can make some money and get jobs without having the raw talent to be in the top couple hundred in the world at it. But the good lawyers have the talent for it and work hard. Like in anything else. If you hate it, it will be hard to compete with them for many reasons.