My brother mentioned to me that you were considering law school and asked that I give you my thoughts. Surely, I'm available for whatever questions you may have, but I'm going to be rather succinct in my recommendation.
Don't go to law school if you aren't absolutely certain what you want to do, and, even then, don't go.
I got out of the Army four years ago, and, needing to figure out a career, I chose to go to law school, though without any definite plan as to what area I'd work in. The thought at the time was that I like to write so I'd try to do Real Estate law and write on the side.
Now, three years and $85k in debt later (it would have been $110k but I got a half scholarship), not only have I found that I'm not really interested in being a lawyer, but that, even if I were, there are no jobs to be had. My 1L (first) year, they sat us down and the career services department showed us all their data which indicated that within 6 months of graduation, 99% of grads had jobs, with a median income of about 55k. Of course, that information was prior to the introduction of the Charleston School of Law, whose grads have taken many of the jobs out of the market (particularly in Charleston and the lowcountry), and the economy tanking.
I graduated last month. That 99% of grads getting jobs? Ha. The class BEFORE me still was at about 50% seven months after graduation. I'm not sure where they are now, but it can't be much better. Ordinarily, going into the bar exam 70% of new grads have jobs lined up. My class was at 37% the last time the career services dept informed us, and since then I've heard that it's closer to 30% because many firms have rescinded job offers.
Even scarier than the fact that I'm now significally in debt without a good prospect of a job is that, even if the economy went back to where it was before, there are now multiple classes of graduates (from both schools) who will be competing for the same amount of jobs (which ordinarily would be sufficient for one year's grads from one of the schools). Simply put, the situation is not going to get better. Not only that, but if the economy doesn't improve quickly, future grads may be thrown in the competitive mix too.
Of course, should you do very, very well in law school (cum laude, etc), then your chances of getting a job are much better. You can't necessarily predict how well you'll do (the MIT PhD who graduated 2nd in the class would seem obvious, but then an Engineer PhD buddy of mine was average or below). I've seen people who are smart who've done very well; people who are stupid who've done very well; people who are smart who've done poorly; people who are stupid who've done poorly.
Sorry to be a buzz-kill, but I figure it would be best to let you know my situation. If you're absolutely determined to be a lawyer, move to California. You can take the bar there without going to law school. Instead of paying 30k+ a year for law school, get a job as a runner at a firm out there to pay bills and read the various "horn books" like the Examples and Explanations (http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Procedure-Examples-Explanations/dp/073551982X) to learn legal concepts. Then, ask attorneys you work with when you're stumped (though you shouldn't be stumped often...despite what lawyers try to tell you, it's not rocket science...surely you've met some lawyers whom you've thought were idiots). Lastly, sign up for the California BarBri (bar review course). It costs 3k or so and lasts a couple of months before the bar exam. You could do all of that within ONE YEAR and become an attorney and, even if you did fail that exam, you can still do the same thing the next year and would still be far better off than people who waste their time going to law school. At worst you'd be under 10k in debt, and, if you figured out you don't want to be an attorney, then at least you're not screwed.
Many of my friends who have gotten jobs actually got jobs with the firms where they were runners before they went to law school. Law school doesn't train you how to be a lawyer. It trains you how to be in law school.
Admittedly Bitter but Honest,
Ajax Carpenter
P.S. Many of the jobs the high gpa people have gotten are the "work 60+ hours a week including some time on weekends" jobs.
I'd rather be unemployed.
