Hello folks. There seems to be a good amount of opinions on here that aren't fluffed up and full of nothing. I am looking for some hard facts on law school. I am considering going to law school starting in 2010. Haven't taken the LSAT yet. My ungrad GPA is a 3.4 in Aeronautics. Ultimately, I am looking at Florida, Florida State, and maybe a few schools around the southeast. I don't plan/nor want the big high paying jobs with no life or family. I DO want a stable career with a descent paycheck (e.g. $50-$70K range). I am a US Air Force veteran, and would like to come back and work for the government as either a JAG or a civilian attorney for the feds. Further, I see law school as being a great graduate level program even beyond being a practicing lawyer. Is law school a viable option worth pursuing right now, or is it best left alone?

Again, I'm looking for truly honest opinions here. Thank you in advance for the opinions.

--Confused

It sounds like it may be a good fit. If you can do well on the LSAT, you can probably get a scholarship to a good school in Florida. My advise would be to take a LSAT prep course (it's worth the $500 or so) and study hard. Once you get your score, only go to law school if (1) you can get into a top 100 school and (2) you won't rack up a ton of debt. This is based on the fact that you don't want to practice biglaw and want to stay in the SE.

You are correct that a law degree from a decent school opens a lot of doors. Assuming you don't have to take on a lot of debt, it is a good route, even if you don't practice law.

Best of luck to you.

The federal jobs are quite a bit tougher to get than local or state government jobs. However, if you are set on public service, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go through with the idea of doing that, and use a district attorney position as a backup. There are plenty of DA's and other state/local gov attorneys that end up getting hired by the Feds once they have more experience. You have a degree in aeronautics, so you might also consider doing patent law, which seems to be a growing area even in the downturn.

Law school is NOT a great graduate level program if you don't want to be a lawyer. It may or may not help open doors in nonlaw fields (probably won't contrary to what you have heard, but maybe in some cases it would), but if you want to do a nonlaw field, just start working your way into that field, and don't waste 3 years and $100K on it.

Thank you both for your opinions. After some soul searching over the weekend and spending some time with what's important to me (my son), I have decided that law school needs to wait right now. The economy is in shambles, and like mentioned previously, I can not afford to be buried under a massive student loan debt with no job guarentee. Seems to be the way the law career is going right now. Only those who get law school paid for by someone else can afford to go. I certainly can't.

I appreciate the thoughtful feedback and honest responses.