Why You Shouldn't Go to Law School

Congratulations! You have just completed your four year degree at that prestigious University. At some point someone told you the big lie: "College is a time for intellectual exploration" and you believed them. Admit it, you wanted to believe them. So you majored in English or History, while buffering up your credentials with those classes in Ancient Chinese Art. In an effort to do *something* substantial you even took a couple of introductory classes in Economics. But basically, you took whatever courses sounded interesting. Oops, your bad.

So you are out of school, or about to graduate, and it suddenly dawns on you: I have no real skills!; So you take what seems like the path of least resistance: you take the LSAT and apply to Law School. And by the way, for some reason, it is important for you to be rich." If it wasn't you probably wouldn't be thinking of law school.

Of course, some people really should be lawyers: these are the people who want to be politicians, judges, prosecutors, and litigators. They were born to do it. But many enter law school who are not sure they really want to be a lawyer, they just want some marketable skills. Don't do this!

Because here is the second big lie: "Don't worry about it -- you don't have to practice law. Lots of successful people are lawyers who don't practice law. It's a really useful skill no matter what you do".

It is true that there a lot of lawyers that don't practice law. Here's why: they couldn't stand it any longer. Lots of people know that being a lawyer is a grind. But what people don't tell you is: Law School is a trap, and you actually won't get any truly useful skills until you actually practicing.