Hi,
I'm wondering if I should pursue a law school and Big Law/inhouse down the road from a purely financial/time-investment perspective. Here's a quick run-down of my profile:
* Recently graduated (< 1 year) from a top non-Ivy school with a quantitative, non-engineering major and decent grades.
* Currently working at a non-management consulting firm making roughly 60k a year including bonuses (a little on the low end for this field), while still working pretty long hours (50-60 hours). Job and industry has excellent stability, but upward mobility within the company seems very slow (people need 3-4 years to move up to the next level). The actual pay scale for associates is a mystery at this point, but I estimate it would take around 4 years to move up to the 80k range, and probably 6-8 years to move up to the 100k range. This field probably caps out at around 250k if you make senior consultant after 10+ years or service.
* LSAC GPA of 3.5, LSAT of 170: probably could grab one of MVP or below, and if I do well on my next retake, could reach up to CCN.
So, if you were in my situation, which of the following two paths would you choose? Please take a medium to long term time-horizon approach to this (i.e. what is the best choice five, 10, 15 years down the road?)
Path A: Stay at current job and try to move up.
Pros:
* Don't need to spend 200K and lose 3 years of income/WE on Law School.
* Job stability, no need to gamble with the legal employment field.
* Can definitely live off this pay.
Cons:
* Job is boring.
* Pay is not commensurate with the long hours, and pay bumps/promotions are few and far in between.
Path B: Law School then Big Law/In house
Pros:
* Pay is significantly better almost any way you cut it as long as you get employed.
* In house exit opps pay well with reasonable hours after the grind of Big Law.
Cons:
* Job will probably still suck.
* Probably more time spent at the office.
* Debt
* Possible unemployment
Is law school the right choice for me? Forum
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vanwinkle
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