Less desirable/popular markets Forum

[Anonymous User]

I read somewhere on this forum that public defender offices or firms in New Mexico would take anyone with a T-14 law school on their resume. Is it a joke or is there some truth in it? Are there any other less desirable/popular markets that someone with a T-14 degree would have a better shot at?

At this point I'm extremely flexible in terms of geography, but lacking local ties can be a red flag, I assume.

[cavalier1138]

I believe Alaska is known for taking people without ties (probably because they can't staff their open positions with the 4 Alaskans who get a JD each year).

That last bit was a joke. Please don't sic a moose on me.

[nixy]

New Mexico firms - which will be in the few cities - probably won’t want you unless you have strong ties to NM; it’s a pretty insular community and firms can hire local grads. Going to PD/DA’s offices in rural NM, though, word is that they’re desperate for people (though the PD might want you to speak Spanish, not sure). You have to be willing to live in rural NM for a while. (Parts are beautiful but there is a LOT of poverty.)

[Anonymous User]

New Mexico firms - which will be in the few cities - probably won’t want you unless you have strong ties to NM; it’s a pretty insular community and firms can hire local grads. Going to PD/DA’s offices in rural NM, though, word is that they’re desperate for people (though the PD might want you to speak Spanish, not sure). You have to be willing to live in rural NM for a while. (Parts are beautiful but there is a LOT of poverty.)

I'll be one of the folks in poverty if I remain unemployed.

[QContinuum]

FWIW, I don't think the availability of legal jobs is limited to rural NM. It's more about being willing to look outside the "sexy" metro regions, which tend to be oversaturated with new law school grads. So, for example, upstate NY, or eastern LI (think Suffolk County), or western PA, or rural New England. Places >1 hour away from where there's a never-ending oversupply of educated twentysomethings. Everyone and their sister would love to live and work in Brooklyn or Manhattan, less so western Mass.

[nixy]

FWIW, I don't think the availability of legal jobs is limited to rural NM. It's more about being willing to look outside the "sexy" metro regions, which tend to be oversaturated with new law school grads. So, for example, upstate NY, or eastern LI (think Suffolk County), or western PA, or rural New England. Places >1 hour away from where there's a never-ending oversupply of educated twentysomethings. Everyone and their sister would love to live and work in Brooklyn or Manhattan, less so western Mass.

Sure, I didn't intend to address all less popular markets - I really was just addressing the NM-specific question, b/c I have some familiarity with the legal markets there.

That said - the problem with less popular markets is that the legal markets are smaller. There are going to be lots of Albany and Syracuse grads with ties to upstate NY to take jobs there. Western PA will have Penn State and Pitt grads, as well as possibly grads from some of the Ohio schools or Penn grads from there originally. Rural New England just doesn't need a lot of lawyers and there are lots of good schools in the Boston metro for locals to attend (even Northeastern and Suffolk grads do well locally; NH and Maine are dominated by UNH and U Maine grads).

I don't meant to be discouraging, but I don't think the kind of metros described above really support vibrant enough legal communities to absorb a lot of outside attorneys even if they are from a T14. I suppose one exception would be if you can find a little outpost of T14 alumni to network with, which is certainly possible. And certainly if you're a Columbia or NYU grad targeting Suffolk County or a Chicago grad targeting, I don't know, Peoria or Springfield, you may well get some traction (compared to a Chicago grad targeting eastern LI or a NYU grad targeting Springfield). And even more certainly, expanding the scope of your search is always going to better than limiting it, so I don't disagree in principle with the advice to look at the non-sexy metros.

(To maybe support the claims about rural jobs being different - one of my classmates decided he wanted to raise his kids in a small town - like REALLLY small town - and during law school went around the state visiting various small towns and talking to the local burghers. He ended up hitting it off with a guy who practiced in a county seat of 2000 people in a county bordered by square states in the middle of country, joined that guy's practice after graduation, and within 6 months had stepped into that guy's shoes as the part-time county judge. He was welcomed with open arms and there were articles in the local newspaper about him moving there. But I think that kind of experience isn't going to be the same outside the rural context.)

[andythefir]

New Mexico firms - which will be in the few cities - probably won’t want you unless you have strong ties to NM; it’s a pretty insular community and firms can hire local grads. Going to PD/DA’s offices in rural NM, though, word is that they’re desperate for people (though the PD might want you to speak Spanish, not sure). You have to be willing to live in rural NM for a while. (Parts are beautiful but there is a LOT of poverty.)

I don’t want to say I’m the only one pushing this idea, but I push it on this site a lot. I’m a prosecutor in rural NM from Albuquerque. The dynamic is alllll the lawyers go to Albuquerque for law school and none of them go back to where they’re from. So Albuquerque and Santa Fe are fairly saturated and salaries are fairly low. Think $80k for 1,800 billables or $50ish starting salary for small firms. NM firm life doesn’t make sense, since it’s not eligible for loan forgiveness.

Where literally anybody with a bar card can get a job is in the southeast part of the state. The 5th judicial district generally recruits DA/PD out of Cooley because no one else will go. I got my offer in March of my 3L year, worked while studying for the bar, and did a trial the day I was sworn into the bar. They may ask you to wait until you have a bar card in hand to formally offer a job, but with bar passage I’ve never once seen someone turned down for a job.

People who leave the law rather than take a job in a gross town for 2 years baffle me. I knew I wasn’t going to retire from there, so I pushed to get staffed on trials, did 50 in my first year, 50 in my second year, and leveraged it to a better job.

[nixy]

I get that, but most of the “gross town” options seem to be PD/DA, and if you don’t want to do criminal, you don’t want to do criminal. It’s not to everyone’s taste, and if you’re trying to get some kind of corporate job, the skills aren’t very transferrable and I can see being concerned with getting stuck. Also I can see how plenty of people would prioritize living somewhere they like over being employed in any kind of legal job.

[andythefir]

I get that, but most of the “gross town” options seem to be PD/DA, and if you don’t want to do criminal, you don’t want to do criminal. It’s not to everyone’s taste, and if you’re trying to get some kind of corporate job, the skills aren’t very transferrable and I can see being concerned with getting stuck. Also I can see how plenty of people would prioritize living somewhere they like over being employed in any kind of legal job.

I knew someone who went DA>city attorney>transactional. But yes, it generally only really prepares you for litigation.

If you’d rather be a non lawyer in a cool town than a lawyer in a gross town for a year who then leverages that to a job in a cool town I don’t get why you’d go to law school. I also don’t get being so rigid in those preferences you’d throw away all that time and all that money. If you spent 3 years in law school you can spend a year in a town without an ikea to work as a lawyer.

[nixy]

I’m just saying some people go to law school with more specific goals than “be any kind of lawyer anywhere,” and that’s fair - people are allowed to want what they want. I agree that people should cast a wide net, but telling someone that if they’re not willing to move to a “gross” town, for a job they don’t want, that isn’t super likely to get them the job they do want, why did they even go to law school? doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

[andythefir]

Seems to me it depends on what kind of non-lawyer work you’re having to take instead. If you’d rather teach middle school/work as a bank teller (jobs my classmates took) in Chicago than live in a town without an NFL team for a year in order to be a lawyer, then you shouldn’t go to law school.

[nixy]

Seems to me it depends on what kind of non-lawyer work you’re having to take instead. If you’d rather teach middle school/work as a bank teller (jobs my classmates took) in Chicago than live in a town without an NFL team for a year in order to be a lawyer, then you shouldn’t go to law school.

I mean, that’s a perfectly fine opinion to hold for yourself, but I don’t agree everyone should feel that way (and I think you’re couching it in the most contentious way possible. Not everyone is in a position to move to rural NM or a town of 2000 people hours from anything larger).

[Anonymous User]

New Mexico firms - which will be in the few cities - probably won’t want you unless you have strong ties to NM; it’s a pretty insular community and firms can hire local grads. Going to PD/DA’s offices in rural NM, though, word is that they’re desperate for people (though the PD might want you to speak Spanish, not sure). You have to be willing to live in rural NM for a while. (Parts are beautiful but there is a LOT of poverty.)

I don’t want to say I’m the only one pushing this idea, but I push it on this site a lot. I’m a prosecutor in rural NM from Albuquerque. The dynamic is alllll the lawyers go to Albuquerque for law school and none of them go back to where they’re from. So Albuquerque and Santa Fe are fairly saturated and salaries are fairly low. Think $80k for 1,800 billables or $50ish starting salary for small firms. NM firm life doesn’t make sense, since it’s not eligible for loan forgiveness.

Where literally anybody with a bar card can get a job is in the southeast part of the state. The 5th judicial district generally recruits DA/PD out of Cooley because no one else will go. I got my offer in March of my 3L year, worked while studying for the bar, and did a trial the day I was sworn into the bar. They may ask you to wait until you have a bar card in hand to formally offer a job, but with bar passage I’ve never once seen someone turned down for a job.

People who leave the law rather than take a job in a gross town for 2 years baffle me. I knew I wasn’t going to retire from there, so I pushed to get staffed on trials, did 50 in my first year, 50 in my second year, and leveraged it to a better job.

Do you speak Spanish?

[lavarman84]

New Mexico firms - which will be in the few cities - probably won’t want you unless you have strong ties to NM; it’s a pretty insular community and firms can hire local grads. Going to PD/DA’s offices in rural NM, though, word is that they’re desperate for people (though the PD might want you to speak Spanish, not sure). You have to be willing to live in rural NM for a while. (Parts are beautiful but there is a LOT of poverty.)

I don’t want to say I’m the only one pushing this idea, but I push it on this site a lot. I’m a prosecutor in rural NM from Albuquerque. The dynamic is alllll the lawyers go to Albuquerque for law school and none of them go back to where they’re from. So Albuquerque and Santa Fe are fairly saturated and salaries are fairly low. Think $80k for 1,800 billables or $50ish starting salary for small firms. NM firm life doesn’t make sense, since it’s not eligible for loan forgiveness.

Where literally anybody with a bar card can get a job is in the southeast part of the state. The 5th judicial district generally recruits DA/PD out of Cooley because no one else will go. I got my offer in March of my 3L year, worked while studying for the bar, and did a trial the day I was sworn into the bar. They may ask you to wait until you have a bar card in hand to formally offer a job, but with bar passage I’ve never once seen someone turned down for a job.

People who leave the law rather than take a job in a gross town for 2 years baffle me. I knew I wasn’t going to retire from there, so I pushed to get staffed on trials, did 50 in my first year, 50 in my second year, and leveraged it to a better job.

Frankly, there are much worse places than Roswell, Carlsbad, etc. And I know Cruces isn't in the 5th, but it's actually a solid place to live. If I didn't have any options, I wouldn't turn my nose up at New Mexico.

[nixy]

I like New Mexico too. But I think it's perfectly reasonable if someone who, say, has spent their whole life in NYC, whose whole family is in the northeast, and who want to do trusts and estates, doesn't want to go to Carlsbad/Roswell/Cruces and work as a local prosecutor. (Or is from rural Iowa and their whole family is in rural Iowa. It's not a cool coastal city thing.) It's great if they do decide to try that, and I will definitely tell them to expand their search from, say, NYC V100 firms or whatever if that's what they're limiting themselves to. I just don't think they have to prove their interest in being a lawyer by going literally anywhere in the country for any job. That whole attitude (of putting work over EVERY OTHER life interest) just perpetuates striving and unsustainable work-life balance.

[QContinuum]

I like New Mexico too. But I think it's perfectly reasonable if someone who, say, has spent their whole life in NYC, whose whole family is in the northeast, and who want to do trusts and estates, doesn't want to go to Carlsbad/Roswell/Cruces and work as a local prosecutor. (Or is from rural Iowa and their whole family is in rural Iowa. It's not a cool coastal city thing.) It's great if they do decide to try that, and I will definitely tell them to expand their search from, say, NYC V100 firms or whatever if that's what they're limiting themselves to. I just don't think they have to prove their interest in being a lawyer by going literally anywhere in the country for any job. That whole attitude (of putting work over EVERY OTHER life interest) just perpetuates striving and unsustainable work-life balance.

I'm sympathetic to both sides of the argument. On the one hand, I agree that folks shouldn't be expected to "prove" their dedication to the law by being willing to move anywhere and practice any kind of law. Obviously someone whose whole family is in, say, rural IA and wants to practice in IA should not "have" to up sticks and permanently relocate to NM. On the other, I don't think people are arguing that folks ought to be willing to live/work anywhere, any time. Rather, I see folks pushing for new grads to be willing to, say, practice in rural NM for 2-3 years or so.

It's like a training period. Med school grads don't get to choose where they do their residency - they get assigned. College basketball players don't get to choose which NBA team they join - they get drafted. It doesn't seem unreasonable to ask law school grads to display a similar flexibility when it comes to getting their legal career off the ground. (Sure, the NBA pays a ton, but residency doesn't pay much more than what one might make as a new grad in, say, rural NM.)

[nixy]

I agree with that, if the person doesn’t have family concerns that keep them from moving across the country, and if working is rural NM is going to actually advance their career goals such that in 2-3 years they can do something else and/or move elsewhere. While I completely believe careers follow unpredictable paths and generally, unrelated experience is better than no experience, I think being a prosecutor in rural NM is only going to be transferable to certain jobs/places. So yes, I can absolutely see it as a training period, but being a prosecutor in rural NM isn’t appropriate training for a lot of legal jobs. (Now if it were small general practitioner handling business formation / contracts / wills / estates in small town NM? Sure, that could be a decent training period for other people with other goals. I get the general principle, I’m fighting the very specific hypo.)

And to be clear, I personally have picked up and moved across country under similar circumstances for jobs, multiple times. I just don’t think someone should be judged for not serious being about being a lawyer if they choose not to.

(I mean, andythefir is at least originally from NM. I get that the offices he knows recruit from everywhere because they can’t get applicants, but him moving to rural NM isn’t exactly the same as someone from Albany/Iowa/Seattle/Chicago moving to rural NM.)

[eastcoast_iub]

Delaware is a great option. Lot of firm jobs there and not a ton of T14 applicants.

[andythefir]

I agree that if you could, say, volunteer for a fed judge as a quasi clerk you’d be better off. Same with volunteering for legal aid or something closer to what you want to do. But if applicant A spent a year waiting tables or teaching high school and applicant B did (any lawyer work), I can’t imagine picking A all things else being equal, no matter what kind of legal work you’re hiring for.

[QContinuum]

I agree with that, if the person doesn’t have family concerns that keep them from moving across the country, and if working is rural NM is going to actually advance their career goals such that in 2-3 years they can do something else and/or move elsewhere.

Agree with the second part ("if working in rural NM is going to actually advance their career goals such that in 2-3 years they can do something else and/or move elsewhere") but not the first. The risk of having to pack up your bags and move to some random place you didn't pick for 2-3 years (and sometimes longer) of residency is part and parcel of becoming a doctor. For every med school graduate. Including med school grads with families, doctors who have no interest in staying in their state of residency, etc. I don't see why law school grads should be above doing the same. It's a luxury that many law school grads don't need to go that far to find that first job*, but I don't see anything morally objectionable with expecting that flexibility.

(*I'd caveat that even the "lucky" BigLawyers are geographically restricted to cities with BigLaw markets. Sure, many people love NYC/SF/Houston, but many others would 100% rather live closer to their families in Tennessee or Wyoming or Utah. C'est la vie.)

Of course if there is a dire family emergency, that's a different thing. I'm sure med school grads postpone residency for dire family emergencies. But personal preference for living/working in a particular locale shouldn't be valued that highly when it comes to those first 2-3 years, IMO. (Just as this board consistently advises 0Ls not to value personal preference for living in a particular city that highly when it comes to picking a law school.)

I agree that if you could, say, volunteer for a fed judge as a quasi clerk you’d be better off. Same with volunteering for legal aid or something closer to what you want to do.

100% agree.

[Iowahawk]

If you're at the T14, I don't think any students actually face the choice of a non-legal job vs. somewhere really out of the way. The places to start are obviously the closest cities to your hometown, undergrad, and law school with significant legal markets, then look at the next rings of cities by distance, etc. There are plenty of good firms with Fortune 500 clients in tertiary markets.

[Anonymous User]

I like New Mexico too. But I think it's perfectly reasonable if someone who, say, has spent their whole life in NYC, whose whole family is in the northeast, and who want to do trusts and estates, doesn't want to go to Carlsbad/Roswell/Cruces and work as a local prosecutor. (Or is from rural Iowa and their whole family is in rural Iowa. It's not a cool coastal city thing.) It's great if they do decide to try that, and I will definitely tell them to expand their search from, say, NYC V100 firms or whatever if that's what they're limiting themselves to. I just don't think they have to prove their interest in being a lawyer by going literally anywhere in the country for any job. That whole attitude (of putting work over EVERY OTHER life interest) just perpetuates striving and unsustainable work-life balance.

OP here. For now, I'm all by myself - I'm single and I don't have a family, so I have the absolute freedom to move around when necessary.

As you mentioned, I did spend my whole life in the metro areas of huge cities (imagine NYC/SF/LA/Chi). I was really hoping that I could get a job in places like these. But at this point, beggars can't be choosers. If I want a successful career (which I really want), I'll have to do whatever that helps my career development. Also, unless I'm really, really running out of options, I'd always prioritize some legal job over anything else.

That said, I might have a tough time adjusting to the rural life. For starters, I've never got my driver's license or purchased a car. I enjoy going to AMC theaters every now and then. Even if I manage to get used to rural life, it's very likely that I won't enjoy it. So, if I really end up taking a job in rural NM, I'd still expect to move to a bigger city within 5 years or so.

[nixy]

I agree that if you could, say, volunteer for a fed judge as a quasi clerk you’d be better off. Same with volunteering for legal aid or something closer to what you want to do. But if applicant A spent a year waiting tables or teaching high school and applicant B did (any lawyer work), I can’t imagine picking A all things else being equal, no matter what kind of legal work you’re hiring for.

That’s fair. And I think someone who does nothing but wait tables/teach high school out of law school (without getting any legal experience at all) is kind of deluding themselves if they think their ideal legal job is going to open up and hire them after a couple of years of that (so if that’s your classmates, I get what you’re saying). Good JD-preferred jobs are an exception, although it will still be tougher to get back into law that way.

But a corporate employer isn’t going to be comparing the rural prosecutor (not just from NM, from anywhere) with people waiting tables or teaching high school, but with other candidates with actual corporate experience. So if it’s not worth it to someone to do the rural prosecutor gig, it’s their prerogative to decide that. I don’t think the only people who should go to law school are those willing to do any kind of legal practice anywhere (even for a couple of years); I think it’s fair to have specific aspirations within law.

Now it’s also probably true that a lot of new grads don’t really know what practice is like or what exactly they want to do, and maybe most of those people should go be a rural prosecutor and they’d figure out they love it even if they never thought it was what they’d want to do (and going to live somewhere they’ve never been is also probably a great experience for them). Or even if they don’t love it, they’d make something great out of it and end up somewhere great. I’m not at all saying it’s a bad plan or bad experience; I’m just saying it’s really not for everyone. And that for a lot of people there probably are intermediate options out there (like the fed clerk/legal aid examples, or expanding their search geographically, if not quite so drastically).

(I know I go off on this subject but I’m stupidly obsessed with countering the idea that to make an investment in a profession worthwhile, people should be willing to go anywhere in the US, at the expense of their connections to family or other communities that matter to them.)

I don’t think doctors are quite analogous. For one thing, they do rank where they want to do their residency, so while they can’t be too picky, they have a bit more choice and can have a better shot at identifying a place that would work for both them and, say, their working spouse. For another, they’re entering a profession that guarantees them a job in a way that law doesn’t, and also, it’s clear from the start that a residency ends and you will be able to leave and move on to something else. (On top of all that, I don’t think medical licensing is as restrictive as bar admission, although I don’t know enough to say that for certain.)

A residency to me is much more like a clerkship. And I would recommend pretty much anyone move anywhere for a year for a clerkship wherever. I’m not saying lawyers shouldn’t be willing to move for jobs; just they shouldn’t be expected to move for ANY job.

[Anonymous User]

I like New Mexico too. But I think it's perfectly reasonable if someone who, say, has spent their whole life in NYC, whose whole family is in the northeast, and who want to do trusts and estates, doesn't want to go to Carlsbad/Roswell/Cruces and work as a local prosecutor. (Or is from rural Iowa and their whole family is in rural Iowa. It's not a cool coastal city thing.) It's great if they do decide to try that, and I will definitely tell them to expand their search from, say, NYC V100 firms or whatever if that's what they're limiting themselves to. I just don't think they have to prove their interest in being a lawyer by going literally anywhere in the country for any job. That whole attitude (of putting work over EVERY OTHER life interest) just perpetuates striving and unsustainable work-life balance.

OP here. For now, I'm all by myself - I'm single and I don't have a family, so I have the absolute freedom to move around when necessary.

As you mentioned, I did spend my whole life in the metro areas of huge cities (imagine NYC/SF/LA/Chi). I was really hoping that I could get a job in places like these. But at this point, beggars can't be choosers. If I want a successful career (which I really want), I'll have to do whatever that helps my career development. Also, unless I'm really, really running out of options, I'd always prioritize some legal job over anything else.

That said, I might have a tough time adjusting to the rural life. For starters, I've never got my driver's license or purchased a car. I enjoy going to AMC theaters every now and then. Even if I manage to get used to rural life, it's very likely that I won't enjoy it. So, if I really end up taking a job in rural NM, I'd still expect to move to a bigger city within 5 years or so.

I think the first step if you haven't is trying to get firms and government jobs in close secondary markets, many of which don't go to OCI. E.g. if you're interested in Chicago, blanket Indianapolis, Madison, Des Moines, Omaha, the Twin Cities, and Milwaukee. There are lots of cities smaller than the megacities that still offer very urban lifestyles depending on your neighborhood.

You might also try suburbs of your target cities that you can commute into, e.g. I know someone that worked for the DuPage County (IL) DA, enjoyed it, and lateraled to Chicago biglaw.

I'd also try applying to government positions more broadly than the DA, the PD, and the USAO. The Chicago Corporation Counsel isn't too picky but is huge and does some cool stuff for example, including transactional if that's your thing.

[addie1412]

I agree that if you could, say, volunteer for a fed judge as a quasi clerk you’d be better off. Same with volunteering for legal aid or something closer to what you want to do. But if applicant A spent a year waiting tables or teaching high school and applicant B did (any lawyer work), I can’t imagine picking A all things else being equal, no matter what kind of legal work you’re hiring for.

That’s fair. And I think someone who does nothing but wait tables/teach high school out of law school (without getting any legal experience at all) is kind of deluding themselves if they think their ideal legal job is going to open up and hire them after a couple of years of that (so if that’s your classmates, I get what you’re saying). Good JD-preferred jobs are an exception, although it will still be tougher to get back into law that way.

But a corporate employer isn’t going to be comparing the rural prosecutor (not just from NM, from anywhere) with people waiting tables or teaching high school, but with other candidates with actual corporate experience. So if it’s not worth it to someone to do the rural prosecutor gig, it’s their prerogative to decide that. I don’t think the only people who should go to law school are those willing to do any kind of legal practice anywhere (even for a couple of years); I think it’s fair to have specific aspirations within law.

Now it’s also probably true that a lot of new grads don’t really know what practice is like or what exactly they want to do, and maybe most of those people should go be a rural prosecutor and they’d figure out they love it even if they never thought it was what they’d want to do (and going to live somewhere they’ve never been is also probably a great experience for them). Or even if they don’t love it, they’d make something great out of it and end up somewhere great. I’m not at all saying it’s a bad plan or bad experience; I’m just saying it’s really not for everyone. And that for a lot of people there probably are intermediate options out there (like the fed clerk/legal aid examples, or expanding their search geographically, if not quite so drastically).

(I know I go off on this subject but I’m stupidly obsessed with countering the idea that to make an investment in a profession worthwhile, people should be willing to go anywhere in the US, at the expense of their connections to family or other communities that matter to them.)

I don’t think doctors are quite analogous. For one thing, they do rank where they want to do their residency, so while they can’t be too picky, they have a bit more choice and can have a better shot at identifying a place that would work for both them and, say, their working spouse. For another, they’re entering a profession that guarantees them a job in a way that law doesn’t, and also, it’s clear from the start that a residency ends and you will be able to leave and move on to something else. (On top of all that, I don’t think medical licensing is as restrictive as bar admission, although I don’t know enough to say that for certain.)

A residency to me is much more like a clerkship. And I would recommend pretty much anyone move anywhere for a year for a clerkship wherever. I’m not saying lawyers shouldn’t be willing to move for jobs; just they shouldn’t be expected to move for ANY job.

I think relative cost of law school is also pretty crucial to the analysis here.

Like if you went to law school because you got a full scholarship and thought "I think I want to practice [specific type of law in specific region] but could also see myself being, say, a high school teacher," then I think it's fair to not be willing to become a prosecutor in New Mexico if you strike out at what you really wanted. I don't think it means you shouldn't have gone to law school. Sure, the 3 years spent in law school are kind of a loss, but if it was free, it was probably worth it to go for a shot at the specific type of law job you wanted.

On the other end, if you paid sticker (and weren't extremely wealthy), I feel like you better have been 100% super duper sure you wanted to be a lawyer of any kind, anywhere. That JD should be worth 300k to you. And not being willing to move literally anywhere to be a lawyer is kind of evidence that it's not. Which means you shouldn't have gone to law school at that price. The caveat to this would be if you're presented with an alternative non-law career post-law school that gives you higher earning potential than being a lawyer would or is otherwise special in some way, and you couldn't have foreseen that option or it wasn't possible back when you chose to go to law school at sticker.