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Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito
*sigh* You know, I am intelligent enough to weight the risks myself without 8 million people telling me it is a bad idea. Also I am getting really tired of the "in this economy" and "now" things. Yes I would be entering next year God willing, but it takes three years to get your degree, possibly 4 if I get into a joint degree program I'm looking at. I'm not going to base long term decisions on what the current finical clusterfuck is.
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The jobs aren't coming back. The industry has undergone a structural shift and it's not going back to where it was when the recession ended. My current firm is outsourcing simple discovery work that was previously done by new associates. (review of electronic documents, medical records, etc.) to India. Corporations have found way to reduce legal costs and will maintain those cost-cutting measures. Insurance companies have instituted strict bill review policies and severely cut the amount of cases that are going to outside counsel or being litigated. Many small and mid-size firms are closing or struggling to survive. Governments are cutting hiring because of low tax revenues.
Legal hiring will pick up somewhat, but it will not go back to pre-recession levels. The schools are currently producing 2 graduates for every full time job. When this is all over there will still be around 1.5 new graduates for every new job.
That doesn't even begin to address the lifestyle issues with the practice of law. Burnout is high.
If you want to go to law school in that environment, I wish you the best. It is not a choice that I would make. I really enjoyed law school and I enjoyed practice when I started. I don't enjoy it now.