Jeremy's Weblog

I recently graduated from Harvard Law School. This is my weblog. It tries to be funny. E-mail me if you like it. For an index of what's lurking in the archives, sorted by category, click here.

Saturday, May 01, 2004

A reader writes: "I am considering going to law school, and would very much like to become a prosecutor or work in a non-profit of some sort, yet the cost of law school relative to the average public sector salary is a bit daunting. I have some reservations as to representing corporations and devoting all of my free time toward meeting billing requirements, so I would rather not work in a firm. Do you have any words of advice in this matter?"

I wrote back with some advice, but wasn't sure I was all that helpful, and feel like maybe I was missing the point of the question, or at least there's some nuance that I'm just not grabbing. But, anyway, my answer: "Sounds like it comes down to math, and your willingness to live in debt. No one will force you to take a firm job, but I imagine it will be hard to resist if you're going to have lots of student loans to pay off. The good thing about student loans is that there is no such thing as debtor's prison, so if being a prosecutor or working in a non-profit is your life dream, and you're sure of it, then I don't see a good reason not to go to law school. I'm not sure what other advice I can give...." I'm not sure why I'm posting this, since I don't know that my advice qualifies as particularly insightful. But maybe someone wants to run with it and pass along something better for me to pass along to the person who asked the question.