<p>Reading through this thread, it seems like prospective lawyers have a bleak outlook almost regardless of where they graduate from, assuming that they didn’t receive a generous scholarship or some other means of staving off debt. Even those lawyers who earn 160K salaries straight out of law school will have great difficulty managing their finances, while at the same time they will be expected to work 70-80 hours a week at their law firm. </p>
<p>Those who take advantage of LRAP consign themselves to a mediocre salary for a decent length of time, even if they manage to avoid the stresses of BIGLAW. </p>
<p>So my question is this: given these facts, is there no way out? There must be some reason why the people posting on this site want to attend law school, but from reading this thread, I can see no upside to obtaining a J.D. from even the most prestigious law school if you are saddled with 100K+ debt in the process.</p>
<p>And to those in this thread who are already lawyers: are you happy you went to law school and pursued the career path that you did?</p>