Is it still worth being a Lawyer?

She's at Cambridge. It's very 'get-able'.

Umm...because you make stuff up and you claim things that aren't true. To say "law pays a lot less than other graduate careers I considered" is patently untrue, unless you were considering drug running or high-class prostitution. Given that this is a "legal careers" subforum, I think correcting your misrepresentation of legal salaries is valid.

I'm going into IB. I am not a banker by any stretch of the imagination. I considered law but realized that I could do the same kind of work at a bank and not have to do a degree I'd find boring. Corporate lawyers work like dogs, and at the entry level it is really quite bad. Going home at midnight every night isn't really my cup of tea. It seems that even you have realized this, since you're going to PwC with a 1st and distinction in your law degrees!

Anyway, puppy isn't a law student and doesn't actually seem to know much about it, other than what she has seen at recruiting events at her uni.

Hi there,

Basically ive been interested in becoming a lawyer for a few years now, but lately people I know who are lawyers and own their own firms are saying it will be quite hard to make major cash for new lawyers in the near future. In your opinion is this true?
I do like the idea of being a lawyer but i shall admit high wages is a big incentive for me. What areas of law will continue (say 10 yrs+) pay the a lot in terms of wages? (im doing my AS levels)

I think you exaggerate the lower end of the spectrum somewhat.

I think the legal profession in the UK has gone the same way as it has in the US - a few (very few) making the big big money working for large city firms in very specialized areas and thousands and thousands of "ham n eggs" lawyers scraping by with the odd "dog bite" or fencing dispute case before they eventually jack it in and become realtors.

Sad but true - the market is saturated and unless you are a very capable and specialized individual then money shouldn't be your main motivation.

What on earth do you base this on?

Gained from where exactly?

Do you not think that the "large City firms" you alude to might mean that there are actually hundreds (if not thousands) of jobs for lawyers in areas other than "ham n eggs" work?

Even high street solicitors in towns do OK for themselves. Compared to the average wage in the local area I mean.

Ever think that maybe the people who knew who practised law just weren't very good and never really cut out for it in the first place?

I'm sure they do provide jobs for hundreds if not thousands of lawyers. But, in the final analysis I'm sure you will agree that there are many more high street solicitors in the UK on about $35k a year than there are big firm lawyers like yourself jet setting around the globe. That's all I'm stating - it's hardly news.

Being smart enough to get through a degree/bar exam is not the same as being practically good at being a lawyer. Other skills are needed, which I'm sure is self-evident and these cannot be tested until you actually turn your hand to being a lawyer. I'm by no means asserting that I will have it or whatever, just saying that until you actually try you can't know.

Further, they may have got through the JD/state bar but if they were low end family lawyers they can't exactly have aced it from a top law school. No offence like, but I can see why people would want to go into some lower areas of law for personal reasons but family... why would you want to have bickering spouses in front of you every day and kids trying to emancipate themselves, unless of course you were like doing it for celebs and getting decent returns from it.

As chalks said above, clearly the number in the UK at least, do not match your estimations. Bear in mind chalks that when he said 35/40k he was also talking in USD so in current market conditions that's like 20/23k GBP. Hardly any solicitors will be on that little.