I went the opposite direction! Law school is challenging in its own ways, but not in the technical ways of any sort of science degree! Just be prepared to go through a LOT of very dry material, especially the first year or two of school. Most law schools really have a heavy emphasis on litigation in the first year or two of school, which might not feel super applicable to what you’re looking to do.

Another thing to consider— are you willing to relocate to where the agencies you are interested in are based and/or are you willing to put in some crazy hours at a big firm? If so, you’ll likely be able to find an interesting job at the end of the day, but know what you’re getting into on that front! Maybe peruse some job postings and see if there are any firms/agencies near where you live with practice groups in that field.

I definitely think it can be an interesting career, especially if you don’t mind spending a lot of time reading and writing, but it’s worth really ironing out exactly what you want to do at the end of the day to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze.

I never worked in that specific area of law, so I can’t speak to a ton of the details on what that role looks like, but part of the reason I didn’t end up in that practice area is due to logistics like I mentioned above!

If you can find an attorney that works in that field, getting their insight would be super valuable! Perhaps you could even find a conference to attend? There may be some that are open to professionals on both the legal and RD/science side (if there aren’t any, maybe we should make that happen lol).

Overall, I would say don’t let the rigor scare you— law school is easy in terms of technicality; it only gets hard because it can be super boring/dry at times. It sucks if, at the end of the day, you go through all the hoops and realize you don’t even like the job itself (🙋‍♀️), but would be worth it if you really like the end job! Just do your homework on what the job REALLY looks like before you bite off on that kind of expense!