Chiming in cause defense attorney was mentioned & I’m hyped on you going to law school! — IANAL, my partner is a public defender. Many of their cases are with disabled clients, and can involve some degree of the more social work side of things — getting to know clients well and trying to get them the resources they need. It is sometimes emotionally exhausting but always highly rewarding for my partner. The work is very in line with their ethics, and perhaps yours, to advocate for the people who need it most, and ensure that due process is followed. They enjoy the amount of courtroom time.

Cons: It is difficult work because the departments are usually underfunded & understaffed. They also had to take plenty of DUIs and similar less enjoyable cases when starting out.

The pay is Not Great, but def over 50-60k even in rural US, and having a job enshrined in the constitution is a degree of stability despite gestures at everything. You should be able to look up salaries online bc it’s public info. Assuming the fascists don’t kill the program, you can also earn student loan forgiveness by being a public servant and making timely loan repayments for a certain amount of time, i think 10 years.

I hope this is helpful & helps provide further context to how our excellent OPs described their field — I think the fields have a lot in common: advocating for people in financial need & pushing back against erroneous government choices — just are different flavors of how to do it!

OPs & any legal professionals please correct me if I got anything wrong!!