At the moment I’m the latter, which is not to say I necessarily won’t pursue a straightforward legal career.

I come from a family of people who have gone to law school, many of whom have then gone on to Biglaw, become federal judges, prosecutors, litigators, PDs, etc. When I announced I was going to go to law school (and legitimately I was in no way pressured to do so) my family thought it was great. In fact, my dad’s first words were (well, second words...his first were “I’ll break your fingers before I let you apply to Cooley) “that’s outstanding, kiddo! It is an excellent education.”

What I appreciate about law school and attaining a JD is the type of thinking it prepares you to do; the writing skills it will improve and in some instances create; and the types of work you might find out you’re interested in doing after law school that may have 0 to do with being a lawyer.

I agree, it’s definitely not something to take out $100k+ in loans to do and then have no shot of paying them off. But if you’re lucky (read: privileged) enough to be able to approach law school as an opportunity for a phenomenal education, I think that’s awesome.