Why should someone go to law school when they can instead become a software engineer?

If you like words more than numbers, perhaps law is a more intellectually gratifying career than software engineering. And vice versa.

I have worked with lawyers quite a bit (as an expert witness). They are not only smart, but also articulate, whereas some software developers are very guarded in person and express themselves in C++ more naturally than in their native spoken language. Patent lawyers need to gain a reasonable understanding of the subject matter, so we've had fairly long technical discussions about algorithms, software and integrated circuits - their work is not dull by any measure. Some people find SW development too impersonal, but can use their understanding of SW when they switch to patent law.

This is certainly a personal dilemma and not one which can be answered with math. You presented a lot of good numbers to describe the financial benefits, but didn't really touch on why one would choose one career over another. Going to partially reply to another answer which touches on "numbers." Most software development really doesn't deal much with deep math. Even "big data" is broken down to its basic components - adding numbers. I would speculate (due to no reports on it) that most development is at a very high level. The big companies deal with hard math questions, but those are broken down to smaller problems and even then, those questions are answered with applications which other developers will use. That's just the way development works. If you want to talk about being an attorney, you need to describe the law that you would pursue. There is everything from criminal defense to IP. I would say that the main thing you have to want to do to become a lawyer is to do research and write well. Law is more about the English language and legalese than people. If you want to get in to law to be more people oriented and litigate in front of people, I'm sure you'll find yourself incredibly bored from all of the necessary research. Like a guidance counselor would ask - what do you want to do? What do you love? Engineering and science has never been a second tier career choice. Software is a new field in science and engineering, but the same principles apply; the same respect is given; and the salaries are catching up to the profits to the companies. I should add that software is made to solve problems. If your problem isn't socially connected you're less likely to be connected to others. For instance, if you're working at Facebook on improving user interaction, you need to learn from the users how they interact. That is going to require you to use your system and to learn from it. If you're working on some theoretical issues, you'll probably spend a lot of time researching and reading papers. I find that no matter what, the software industry is very personal. We tend to talk and interact greatly to solve our problems.

I have worked as an engineer for more than 25 years in various positions (R&D, marketing, intellectual property), so I can give you my perspective as I work now with attorneys. All patent attorneys are required to have a science or engineering background, so plenty of them started as engineers (even with an  M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering) and then switched to Law. There are many reasons to switch, but here are some typical ones: a) They like engineering, but not as much as they thought. Sometimes engineering was forced upon them. b) Unless you move into management, there is typically little growth potential as a software engineer per se c) Many, at least in the US, see engineering jobs being exported to Asia. A law degree (especially in patent law) offers considerable more stability in the US job market d) Law offers different set of challenges and some simply prefer those over writing software Of course, as others mentioned, some people go to law because they simply  can't stand anything related with math, sciences, or engineering.

First and foremost some people want to be lawyers not software engineers. Others want to be Cops, Firefighters, etc it is not always just about money. I would hate being a software engineer and many of my friends that software engineers would hate being lawyers. To each their own. As for the salary I think one of the pros to the legal profession is that with more experience the salary grows and opportunities continue to grow. Software engineers do very well out of the gate, but technology moves fast and you do not see many 40-50 year old software engineers. The age of 20-40 is great for software engineers or those in the tech industry, but the outlook for 40-60 is not good. The opposite of true in the legal profession you cannot even become a lawyer until your 25-26 and for the first 5 or so years it will be a struggle plus you have huge loans to pay. If you survive the first 5-10 years there is a lot of opportunity. 20-40 is a struggle while 40-60 is great for lawyers. There is no right answer to anything and you really should choose a job your passionate about. Software engineering is great for the right person, nursing is great for the right person, construction is great for the right person, the law is great for the right person. I would never encourage someone to go to law school if their sole goal was to get rich.

Before committing time and money to pursuing any STEM related degree or career (software engineering included), it's a good idea to take a look at this nice little site created by the University of Cambridge Engineering Department. http://i-want-to-study-engineering.org/questionlist/ If you cannot even grasp these problems, do not even bother trying to become an engineer. Sure engineering may be a lucrative field and the US may be demanding more STEM graduates. But only the truly competent can be successful. The same could be said for those aspiring to work for Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz or Cravath, Swaine and Moore.

Its all upto what one like and want to . Every one has choice to make in there life so people make by taking law and not becoming SE. Both career are appealing money is not always every one’s priority. Its like what they want to give to society.