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What can you do with a law degree besides becoming a lawyer?

Is becoming a lawyer the right way to go for doing social good?

  • This may sound naive but I am considering becoming a lawyer in the future because, generally speaking, I want to help people out. Will I be able to do that by becoming a lawyer/studying law? Moving on, I realize that if I take this path, one can't say I will be "in it for the money". I want to help people out but I don't want to be broke and being able to help my parents would be great, too. In this case, would it be a good idea to have another degree/something on the side? I'm sure this sounds confusing but I just want to be really useful to people in a practical way without letting myself go hungry and I am just trying to figure out a gameplan, taking things that I can be sure about in life to some extent.

  • Answer:

    There are many lawyers who "do social good". Unfortunately, most of these lawyers do not make a lot of money. Depending on their job, and over time, many of them will eventually achieve a comfortable standard of living, but it won't be immediate. Unfortunately, the opportunity loss of three years of law school, and the actual cost of three years of law school tuition will be immediate. If you choose to go into public interest law after law school, it will be quite a long time (if ever) before you are able to help out your parents.   This means that becoming a lawyer is a doubtful financial proposition if you seek to "do social good" unless you can contrive to minimize your law school debt, and even then, it is not great. If you want to be able to help out your parents with your earnings as a lawyer, it is certainly possible, but you will probably need to work for a large law firm or a big company. You will certainly be "useful to people in a practical way" if you do that, but it is hard to describe a corporate lawyer (*cough*) as someone who "does social good".   If you really want to help people and have a stable career, law is certainly an option, but it's not the only option, and the current state of the legal market and current law school tuition make it very difficult to recommend to those who are not already wealthy.

Ani Ravi at Quora Visit the source

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The best way to do good socially is to make a whole lot of money and give it away. The more money you get, the more people you can feed, clothe, house, educate, and otherwise care for. You can even dig wells in Africa and build hospitals near South American jungles. Becoming a lawyer is one way. I hear it's common for lawyers to work pro bono part of the time, helping ;people who can't afford help, so you'd get to do that sort of good too. There are other high-paying professions you might enjoy more. Or you could start your own business; less certain, more rewarding.

Michael DeBusk

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