I had a recent lunch with someone who wanted to pick my brain about opportunities in my field. She too works in the financial industry and has a business undergraduate degree and a law degree however, all of her previous roles have never required a law degree including her current position. As a hiring manager and a person who’s started businesses in the past, I often get asked my advice on navigating the challenges that come with building a successful career. After just a few minutes into the lunch I could tell very quickly that 1) her reason for getting a law degree was very short-sighted and 2) she had no clue of how to leverage her law degree to make the 3 years of time and thousands of dollars of debt she inherited worth it. From my perspective, it appears she really got the law degree because it looked good on paper. It probably also gave her increased self-esteem but realistically speaking, she was not able to transition having a Juris Doctorate (JD) behind her name into more money in her pocket. This is why she consulted me, a person who does not have a law degree but was able to leverage her education and experience to surpass her career goals, for help. I LOVE living in Atlanta! Metropolitan cities tend to foster great levels of motivation and opportunities for higher than average achievement. At the same time, I’ve seen many people get caught up in the city’s pretentious circles and spend ungodly amounts of money seeking to climb a social status ladder among the “haves and have nots.” (Truth be told the “haves” really are the “have nots.”) As the conversation continued with “I just need to make money” phrases, I could see the glamour that once clouded her vision is now replaced with the harsh reality of stifling financial pressures and even worse, the hope that I could magically give her the solution. Since our professions both involve risk management contracts her rationale was that a law degree would enhance her skills and therefore her marketability within our industry. There is a problem with that thought process. Unless a person is using a law degree to actually practice law as part of a general counsel team or a corporate consultant, it’s not as valuable as one would predict in the business world.
I believe many people in general think it’s cool to say “I’m a lawyer “ just like it’s cool to say “I’m an entrepreneur” without any real idea of what it means and how it fits into their overall career goals and passions. For example, if making money is a main goal for being a lawyer, I hate to burst your bubble but according to a US News & World Report survey the median salary of law school graduates entering the private sector in 2016 was $68,375 and the median salary for entering the public sector in 2016 was $53,500. This median of course is also based on the law school ranking. The higher the ranking the higher the debt and also the higher the income potential ( Top 10 schools charge closer to $200K for educational expenses); to me this does not sound like a sensible return on $100K-$200K+ in debt particularly if having a law degree is not going to be used primarily for… practicing law and the last name on your bank account doesn’t end with Zuckerberg or Knowles-Carter .
Most lawyers would even tell you that if you don’t have a plan to actually practice law, there are better paths to meeting your career aspirations. As an example, of you want to work in politics the majority of the opportunities available do not require a law degree such as a communications specialist, policy analyst or even a lobbyist. According to a 2016 Gallup Poll only 23% of law graduates believe their law degree was worth the cost! Wow… somebody is making money and its sounds like it’s the educational institutions and not the graduates. If you’re thinking of enhancing your business acumen, there are far less costly and more effective ways to achieve this such as more targeted professional certification programs within your field. As an example in the insurance industry, there are designations such as the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) that yield a better return because it’s more targeted and it actually includes contract review training. It’s about a $5,000 investment and 2 years’ time commitment. In terms of entrepreneurship, if you’re thinking a law degree will enhance your background here’s a quick tip, most of the successful entrepreneurs I know do not have law degrees and some don’t even have undergraduate degrees.
I remember a few years back I was in a relationship with an ex who decided at the age of 32 that he wanted to go back to school and get a law degree. I knew he was more caught up in the status symbol than a genuine passion for law. I also knew that the esteem of being able to say “I am a lawyer” was not going to sustain him through a rigorous law school program or help him achieve a successful career. Not to mention the thought of joining my life to $100K + worth of debt with no real plan of financial freedom was enough to give me a mini stroke. Thankfully my only investment was a couple of LSAT study books and we broke up before he completely ruined my credit!
From a technological standpoint every day there are tech geeks in the world creating algorithms to review contracts and do legal tasks faster and more accurately than human lawyers at a fraction of the cost. As of 2016, McKinsey consultant group estimated that 22% of a lawyer’s job and 35% of a law clerk’s job can be automated. If I’m honest, LegalZoom.com has been one of my more economical and time efficient legal “friends” for years in terms of contracts, business formation documents, filings and even one-on-one personal advice from experienced attorneys through one of their monthly subscriptions. As artificial intelligence enhances the way we do business, the legal profession is one of many industries that will be increasingly vulnerable. Companies will continue to look for ways to increase efficiencies and limit costs. As a result, the prestige of having a law degree will have diminishing returns.
From my experience, success is determined not by simply having an education but how you leverage your education whether it comes from within the classroom or outside of it. The key is having a clear path of how you want to use the investment. I obtained my MBA from the University of Massachusetts and I had a very clear plan of how to use it. As a result, I achieved my career goals in a pretty immediate time frame after graduation with minimal debt.
Listen, if you’ve weighed the financial costs in terms of debt accumulation and the opportunity costs relative to the time commitment, market availability and technological impact and it still makes sense for you to get a law degree… then… go for it. As a hiring manager, just know if you end up pursuing roles that do not require a law degree and you don’t have a proven track record of success in the actual role outside of the law degree, the most likely perception of you is that you have an expectation that your JD will carry more value in comparison to other candidates. I’m telling you… it won’t!
