Ann Israel is the legal profession's Dear Abby. A New York legal recruiter since 1979, Ann is a past president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Advice for the Lawlorn is updated every week.

Q: I'm 36 and am seriously considering attending law school. I just received notice that I've been accepted to a top 25 school, but I want to do my due diligence. What's a first-year associate's life like? Is that the only way I can afford to pay off law loans? In general I'm concerned I'm turning in my 45-hour-a-week job at 60K a year for an 80-hour-a-week job for not much more compensation. I want to practice law, but I'm trying to weigh the costs and benefits. Thank you.

Dear Diligent: If you are truly doing your due diligence you might have learned that right now a first year associate's life is fairly unstable. Large numbers of first year attorneys have been asked to leave their firm and are without employment at this time. Others have been asked to take a year off at a greatly reduced salary. Still others are quaking in their figurative boots, waiting to see if the ax is about to fall on their employment.

The situation is even scarier for those 2L and 3L law students who entered law school dreaming of BigLaw paychecks and long billable hours. Many 3Ls have been told that the start date for their new jobs as associates at law firms have been deferred for as long as a year.

And 2Ls looking forward to cushy summer jobs with beer-infused parties are now happy if the law firms are having summer programs; and if firms are, for the most part, the programs have been shortened by several weeks and my guess is that those fancy parties, Broadway plays and forays out to the new ball parks' private boxes probably are not going to happen.

Having said all of that, I saw Jim Cramer announce to the world (well, whatever portion of the world happened to be watching MSNBC at that moment) the other day that the depression was over! Oh yes, he said, watch for better times. Of course, he reminded us that the recession is still here but the depression is definitely over.

So, what does that mean for you? I suspect (I HOPE!) that this might be a very good time to attend law school and wait out the next two to three years for the economy to heat back up again. However, I can't make you any promises that law firm life is going to be waiting for you with open arms upon your graduation.

In an editorial in The New York Times on Apr. 1st, Adam Cohen predicts a different world in the future (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/opinion/02thu4.html?_r=1&em) with salaries at the BigLaw firms for first year associates falling from $160K to as low as $100K. I don't know if the firms will do that across the board but it has already started to happen, and only you can decide if it is financially worth it to you because I doubt that the workload will become any lighter. And I doubt that your law school tuition is going to drop down percentage-wise by the same amount, certainly not this coming school year, even if you are going to Northwestern, which is changing to a two-year law school.

Can you keep your job and attend law school part-time? That is really a difficult thing to do, but perhaps in your situation, until you determine that you really do want to continue on with law school, it might be the best solution. It will give you a chance to see what going back to school is all about, without having to give up the career you have thus far had in your life. Just a thought ... .

The only advice I can give to you is for you to really think about one of the last sentences you wrote to me: "I want to practice law ... ." If that is a burning desire, if you truly love the law, then you will find a way to work through the financial worries and the difficulties of law school and the uncertainties of the future.

You are not a 21-year old kid trying to figure out what to do with your life; instead, you are a mature adult who has some life experience ... . I think you probably do know what you want to do at this point in time.

It won't be easy, but if this is really what you want, go for it before it really does get to be too late. Just be aware what is going on with the BigLaw firms, and hiring and firing, and understand that no one can predict what the legal community will be all about three years from now when you emerge from law school. Please let us know what you decide to do. Best wishes!

Sincerely,
Ann M. Israel
President, Ann Israel & Associates