From the bespoke suits and lavish lifestyles of lawyers in pop culture to the glossy pages of law school brochures, legal education’s allure is clear. The daunting spectre of a bar exam and the prospect of incurring $200,000 in student loans does not deter the 130,000-plus students attending law school each year. In a time when the networking and Socratic method have been replaced by Zoom classes and virtual bar review, does the reality of law school live up to the hype? 

Bait and Switch

For many college students that jump on the LSAT bandwagon, the motivation rests squarely on the numbers. Jaw-dropping salaries for first-year attorneys in the top law firms that hover above 190,000 combined with law school reported employment rates in the 80-90% range make the legal education route more than enticing.