Comment & Debate
“Should You Go to Law School? Not Unless You Want To Be a Lawyer.” Wronging Rights. January 22, 2009: “I know: right now you are mentally listing the names of all of the diplomats, senior policy advisors, politicians, bankers, aid workers, and political operatives who have J.D.s. I’m sure it’s a long list. Having a law degree certainly doesn’t disqualify someone from holding one of those positions. It might even help a little. But it’s not a requirement, and it’s not the easiest or cheapest way in.
There may be J.D.s in every walk of life in this country, but lawyers’ dirty secret is that their proliferation is due less to that degree’s versatility than it is to the fact that thousands of lawyers flee the profession every year. Seriously. I am not even kidding. Do you really think Cake Love’s Warren Brown runs a successful bakery because of what he learned at GW law? There’s a difference between torts and tortes, my friends. If he’d liked the former, he’d still be practicing law. But he didn’t, and so he’s not. And, given that he really wanted to pursue the latter, he’d have been better off going to cooking or business school.”