If you are in high school at the moment, and you know that you will graduate before too long, then you should start thinking about what you might do afterward. Will you go to college? If so, do you have a particular career path in mind that is attracting you?
Getting into the legal profession has several notable benefits, so you might try to go to law school and pass the bar. It is not easy, but if you can do it, you may have a career in front of you that appeals.
Many people like practicing law. In this article, we will talk about some of the most compelling reasons why you might do it.
1. You Can Potentially Make a Lot of Money
Maybe you are looking at law school because you feel like you want a career where you can make a lot of money. Some careers have a ceiling on them. Even if you get to the top, you probably can’t call yourself rich.
If you practice law, though, you can absolutely get rich, especially if you get into some particular niches. For instance, if you do criminal defense, and someone wealthy hires you, then you can bill them for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You can get everything that goes along with wealth if you feel like that is what matters the most. You can get a mansion, a high-end car, or even a private jet if you practice for long enough and make enough money over the years.
You can get generational wealth that you can pass on if you have children as well. You can easily support a spouse or partner and make sure that they have all the finer things in life.
2. You Can Stand Up for the Little Guy
Maybe you would prefer to get into the legal profession because you want to stand up for the poor, defenseless, and downtrodden. Maybe you do not care about money so much. Instead, you want to help people who desperately need a defender. You can do that for them.
You can seem like a hero to people who need it. For instance, maybe you will represent people who the cops accused of doing something, but they swear they are innocent. They may not have the resources to hire a great criminal defendant, though.
You can step in and give them excellent legal defense. You will not make a lot of money, but you can feel like you are helping society in a very impactful, meaningful way. You can feel a sense of pride every day when you go to work.
3. You Can Get into Many Different Niches
You can also get into various niches if you graduate from law school. With that education, you can look at the different areas of the law and decide which one appeals to you the most.
You might become a criminal defendant, or else you can prosecute criminals instead as a district attorney. You might get into entertainment or sports law. That way, you can meet interesting people in the entertainment world.
You might get into business law. You can work for a single large company in some instances. If they ever need your help with drawing up contracts or negotiating them, they can turn to you for your expert advice and assistance. You might get into environmental law and stand up for the planet against corporations that pollute. You may get into tax law and help people file their taxes.
You have so many options with that law degree. Once you have it, you can get into the area of the law that suits you best, but you can also change your career path at some point as well. Some lawyers start out with one specialty, and then they switch to something else years later if they feel they need a change.
4. You Can Become Famous
You can become famous as a lawyer in some instances. Think about someone like Johnnie Cochran. He gained instant fame when he represented OJ in his highly publicized trial back in the 90s.
Remember that Barack Obama went from being a lawyer to eventually becoming the president. Abraham Lincoln took that path as well.
You might go from being a lawyer to becoming a Supreme Court Justice like the highly respected Ruth Bader Ginsburg. You might become an icon who some people regard as changing this nation’s course for the better. If you get both wealth and fame through your legal work, you may become an author. You might write in your book about your most famous cases.
You can go from being a simple lawyer to becoming someone who the public knows and respects. If that appeals, then you can strive for that by taking on the highest profile cases, running for public office, or doing anything else that promotes your personality as well as your legal skills.
5. You Can Have Powerful and Influential Friends
You might also like the idea of becoming a lawyer so that you can gain powerful and influential friends. Some of the most famous lawyers in history did much more than practice law. They also got to a point where they could access the halls of power and exert their influence there.
If you have certain political causes that you support, you might get into an area of the law that helps you do that. While working at your job, you can rub elbow with the glitterati. You can talk with power brokers and influence them. If you become a lawyer, then you can take your life and career in virtually limitless directions. Money, power, and influence can be yours if you care about those things.
However, you can also take the exact opposite path and become a humanitarian with your law degree. The incredible diversity of what you can do make this a career trajectory that nothing else can truly duplicate.