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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I echo the common sentiments in the responses. If you want to be a practicing lawyer, you will have an extremely low chance of employment as a 50+ year old woman with an online degree. It is called the practice of law for a reason, graduation is not the end of the education, it’s the beginning and you will need a decent job as a new lawyer where you can go and develop into a “real practicing lawyer”. That job will be very very very hard to find.

Law school is an expensive education and time consuming. I am a practicing lawyer, your age with 23+ years experience.  I enjoyed the education but hated the test taking. I went to a top 20 school and still had difficulty finding a job.  I was able to pay off my loans in less than 10 years but it took living a meager lifestyle and mercifully the scholarships were high and 20+ years ago the costs were lower. The big law big checks come with big sacrifices, but those will not be available to a grad from an online school.  If you have a burning passion to be a practicing lawyer go for it, but not the online, unaccredited law school.  If you have not done so already, try shadowing a lawyer who practices in the area you are interested in for a few days.

[b]Most lawyers are not making $200,000[/b] so if it’s riches you seek, don’t.  I try not to be a dream killer, but in your case I don’t get the sense that you have a burning desire to be a practicing lawyer so I am joining the choir encouraging you to spend much more time thinking this through.[/quote]

Is this really true?  How much do you make?  Why do so many lawyers on here make $500k-$1m if it's so rare (the few who do just happen to post here all the time)?[/quote]

[/quote]

I was the PP who asked this - not the OP.  I was just surprised because I have a useless degree (master's in public policy) and work for the government, and I've always been told lawyers make so much more and I should have gone to law school.  I'm a GS-15 now, so I guess that's not too far off the $200k that I might have made in a different life as a lawyer, but it's taken me 20 years to get here...[/quote]

lol.  many fed gov attorneys top out at 14.  At some agencies there are more 15s available, but most "line" attorneys who are not specialists in some financial area start at 11 and top out at 14.

sure, some people make a lot more out in the private sector, but a lot of people in the private make either the same or less than their federal counterparts, and work hard to get that money.  I practiced for 12 years before moving to fed.  For a lot of those 12 years I made less than my fed friends. By the time I left private practice my salary was about the same as where I would have been had I started as a fed. although not quite as much, and I had to work a lot harder to get that salary than the people I knew in fed land. [/quote]

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