CHAPTER 1: SHOULD YOU GO TO LAW SCHOOL?

Choosing to attend law school is a major life decision. The Juris Doctor (JD) degree is expensive, time-intensive, and academically demanding, but when paired with your military background, it can also be a powerful professional tool. The JD is a professional degree designed to prepare graduates for the practice of law, but within the legal profession, there is significant flexibility to move across practice areas, sectors, and roles over a career.

Lawyers work across the public and private sectors. In the public sector, roles include public defender, prosecutor, judge, military or civilian government attorney, Foreign Service Officer, congressional staffer, policy advisor, and human rights advocate. In the private sector, lawyers may practice in litigation or transactional fields, work in-house for companies or nonprofits, or specialize in areas such as finance, technology, compliance, sports, or healthcare. Many veterans are drawn to law because it offers opportunities to continue serving the public, shaping policy, or advocating for others.

At the same time, law school can be an expensive and time-consuming detour for those who have not fully considered the realities of the profession or the range of employment outcomes. Even after completing much of the law school curriculum, it can be difficult to know whether you will enjoy the day-to-day work of practicing law until you actually begin practicing. For this reason, it is critical that you speak with practicing attorneys, research different practice areas, and understand how lawyers build their careers before committing to law school. Seek out people doing the work you think you might want to do and ask how they got there.

Later in this chapter, we will discuss reasons not to attend law school. Our goal is not to discourage you from pursuing a JD, but to help you make an informed decision—one you will not regret several years and significant financial investment later.

WHAT IS LAW SCHOOL?

At a basic level, law school is a professional graduate education in the law. In the United States, JD programs are typically three years long for full-time students and four years for part-time students. Upon graduation, students earn a Juris Doctor degree.

Many law school graduates report that law school develops valuable skills like critical reading, analytical reasoning, persuasive writing, and oral advocacy, which can be useful in many professions. Others caution that law school should generally be pursued by those who genuinely want to practice law or work in law-adjacent roles where a JD is clearly advantageous. Before making the investment of time and money, you should have a clear understanding of what you hope to gain from a legal education.

Most law schools are part of larger universities and operate as traditional, in-person (“brick-and-mortar”) institutions. Law schools are commonly discussed in relation to national rankings, particularly those published annually by U.S. News & World Report. While rankings can provide a general sense of relative prestige, they should not be treated as definitive or dispositive. Ranking methodologies change over time, schools may be tied or clustered closely together, and rankings often obscure the factors that matter most to individual applicants, such as cost, geographic placement, employment outcomes, and bar passage rates.

A helpful rule of thumb is this: the more nationally recognized a law school is, the more geographically flexible its graduates tend to be. Schools commonly referred to as the “Top 14” (T14) have historically placed graduates across the country and into a wide range of competitive legal jobs. Outside this group, most law schools are more regional, and their strongest employment outcomes are typically concentrated in the geographic area where the school is located. This does not make regional schools inferior, but it does mean you should think carefully about where you want to practice law and choose schools with strong placement in that market.

Many law schools offer part-time or evening JD programs, which allow students to work while enrolled. These programs can be an excellent option for veterans balancing employment, family obligations, or service-related transitions. However, part-time students should pay close attention to how course sequencing, recruiting opportunities, and financial aid differ from full-time programs.

Law students are commonly referred to as 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls, corresponding to their first, second, and third years of study. While curricula vary by school, most require first-year students to take a set of foundational courses, typically including Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, Torts, and Legal Writing. In the second and third years, students usually have greater flexibility to choose electives in areas such as corporate law, litigation, tax, international law, or public interest law.

Many law school classes use the Socratic method, in which professors engage students through questioning and discussion of appellate cases drawn from casebooks. This approach emphasizes legal reasoning, close reading, and analytical precision. Assessment in law school often differs sharply from undergraduate education: many courses are graded almost entirely on a single final exam, often subject to a mandatory grading curve. This structure can be challenging, particularly for students returning to academics after time away from school.

In addition to doctrinal coursework, most law schools offer experiential learning opportunities, including legal clinics, externships, and simulation-based courses. Clinics allow students to work on real cases under faculty supervision, often serving underserved populations. Students also gain experience through summer internships after their first and second years of law school.

Some schools offer accelerated or joint-degree programs (such as JD/MBA programs). These options can be attractive for certain career goals but vary widely in structure, admissions requirements, and outcomes. Applicants should carefully review each program’s current requirements and expectations before applying.

THE BAR EXAM AND ACCREDITATION

Graduating from law school is not the final step to becoming a lawyer. To practice law, graduates must pass a bar exam in at least one jurisdiction. Each state sets its own bar admission rules, including educational requirements.

Graduating from an American Bar Association (ABA)–approved law school remains the most widely accepted and portable path to bar eligibility across the United States. While some jurisdictions permit graduates of non-ABA or state-accredited schools to sit for the bar, those pathways are often limited and may restrict where you can practice later. If you are considering a non-traditional program, it is essential that you confirm bar eligibility requirements for every jurisdiction in which you may want to practice.

In recent years, the ABA has approved an increasing number of JD programs that include substantial distance-education components. These programs differ significantly from unaccredited or state-only online law schools. If you are considering a hybrid or distance-education JD, you should closely examine bar passage rates, employment outcomes, required in-person components, and employer perceptions, particularly if you plan to practice outside a single jurisdiction.

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT GO TO LAW SCHOOL

The primary arguments against attending law school relate to cost, debt, and employment outcomes.

The cost of legal education has risen dramatically over the past several decades, far outpacing general inflation. Tuition at both public and private law schools has increased substantially, and many students graduate with significant educational debt. While starting salaries for new lawyers can be high in certain segments of the market, they vary widely depending on school, geography, employer type, and academic performance.

Legal salaries continue to follow a bimodal distribution. A portion of graduates, most commonly from highly ranked schools, enter large law firms with starting salaries well into six figures. However, many graduates work in small firms, government, public interest organizations, or non-legal roles with more modest compensation. Even today, a substantial share of new lawyers earn salaries that make servicing large student loan balances challenging.

Employment outcomes have improved in recent graduating classes, but they are not uniform. Not all graduates obtain long-term, full-time, bar-required jobs shortly after graduation. Some remain underemployed or unemployed for extended periods, and job satisfaction among lawyers is mixed. The profession can involve long hours, high stress, intense competition, and work that differs significantly from what many applicants imagine before law school.

If you are relying heavily on loans to finance your education, you should be especially cautious. A common financial guideline is that total educational debt should not greatly exceed expected first-year salary, yet many law graduates exceed this threshold. While veterans with access to the Post-9/11 GI Bill or other funding may mitigate these risks, cost should still be a central consideration when choosing whether and where to attend law school.

MAKING AN INFORMED DECISION

Deciding whether to attend law school requires an honest assessment of your goals, finances, and tolerance for risk. You should weigh the potential benefits of a JD against the debt you may incur, the employment outcomes of the schools you are considering, and the reality that you may ultimately decide that practicing law is not for you.

Veterans often bring strengths that employers value, such as leadership, discipline, teamwork, and resilience, but those attributes do not guarantee particular outcomes. Law school hiring remains highly sensitive to school choice, academic performance, geography, and interviewing skills.

Before beginning the application process, take the time to:

Speak with practicing attorneys in fields that interest you

Review employment and bar passage data for prospective schools

Understand how financial aid, GI Bill benefits, and scholarships apply to your situation

Reflect on whether the day-to-day work of law aligns with your interests and values

This guide will help you navigate the admissions process if you decide to pursue law school, but the most important step comes first: deciding whether law school is the right choice for you.