How do i know which area of law is for me?

[thinkpinkpop]

Hi all!

I recently graduated with a BA in psychology from DePaul university. I had always wanted to be a criminal prosecutor or a forensic psychologist, but geared my education towards the latter. Recently I joined reality and saw that I would have to spend money on a PhD only to graduate and make $28k coming out of school - less than I make now. I can't afford to create MORE debt only to make LESS than I do now, so i decided it's back to pursuing law, only I recenlty realized as well that prosecutors make the least of all lawyers.

I'm not a money grubber, but I do want to earn something back from all the money I've dished out for a private education, and I feel I could be good at law, I just don't know anymore what TYPE of law to get into.

I'm kind of technically savvy, so I thought about IP law, but I heard you need a technical degree to get into that.

I've also thought about Civil Rights or Mental Health laws, but I don't know enough about them...

Is there something out there that you can read or a test I can take that can pinpoint some of my interests and skills and suggest what areas of law I should look into?

I'm really lost... I don't want to "pick" the wrong area of law and regret all the money I'll spend and the career I will have after the fact. please help!!!!

 

[NYClex]

Read a couple of John Grishams, decide to become a class-action trial lawyer and earn $ 100 Million in the first week out of law school.

Your whole question shows that you probably should rethink the career plan. If you want to start law for the money, you are in for a rude awakening. Unless you have a certain passion for what you do, you will never succeed in a way that makes you rich. There are thousands and thousands of lawyers out there competing with you.

 

[ESQMSM]

I agree with your other reply

By the time I got to the last year of law school, many students were interviewing with big firms, for jobs that promised big bucks for 80 hour weeks.

In the same way I waited a year before starting law school, I didn't want to rush into that type of obligation, especially as I was getting married. Even normal hours can strain a marriage.

Twenty years later I'm glad that's how I looked at it. I ended up interviewing with firms that sounded interesting, who were looking for people from my school, and took a job with the first, alphabetically, on the list. It was a small litigation firm, in downtown Manhatten.
I started there as the youngest and least experienced, and ten years later I had been the senior assocuate for several years, and I had learned New York civil practice in and out.

The firm then split up but thats another story.