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Preston Peck

Ms. Amanda Tibbits

Language Arts 12

8 March 2019

Lawyer

For my occupation research essay I am researching lawyers. Lawyers have a very

important job that requires a lot of college education. When it comes down to it, lawyers are

nothing but a bunch of professional liars. However, this research essay is going to break down

what it is to be a lawyer, the pros and cons, and just about everything else you would need to

know about the profession.

In order to understand more about a lawyer, you need to know what they do. A lawyer is

an advocate, advisor, and a counselor for the clients they represent in the court of law. It is their

job to defend a defendant and press to win as the plaintiff, whether it be a lawsuit or a criminal

court. Lawyers usually spend 7 years in college after high school, 4 years of general study and 3

years of an ABA (american bar association) accredited law school.

Lawyers have a very stressful job and one of the questions that constantly arises

surrounding the profession is, are lawyers happy? Having satisfaction in your job is very

important. In “Lawyers and Their Discontents” By Edward Gross it says, “A​ survey by the

California Bar Association in 1992 reported that 70 percent of those polled said they would

choose another career if they could.” it goes on to say, “In New Jersey, almost a quarter of
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lawyers said they were planning to leave the practice of law before retirement. Other studies

show lawyer job satisfaction is dropping, along with much higher levels of alcoholism, drug

abuse and symptoms of depression than those found in the general population.” In spite of these

numbers, the number of lawyers is rising each year. These statistics make being a lawyer sound

like a very unattractive offer and is very important in showing how satisfied lawyers are with

their jobs overall. It is also important in showing us how lawyers have a much higher level of

substance abuse and symptoms of mental disease in comparison to the general population, there

is a correlation between the substance abuse and the high amounts of stress that a lawyer will

undergo in their profession.

In “Overstating the Satisfaction of Lawyers”, by David Chambers, it goes over the

satisfaction that lawyers have in their job with statistics received from feedback from

professional lawyers. In the essay it says, “​One body of literature reports that attorneys are

miserable. Another reports that in overwhelming numbers attorneys are satisfied with their jobs.

The argument of the first and longest part of this article is that surveys of attorneys reporting

high levels of job satisfaction commonly fail to recognize the ambivalence of many of those who

say that they are ´satisfied´ ”. The data from the statistics essentially tells us what we would have

expected to hear. Different types of lawyers have different opinions on whether or not they enjoy

their jobs. Differents types of lawyers have a different demand and that can translate directly into

how much they make which can show why different types of lawyers enjoy their job and some

don’t.

The previous paragraph shows how statistics are inconsistent in tracking whether or not

lawyers are satisfied with their jobs. An example of this inconsistency is found in ​“Lawyers and
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Their Discontents” By Edward Gross and ​\​“Lawyers Seem to Like What They’re Doing” by the

American Bar Association. The first source says, “​A​ survey by the California Bar Association in

1992 reported that 70 percent of those polled said they would choose another career if they

could”. While the American Bar Association says that 96 out of 100 males are satisfied with

their job and 83 out of 100 females is satisfied with their job. These statistics are important in

helping you see why there is an inconsistency in the satisfaction lawyers actually have in their

job. It is important to understand that there isn't a clear cut answer as to whether or not lawyers

actually enjoy their job, it ultimately comes down to the person’s preference.

Another thing someone would want to consider before taking a job is whether or not

there is a demand for it. In the United States there is about 1.2 million lawyers leaving about 1

lawyer for every 300 Americans. According to the National Association for Law Placement, the

median salary for lawyers who graduated in 2010 was $63,000, vs. $72,000 for the class just a

year ahead of them. This statistic is important in showing how the demand for lawyers is going

down along with the overall average salary. Why is this important? According to The American

Bar Association, the average cost for a law degree is $16,500 per year at a public college, and

$34,300 at a private school and the average salary for a lawyer in 2017 was $141,890. Is the

salary of a lawyer worth debt the degree will put you in? In “The Law Vs. Supply and Demand”

by Bill Saporito it says, “Vanderbilt University professor Herwig Schlunk has tried to calculate

it, and his conclusion is that most law students today won't earn enough beyond what a B.A. or

B.S. would have gotten them in another field to make the return on investment in law school pay

off”. When becoming a lawyer you have to ask yourself if the degree is worth the cost for the

salary you will get.

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The last paragraph is important because it shows the differences between the actual

average cost of a law degree and the average salary that a lawyer makes. These two are very

important to consider because if the price of the degree isn’t worth the amount of money you will

be making, then the job most likely won’t be worth it. Like previously mentioned, the professor

who tried to calculate whether or not it was worth it to become a lawyer concluded that most law

students today won’t make enough beyond what another B.A. or B.S. student would earn in

another field. With this information, it is important to consider whether or not you would actual

enjoy being a lawyer or if you are just planning to be a lawyer for the money, if there is another

bachelor degree out there that would be best suited for you because you might end up making the

same anyway. In “Cost Deters Aspiring Attorneys” By Janelle Harris in Crisis Magazine it says,

“Law school applications have declined 37% over the last four years, according to the National

Law Journal. Annual tuition can range from $15,000 for state schools to $60,000 for top tier

private institutions”. This shows how the cost of law school has a direct correlation to the huge

decline in law school applications in the last 4 years (2011-2015).

There is many positives to becoming a lawyer. A lawyer is one of the highest paying job.

In 2018, the average salary for a lawyer was $139,880 and it was the 22nd highest paying job in

2018. Another positive for becoming a lawyer is that you will have a very respected job. Being a

lawyer is a very respected profession in society. The respect that you recieve for being a good

lawyer allows for making connections with high profile people. Another positive to consider

when becoming a lawyer is that you can choose what you want to do. There is many different

types of jobs in law to choose from. Some of these different types include personal injury, estate

planning, bankruptcy, intellectual, employment, corporate, etc. Since there is so many different
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types of lawyers, you can always choose to do something that is in more demand or do

something that is more enjoyable.

It is also important to consider the the negatives to being a lawyer. Some of these

negatives include the pricing of a law degree, the amount of new lawyers, and the overall

satisfaction lawyers have toward their job. Like previously mentioned, the price of a law degree

is very expensive and in order to get one you need to spend thousands of dollars and invest

thousands of hours of time. While for some this may not seem like a negative, it is important to

consider the price you pay for the degree and how much you will realistically be making after

college. Other regular bachelors that require less money and time will make enough to make the

law degree unjustifiable from a financial point of view. It is also very important to consider how

many new lawyers there is. In “Lawyers and Their Discontents” by Edward Gross, it says, “The

number of lawyers has been rising especially in recent years. From 374,000 in 1975, the number

of lawyers will soon top one million as 31,000+ new lawyers are admitted to the bar every year”.

This statistic shows how many new lawyers there are. It will be extremely hard to compete with

other new lawyers and other established lawyers. Like previously mentioned, the satisfaction of a

lawyer is vastly overstated. When previously talking about the satisfaction of lawyers, we

concluded that lawyers don’t have an overall satisfaction in their job. The reason it is important

to consider the negatives to being a lawyer is so that you know for sure you want to be one

before you become one, you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a degree so that you

have to do a job that you don’t enjoy.

In conclusion, being a lawyer is a very good job that does come with certain trade offs. It

is one of the highest paying jobs you can get but it also comes with a very pricey degree that
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comes along with it. It is also debated whether or not lawyers actually like their job, and it’s very

important to pick a job that you are satisfied with and that you enjoy going to. Overall, the job

can be very good for some people and very bad for others, whether or not you are willing to

accept the positives that come with being lawyer for the trade offs that also come with it are

ultimately up to you.
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Works Cited

Harris, Janelle. “Cost Deters Aspiring Attorneys.” ​Crisis (15591573)​, vol. 122, no. 2, Spring

2015, p. 6.

Chambers, David L. “Overstating the Satisfaction of Lawyers.” ​Law & Social Inquiry​, vol. 39,

no. 2, Spring 2014, pp. 313–333. ​EBSCOhost,​ doi:10.1111/lsi.12041.

Saporito, Bill. “The Law vs. Supply and Demand.” ​Time,​ vol. 179, no. 14, Apr. 2012, p. 60.

EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=74004626&site=ehost-live.

“Lawyers Seem to like What They’re Doing.” ​American Bar Association Journal​, vol. 64, no. 7,

July 1978, p. 968. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=4798912&site=ehost-live.

Gross, Edward. “Lawyers and Their Discontents.” ​Society​, vol. 36, no. 1, Nov. 1998, pp. 26–31.

EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1007/BF02685971.

Harris, Janelle. “Cost Deters Aspiring Attorneys.” ​Crisis (15591573)​, vol. 122, no. 2, Spring

2015, p. 6.
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