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Pros and Cons of Working Before Law School

 
Each fall, the question facing college senior pre-laws is, “Should I apply to law schools now, or should I plan to get work experience first?”
The answer isn’t an easy one to find, the obvious reason being that while moving ahead in life is certainly a good thing, getting more work experience is a good thing too.
To structure the decision making process, here are some pros and cons to working before law school:
Pros:
– Work experience will broaden your perspective on law
–  Exposing yourself to life outside academia will either reaffirm that you are on the right path, or send you scurrying to a different profession before you trade lots of money and effort for a JD
– You will have a slight advantage when applying for jobs after law school, because you’ll have work references and proven ability to function in a non-school environment
Cons:
– You will delay going to law school, which means graduating when you’re older and perhaps less able to deal with the grueling first years of work
– When you finally make it to law school, you’ll have to readjust to the student lifestyle of late nights and probable poverty
– You might get bored if you work, because the jobs available to people without graduate degrees might be much less intellectually stimulating
Source: US News and World Report