Being an attorney is a very prestigious job, so many parents want their kids to go into that field even though it takes a lot of school.

What would you do if you were an attorney and other parents often asked you to talk to their kids about the career?

That is what happened to the lawyer in this story, so he told the kids the truth about the downsides of the job, and now the parents are upset.

AITA? I have been a practicing attorney for 20 years and I try to talk people’s kids out of going to law school.

Yeah, I know you assume we’re all jerks anyway.

This can be a great career, for many.

I frequently get asked by people with college-aged kids to “talk to them about going to law school.”

I know that the parents assume I will try to talk their kid into going to law school.

Maybe he hates his job.

However, no one ever phrases it that way or specifically asks me to talk them into going. I typically happily agree to chat with their precocious undergraduate.

I never tell the parents what I am going to say to their kids. Then I tell those kids the truth.

TV shows make being an attorney seem great.

Being a lawyer is frequently a mess and not at all what TV or movies make it appear. Law school is difficult and expensive.

Many lawyers start practicing in their mid to late 20s with over $200,000 in student loans. The job itself is often both stressful and boring, which is a weird emotional place to be in.

I’m sure it is a very difficult job.

Depending on the nature of the practice, you are probably going to be dealing with tight deadlines with real consequences constantly.

Certain kinds of practices, family law being the low-hanging fruit here, usually generate a lot of stress and negative emotions.

The job certainly isn’t easy money.

There are lawyers out there making over $175k per year right out of school. Those people are usually working 90+ hour work weeks. It’s a grind.

Oh, and law firms are typically a pyramid scheme holding out equity partnership as the carrot and reward for a decade or so of trench labor.

Most attorneys are not super wealthy

A very small percentage of attorneys make it to that lofty perch. The median attorney salary in the USA is around $45k per year. Try to pay off $200k in loans on that kind of pay.

I spoke to an acquaintance’s college senior kid earlier this week for about a half hour and laid all of this out.

This is clearly not what the parents were hoping for.

The parent then called me up to yell at me for ruining their plans for their daughter’s future. I told them that I agreed to talk to their kid about being a lawyer and that I never said I would try to paint a rosy picture.

I even pointed out that they didn’t ask me to sell the idea they just asked if I would talk about it.

So, their daughter is still looking into it.

The daughter is still planning on taking the LSAT, along with the GRE and maybe the MCAT.

So, was I in the wrong for not trying to talk these promising young men and women into selling their souls for an Esq.?

AITA?

He should know that the parents were implying that they wanted him to talk positively about the job. If he wasn’t going to do that, he should have let them know.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this.

This student wishes he wouldn’t have gone to law school.

Parents shouldn’t push their kids.

Lots of attorneys hate their job.

There are lots of good jobs out there.

His salary estimates seem off.

The parents should have been clear on what they wanted.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.