愁眉不展的老实人，求高人指点、、、

I second nidm's points. Many preceive a legal job means more job security, power and independence. Yet the reality is quite different. Most Chinese students in American law schools choose careers in law firms, with a career ladder not unlike those in accounting and consulting firms.

Trial lawyers constitute a minority in law school graduates, and a even smaller minority among Chinese students. The image of trial lawyer in the minds of the non-lawyer public is quite different from the actual lives of many, if not most, lawyers.

Moreover, foreign lawyers can still come over. E.g. US LLM grads, although US educated, only takes 1 year before getting their degrees. This is not very different from the 1990's phenomenon of many foreigners coming to the US, getting a one year CS Master's Degree, and enter the job market quickly. I don't see the Bar requirement as a sufficiently high entry-barrier to ensure job security or status of US-educated (e.g. JD) lawyers.

Outsourcing is indeed an alarming trend. Although it only affects low-level legal work so far, please note the trend in tech-outsourcing. In the beginning, only certain call-center jobs were outsourced; then, maintainence, development/programming jobs. There is no doubt high level tech jobs still exist in the US, but the market is getting tighter and tighter. The same trend could happen in law, even if to a lesser extent.

If you read articles written by current Chinese JDs in America, a lot of them will paint a very rosy picture - e.g. excellent jobs, great pay, bright future. It is not that they are dishonest. It is just that those stories are written by a highly self-selected group: e.g. the people who happen to be very competent, fortunate, and successful. Those people who do not fare that well tend to say nothing at all. Therefore, if you read everything online, it's easy to have a biased picture, because you will hear a lot of the good news, but little or none of the bad news about getting a JD in the US.

This is similar to that you often see people claim getting a LSAT score above 170, but almost never someone getting a score below 155. We all know that statistically, far more people get scores below 155 than above 170.

Good info. Thanks.

For me going to law school is a challenge, and I like chanllenges.  There arent many foreign  educated law students in the law school to begin with. Less than 1%? Even after graduation, these are still obstacles for foreign born law pressional to succeed. But generally, foreigners are placed in  disadvantagous position in US. Things are not easy.  I agree with what you say.

But, one as a foreigner has to ask itself whether to accept disadvantage and be content with it? Going to law school at least present a chance to break the stigma.  It present a chance to be different from most of other foreign people. I think there is demand for people with science background and fluent in foreign languages in the booming global economy. There is an advantage for inspired foreign students like you, I and the first poster .  Think outside the box. It's hard to be mainstream trying to copy them. No, that's not the purpose of going to law school. Not for me.  We've all got edges over the mainstream and I think there will be use for people like us in the global economy.

Good luck with your study in law school. Hang in there.

Peace 

你好好笑，好好笑。