[jatx]

I agree with the points previously made about the value of professional degrees and the options that they can generate. However, I do not agree with the advice to finish law school if you are certain that you do not want to practice in the future.

Contrary to popular opinion, law school alone is not great training for non-legal pursuits in business or policy. I know many, many attorneys who graduated from top law schools and who are at elite firms, but who are completely miserable and unable to switch tracks. This is partly because they have become accustomed to the predictable cash flows of firm life, but also because practice tends to narrow, not broaden, your focus over time. In addition, they wasted valuable credit hours on obscure areas of the law in which they had little genuine interest, instead of developing other valuable tools like accounting, corporate finance, economics, marketing, etc.

This is not to say that law school is not both challenging and stimulating. However, I was once in your position and decided to walk away, and consider it to be the best move that I ever made. If you think that you might want to practice, by all means complete the degree, but hedge your bets by exploring joint degree programs with business, public policy, international affairs, etc. It will only add a year to your timeline and, as someone said above, the war isn't going anywhere.

If you are positive that you will never want to practice, you are wasting daylight by continuing to develop skills that will not necessarily help you in civilian life. Even if tuition is not a major consideration for you, there is still an opportunity cost to be considered. You might be better off investing the next two years in a different degree program.