Bill Chamberlain, Assistant Dean at Northwestern School of Law, admits that law schools have a long way to go in providing the transparency needed for prospective students to intelligently evaluate career prospects with a law degree, but he also notes that those students also bear responsibility for ensuring they are motivated to go to law school by a genuine desire to practice law, not by the false promise of six figures:

Much of the responsibility also rests on the shoulders of prospective law school applicants themselves – many of whom have entered our walls for all the wrong reasons. For example, practicing law is not just about the money and never has been – the motivation must go beyond that. If your only motivation for attending law school is to make six-figures or some vague notion to pursue what sounds like a practical degree, you are bound to be sorely disappointed whether you land one of those coveted jobs or not. When junior associates compute their salaries on a per hour worked basis, they are often shocked. No one should go to law school unless she or he wants to become a lawyer and practice law and, better yet, has already developed an interest in particular aspects within the law. The prospective student who fails to do the due diligence to find out what “becoming a lawyer and “practicing law” really means on a day-to-day basis really has no business applying.