I’m a county prosecutor (in the US). Prior to law school, I studied horticulture and worked on an industrial hazelnut farm. Law school only required an undergrad degree and a decent score on the Law School Amission Test (LSAT). Law School took 3 years and then a summer to study for the Bar exam. After passing the bar exam, one is generally qualified for an entry level attorney job with most DA offices, but the pay is generally slightly lower than you could find at a private firm.

However, government jobs are often sought out for because they don’t generally have a “billable hour” requirement. Billable hours are how attorneys generally charge for their services with a set price per hour. Most attorneys charge by 0.1 hours and each charge must have a statement explaining what it is the attorney did. This is sent to the client at the end of a job or month for them to know how much they owe. Most law firms require a out 1,600 hours per year (33 hours per week). An efficient attorney can probably get their ratio of billable hours to work hours to about 60%. This means if an attorney worked for 10 hours, they would generally only have 6 billable hours. This system often forces people to work longer hours to meet their requirements. However, if an attorney bills more than their requirement, they get a bonus based on amount of money brought in.

If I could do it again, I might do it. I generally like the work environment, pay, benefits, and coworkers, but someday I think I would have enjoyed a more physical job doing something interesting.