Boy, how I wish being a lawyer were like a Grisham novel, even a bad Grisham novel. If you think it is, here's the top 10 reasons to reconsider that law school application.

1. $100,000 in student loan debt at 8% interest.

Yep, law school is expensive. Just your tuition and fees are going to set you back $100,000 or more over three years, plus interest, which is rising at a rapid rate. Then, after law school, there's the $1,000 to $4,000 you'll spend taking the bar exam and the 6 months you'll be unemployed or unemployable after law school while you study for the exam and wait for your results. Nutshell, law school is a financial gamble.

2. Law school itself.

First you've got to get in, which means taking the LSAT and preparing all of the applications. Then, you have to make it through your first year, where a significant percentage quit or fail. The old saying about law school is true: "In the first year the scare you to death, the second year they work you to death, and the third year they bore you to death."

3. The Bar Exam

Not only do you have to get through law school successfully, you've got to pass a three day exam in order to get your license. The exam is tough (although you can read my Helium article on tips to help you through it). If you fail, you can take it again, but it cost more money and you have to wait six months. Meanwhile, you're pretty much unemployable.

4. The hours suck

If you get a good paying job, kiss your wife and your kids goodbye, or any hope of having a wife and kids, because your butt is owned for the foreseeable future. You're going to be worked to death both because that is what is expected of young associates and because you're going to realize that you didn't learn anything you need to know to be a lawyer in law school (that's a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one). You're going to be working early and late just to get your work done and to make sure your idea of "done" is accurate.

5. The pay is mediocre at best

I don't want to think about what my hourly rate would be, if I added all the hours I worked into it. People hear that lawyers make $100, $200, $300 and more an hour. But, if you added all the time they don't or shouldn't bill for, that number falls precipitously. If you persevere, you might get to a point where you know enough and are efficient enough to bill half the time you work.

6. Your life is about other people's problems

Most of the time, when people

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