I can only speak from my experience, and I would suggest that you consider what type of attorney you want to be (transactional/litigation/real estate, etc.). I've been a lawyer for 4 years in biglaw. I've recently met with managing partners at other big law firms and talked to them about career prospects. Every single one has told me to leave biglaw ASAP and never look back. The legal field is changing dramatically, and has since the mid-2000s. Making partner is threading an impossible needle nowadays. Bringing in clients nowadays is an impossible feat and you aren't in your prime to make that happen until late 40s/50s when the people you know in college/law school are at a place where they can give you business. All that aside, debate, mock trial, and all the "lawyerly-type experiences" that you think law is, is not. Practicing law and playing at law are two very, very different things. I did quite well in law school and working at the USAO, and I sit and do doc review for hours on end. I won my first case this past week and the partner didn't even stop by my office to say congrats or "howaboutthat?" It's a thankless profession where you are constantly eating shit-sandwiches and are supposed to be thankful for your job that slowly takes away your soul and makes you as miserable as the partners who rarely see their families and don't care to. Again, this is my biglaw experience and may be a different story elsewhere. Mid-sized firms might give you the enjoyment of being a lawyer where you're not just a cog in a wheel. Law is not at all what it was in the 80s and 90s. There's absolutely no loyalty anymore. And smart millennials know they're smart and want a less work lifestyle that caters to their intelligence. This is causing major issues with older partners who never got involved in today's technology and don't understand how anything works outside of books. Law is in a very strange transition right now, and at a very scary place. I would agree with all the advice I've only recently received from major partners in big law and a recruiter who I trust with my life (and am), that getting out of big law is the best path ahead for me. Morale at my firm is really low, and everyone seems to be looking for "something else." Anything.