I'm only going by family experience as my brother does corporate bankruptcy in the Pittsburgh area for an established firm and is making very very very good money. Even local Attorneys are making good cash.
I do remember reading that the market is bad currently but surely there are some specialties that are booming in the legal industry?
Since the economy is crap, it is no surprise that corporate BK is doing ok, but still, overall the market for legal jobs is probably at an all-time low. A lot of well-established firms and attorneys are doing fine, but often that is at the expense of entry-level attorneys. Instead of offering nice salaries to first year attorneys, they can get away with offering a pittance. I've seen positions offered in CA for lawyers at $15/hour or less. Salaries of $35,000, which once you figure in student loans is horrible. Even well-established firms are trimming people. Latham & Watkins, one of the biggest, top law firms in the country recently let about 200 lawyers go. There are articles out there like "Death of Big Law" and more. As an imperfect analogy it is kind of like telling someone if they want to make money they should become an actor, after all, there are plenty of actors making millions of dollars. Yeah, but those are exceptions, not the rule.
I think that 'conventional wisdom' of going to law school to automatically make good $, that being a great idea was followed so heavily that now there are just too many lawyers out there, and so it isn't true anymore. Since lawyers are a dime a dozen, there is no incentive for firms to pay them well. Add in things like legal zoom and the websites and DIY approach of people, a lot of legal options have dried up quite a bit. I'm not saying someone can't make money, even a lot of money at law, but it is not a short-term career path to good money anymore. Plus, as I mentioned, I don't think it is cake work, every lawyer I know, and I know a lot of them, works long hours, weekends, holidays, etc. Recent law school grads are struggling to find work. I'm sure there are some geographic areas with openings in some specialties, but it is really bleak. I should add, even if someone went to law school and took classes on corporate law, bankruptcy, etc., it still isn't going to guarantee that person can find a job in corporate bankruptcy, since they have no experience.
Actually, one option for someone with a nuclear medicine background could be becoming a patent attorney. They tend to do pretty well, I think, because there are so few people with science backgrounds that go into law.
