The problem really isn't people going into it right now, eyes wide open, and taking a chance that things will be better years down the road. Its the 2009/2010 graduates who have been shut out of practicing because of all the laid off lawyers with experience willing to work for less to snag a job that pushed them out of the market. Lots of those people will either leave the legal sector for a stable, low paying job that they will never be able to pay down their debt (and get ahead and own property, ect.) someday or they will wallow in a low paying job for so long that they are worse off than they would have been without going. I have a friend from a good school, good grades, passed two bars on the first try, journal experience, won a writing award, and he's currently not even making enough to pay rent working a document review job and an internship. He works doc review whenever he can for the money but its not giving him proper "experience" to get a job so he's also working for very, very little at a firm on the side. Definitely not what he thought he'd be doing at his age. He had to move back in with his parents and sees no end in sight for that.