Why did you choose law?

According to a 1990 ABA survey, 40% of lawyers chose law for the intellectual challenge. This makes sense to me. Good reason for a career choice.

Social service was the next highest cited reason at 17%. Again, very reasonable decision making.

Now for the scary one. 14% chose law because they had no attractive alternative. Clearly not a strong and compelling reason for a profession.

I can only hope that the people who chose it because they saw no attractive alternative have come to find that there is something interesting that ignites their passion over their years of practice.