Thinking of Career Switch to patent lawyer - (Jul/05/2011 )

Next year I will be loosing my job. I have been thinking for while of a career change and I am currently thinking about going to law school so that I can become a patent lawyer. I was wondering if any of you have any experience with going back to school in order to switch careers. Things that I am trying to figure out before I make the leap:

1. How will the job market for this new career be like?
2. Will it be a job that I could potentially enjoy?
3. How will I pay for school?

Basically if anyone has any advice - I am all ears.

did u ever have the chance to talk to a patent lawyer?
this is probably the best way to see if you may like it - i wouldn't be afraid of randomly addressing patent lawyers and ask them to talk about their jobs -
one is sometimes surprised how much people like talking about themselves, isn't it ;-)?
maybe u have the chance to talk to someone in your institute?

i visited one or two seminars about this area and could talk to patent lawyers -
I would say once you get in and do the exams (it also depends which kind of exam you have - at least here in europe) the job offers and the salary are really good.
it is actually one area which is thought to be safe, also during economical difficult times - patents are probably more informative and important than any publications in any science journals; anyhow,
my point is - patents are always needed and always filed.
on the other hand - according to the lawyers i talked to, a downside (maybe not for everyone!) is the paper work - one needs to like writing apparently, this takes a lot of time in addition to performing a lot of research with regard to potential patent violations etc... . Also, one needs a endurance sometimes, especially when it is about court trials regarding patent violations that can take years in court; maybe the latter was just an example from the patent guy to scare us...? :-)?
anyhow - these are just my impressions i got from people working in the field... .
sorry about your job btw!

cheers