Lawyers are specialists in negotiation, mediation, organizational procedures, persuasion, analysis of edge-cases of language and rule sets, evaluating the motives and thoughts of other humans and predicting their actions in ambiguous contexts, and quickly consuming and producing textual information under high pressure.
That seems like a pretty impressive toolbox that has broad applications across great swaths of human endeavor.
As it stands, many of my lawyer friends have contributed far more to humanity's greater good than I think any of my fellow techies have.
Having a legal background opens up a lot of opportunities in government-related areas. These simply aren't as easily available to other professions. If you'd like to hold a position of power, doing law is probably the best bet.
