Coming out of lurker-dom to chime in.
I loved law school. It was enough time ago that it wasn't quite so expensive. I took some loans out to go T-6 instead of taking a full ride at T-1 (outside T-14) school with strings. This was the best thing I could have done for what I wanted to do (academia, if I had the grades). Being at/near top of my T-6 school, I was able to earn $$ during both summers & it led to the career I wanted. Then I paid off loans as early as possible. But I was on job market at time when there were many more hiring lines to fill and not nearly as many candidates with years of fellowships and publications waiting for the market to come back around.
No one else can know whether going to law school is the right call for the OP, but he sounds like someone who has considered what practice of law is like, what his options are, and how he wants to spend his time.
Here is what I would add:
As someone else has said, those first year grades matter a lot (and they are a lot harder to "game" the way you can as a 2L or 3L), so make that your priority above all else. However, you have no idea how you will do. Law school exams test a very specific ability that is not just how well you know the law. At a T-6 school, almost everyone has "tested well" in the past. That is how you all got there. A lot can happen with mandatory curves and often arbitrary section assignments (my "small" 1L section for one course had multiple future Supreme Court clerks in it and this was by chance).
What this means is that you need to have a plan A, plan B and a plan C based on how you perform.
Plan A is discovering that you can write your ticket anywhere. Then you just have to decide what you're really shooting for - private or public (and if it is a non-profit or government position, you do need to build that into your internship/externships, networking and plan for debt-forgiveness). It also might mean exploring whether you are serious about academia and what that looks like long-term planning. Tight now, it means getting a PhD or spending years in various VAPs and fellowships so you can publish, get paid little, and move frequently. In other words, a bit of a pipe dream.
Plan B is discovering that you are doing well enough to get a job that you'd be happy having, and then focusing your attention on making that happen.
Plan C is discovering that you are not doing well enough to get a job that you will be happy with OR that there simply is not job you will be happy with that comes from the law degree. You need to do your best to investigate if this is so from Day 1. If and when this happens, leave law school ASAP. Do not pass go. Do not wait it out. Do not be fooled by sunk costs or thinking that people will view you as a quitter.
It is really important to allow yourself to try law school and still be willing to leave if it is not right for you or not heading in the correct direction. I think all the advice here makes it seem like once you start, you are committed to finishing. That is not true.
The other really important thing to think about is the indoctrination you will receive both in law school and as an attorney. Top law schools have a train that is marching you along to specific jobs. If you want something different, you will have to swim against the current. The schools depend on alumni giving and positive relationships and reputation with alumni that are making the big $$$.
There is a specific mindset about money and finances that will be prevalent among your classmates, professors, and future colleagues. There is a mindset of spending money to make problems go away because this is THE philosophy underlying much of legal practice. There will be expectations on the choices you can make for work-life balance that presume that you will hire other people to do things for you in your personal life rather than doing them yourself, because you will have the money and not the time. If you try to make the time or carve it out for yourself or even espouse the value that outsourcing "living" is not an acceptable value, again - swimming upstream against current. Like in many other professions or workplaces, if you mention your interest in being FIRE, it is likely to be viewed as demonstrating a "lack of commitment."
Not only is the profession like this once you graduate, law school WILL change you and affect your values. It is designed to do this, on purpose. It is important to recognize that this is part of the picture, and that you will need to set up constant check-ins with people who share your values so you do not feel isolated or frustrated (or brainwashed) just because you are entering this profession or learning how to analyze problems in a specific way.
I realize that this can come off as ominous sounding. I just feel that more people need to be candid about this aspect of law school, beyond the "how much debt, what job do you get?" question here.