I really like being a lawyer. But based on this post alone, you would hate it.
Are people less likely to file a frivolous lawsuit against me? Sure! But defending a frivolous lawsuit (by studying to represent yourself or hiring an attorney) is much cheaper than going to law school.
Other pointers:
1) Except for the top few, law schools are very regional. So if you go to law school in Montana, you better be willing to practice in Montana.
2) As others have mentioned, there are way more law graduates than lawyer jobs. The profession is under a major change, caused by differences in the way businesses spend on legal issues and technological disruption. Do not enter unless you're going for free, and don't mind your FIRE date being pushed back for years.
3) I think it's hilarious that people think of lawyers as all powerful! As a junior lawyer, the following groups of people completely control my life: (a) attorneys senior to me at my firm; (b) the clients; (c) the judges. Thankfully, my firm is very reasonable but I have spent some long days at the office because of the other two groups!
Since you plan to quit working soonish, don't spend three years getting any sort of degree. Instead, consider watching trials at your local courthouse or spending your FIRE years as a judicial assistant.
It used to be becoming a lawyer was a path to riches. It opened doors to high income judicial, corporate, legal, and political careers. Lawyers had to be really crappy or actively search out non stop pro bono cases to be poor. ... Law, once a profession of a few ethically principled elites is now a feeding frenzy of sleazy ambulance chaser douchebags chasing nickels wherever they can find them .
This is not quite true. There were, and still are, rich lawyers. They are rainmaking partners at large firms (a position which usually takes at least 20 years of hard work to achieve) and highly skilled and successful plaintiff's lawyers ("ambulance chasers"). For most other lawyers, the profession was and is the path to a comfortable middle to upper middle class life depending on location. Judges have lots of prestige, but make less than they would in private practice. In-house counsel also typically make less than they would in private practice.
Keep in mind that many states used to actually prohibit lawyers from advertising at all. Now that we can advertise, plaintiffs' attorneys have commercials, billboards, and the like. That could be feeding the impression that there are more plaintiffs' lawyers than before.