There are lawyers that operate through contingency fees but you would have to be very foolish to immediately do so as a solo practitioner. Usually a firm will handle the risk but the firm also isn’t letting inexperienced attorneys handle those cases due to the risky nature of them.

The legal jobs that are at the bottom of the paygrade are usually government. Prosecution, public defense, administrative. A lot of those jobs have loan forgiveness plans and the usual government job benefits but the pay is a bit down there even compared to what you would get as a first year associate in some firms.