To become a teacher in the public school system all you need is a b.a. If you have a masters or doctorate you will get paid more. Teachers who had doctorate degrees in the school district I used to work in were making $90,000 plus a year. The health benefits and retirement plans are excellent, you get all holidays off and the summer too. Starting salaries range from $40,000 - $60, 000, a lot less for inner city schools.
The only problem I had with trying to balance teaching with a musical career was that I had to be up at 5:30 am during the week to make it in to school, not very pleasant if you were out gigging the night before and you didn't make it home until 3:30am.
As for lawyers vrs teachers, the law feild is so overpoppulated that most lawyers are starting out making $30,000 and working 8o hr weeks, you have to graduate in the top 5% of your class from a top law school to get that plush job from a big firm these days.