The road to law school is long and laborious, but the rewards for truly dedicated students are worthwhile. Certain people develop an interest in law early in their educational career, perhaps during an introductory law class in high school. But others decide to pursue a legal education later, after some time in the workforce or after examining graduate programs.
Law school appeals to many young people due to its rigorous curriculum and narrow focus, unlike many other graduate programs, which do not necessarily guide a student on such a direct path. With a JD behind your name, many doors open for you.
However, you should be absolutely certain you want to practice (rather than simply study) law, as law school leads to a fairly specific career path. If so, here are some steps to keep in mind.
Many roads to the bar
That is not to say that everyone in your graduating class is on the exact same track. It is a misconception that law school is only accessible for the wealthy, privileged, and academic.
Though competitive grades are a requirement, and the LSAT is a challenging test, if law school is your dream, you can certainly achieve it. With motivation and drive, a graduate from a college in Jersey City, NJ is just as deserving of a chance at law school as a student who did their undergrad at one of the Ivies.
In a similar vein, many lawyers don’t set out to become lawyers. Plenty of graduates of top law schools never intended to become attorneys, but became passionate about the field after working for a nonprofit or requiring legal aid of their own.
A legal education, you will find, is also present in the CVs of most notable politicians and Supreme Court justices. So if a career in politics is a possibility for you, law school can easily help you get there.
The various motivations for a justice-oriented career are noble. Personal injury lawyers are the backbone of many local communities, but they are rarely spoken about in the press. Unlike other, more public branches of law, personal injury law typically deals with discrete local cases that do not gain national attention.
Davis Kelin Law Firm in Albuquerque is an example of a firm that does great work behind the scenes. If you are considering a career in personal injury law, consider what is driving your desire.
Academic expectations and requirements
In the United States, the JD degree typically requires a four-year bachelor’s degree. In this sense, law school is a type of grad school, but with a more focused curriculum.
Entrance to law school is granted based on the score achieved on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), as well as letters of recommendation, personal statement, and undergraduate transcripts.
Though there are “pre-law” programs that passionate undergrads can create for themselves by taking courses which are theoretically relevant to a legal education, this is not actually the most common, or even the best, way to prepare for entrance into law school.
After all, some pre-law students might decide halfway through their undergraduate studies that they don’t actually want to go to law school at all, at which point they would need to change their major.
Contrary to popular belief, the American Bar Association does not recommend any specific undergrad program as a precursor to law school. Top law schools across the country admit students from every imaginable academic background, from the hard sciences to the humanities to the arts.
