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What I Wish I Had Known Before Becoming a Lawyer

• Dustin S. McCrary

There is always going to be more work — we can’t say the same about our health.

In the past few years, we’ve learned how common burnout is. In this article, the author opens up about their experience of prioritizing their job as a lawyer over their own mental health, and shares some strategies young lawyers or new grads can use to avoid falling into this trap.

• Before taking a job, gauge the company culture. If you take a job in a work environment that doesn’t value you beyond your skills or take care of your psychological health, it’s going to be unsustainable in the long run.
• Don’t ignore your physical triggers. If you feel stressed during your workday, practice small things like staying hydrated, breathing deeply for a few seconds, or taking a short walk around your office to physically disconnect.
• The hard truth is that the legal profession is extremely draining. So, build a life outside work. This could look like taking regular time off such as vacation or personal days. Another option is to look for hobbies and activities outside work that energize you and give you joy.
• Finally, give yourself a little grace. At the end of the day, remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can.

When I started law school, I loved it. The hypercompetitive classroom, the demanding coursework, and the adrenaline rush of solving complex cases drove me to pursue this career. Once I officially earned the job title “lawyer,” I was drawn even more to the fast-paced work culture. I wanted to stand out, make a difference, and find my own niche. My work was my passion and it empowered me.

• Dustin S. McCrary  is the founder of the Law Office of Dustin S. McCrary, PLLC based in Statesville, N.C. He focuses his practice on the legal needs of divorce and separation serving his clients in all aspects of the process including separation, child custody, child support, alimony and spousal support, property distribution, and domestic violence. McCrary recently published a new book called “Helping Your Children Cope with Divorce.”

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Personal motivations, professional aspirations, education and preparation, challenges and opportunities.

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Why do you want to be a lawyer? Best sample answers

Studying law is no walk in a park . You’ll have to sacrifice a lot , and you will typically pay a lot for your degree–for a mere chance of obtaining it. What’s more, the demand for the places in the study program is incredibly high at any decent university offering law degrees . You will compete with many other people in the admission interviews, and unless you convince the committee of your motivation, they will choose someone else, and you will have to try your luck elsewhere, or wait one more year. So, why law ? Why did you choose law as a career?

Let’s have a look at 7 sample answers to the question. I tried to include in my selection a variety of answers, referring to different reasons, including some unconventional answers . Read them slowly, one after one, and consider whether any of them conveys the message you want to convey in your interviews, while trying to impress the admission committee members. Once done, do not forget to check also my notes below the answers, for additional hints on how to stand out and make sure they will remember you once the interviews end, and they decide about the successful applicants.

7 sample answers to “Why are you interested in studying law?” interview question

• I see a lot of injustice in the world . And now I do not talk only about poor countries and inequality we can observe over there. When you have your eyes open, you will see things aren’t much better in the US . Especially in the corporate world, but also in the families. And I’d like to play my part in making things better . I consider specializing either in family law or environmental law , because these two fields are really close to my heart and I consider them incredibly important at the moment , and I also believe there is a lot of room for new quality lawyers, people who can make some difference . I find it fascinating to imagine that I represent interests of people in front of a court one day. And though the road ahead is long, I am motivated and ready to try my best.
• I want to be completely honest with you: money is my main driving force. Let’s look at things as they are. I am lucky enough to belong to the brightest students in my city, and I also enjoy studying and working hard on my skills. With my grades and resume, I could get to almost any college , and study any subject. Because I know I would manage it, and I know they would accept me. So why not to try going for the pinnacle? Lawyers and other legal professionals earn excellent salaries and enjoy a lot of respect in their circles. And I would love to find myself in the same position one day, because I do not dream of earning an average wage. I want to make it big in my career, and provide for my family.
• I find law and excellent match for my personality and strengths . To start with, I have a great memory , excellent communication and argumentation skills. I am also extremely ambitious, but have strong moral codex  at the same time, which I believe is a good combination for any lawyer. And I enjoy talking to people, especially from the business world. That’s why I’d love to specialize in corporate law, and perhaps one day have my own legal office . This is why I want to be a lawyer, and not a doctor for example.
• I see law as a degree which offers one almost unlimited options on the employment market. Sure, the competition is huge. But nowadays, each organization, public or private, need someone with legal knowledge , someone who makes sure they adhere to the laws and regulations and avoid fines, someone who represents them in confrontations with various regulatory bodies. I believe that once I have a degree from your university, I will have many doors open. To sum it up, I see this degree as the best possible start to my professional career .
• Three reasons. First one, love for the field . It fascinates me how a skilled lawyer can save a business millions of dollars, or save an individual from years in prison. Second reason is financial stability . Lawyers do not struggle with monthly bills. And the third, equally important reason, is job security . People and companies will always go to court, needing assistance of legal professionals. Once you establish yourself on the market and get some clientele, you do not have to worry about having little work , or about losing your job…
• I honestly believe that law is such an important part of our life , and basically omnipresent, that each lawyer can make a positive difference in the individual lives of people they work with, and represent in front of the court of justice. The idea of helping people, and at the same time getting excellent compensation for my work , truly fascinates me. I believe you cannot find any other job field with similar characteristics. On the top of that, I am a great student, and have no doubts that I will manage to pass the exams and eventually get my degree. Law is a hard field, but I feel ready to make a great career in the field.
• I’ve always felt this need to help underprivileged people protect their rights. Maybe the main reason is that I also come from an underprivileged family , and I know how hard it was to get some justice, when we needed it the most. What’s more, I just love thinking out of the box , putting things together , and I have great attention to detail. I believe that job of attorney is a perfect choice from someone like me, considering my strengths, career goals, and everything else. And I cannot wait to start.

Special Tip : What if I told you that you can practice your answers to all tricky law school interview questions, getting an immediate feedback from a life-like AI interview coach ? And that you can start doing it for free , and it is a lot of fun too? 🙂 Check out this page on our partner website , Real Mock Interviews, pick a question, enter your email, and start practicing for free , either on your mobile phone or on your computer. Check it out now and see for yourself!

Try to be specific in your answer

I know it is hard to think about your future once you are in your early twenties. You have your entire life in front of you. So many options, but also many challenges this generation faces. Anyway, try to think about your future for a few minutes before going to your law school interview.

What field of law would you prefer to specialize in later on? Criminal, civil rights, family, immigration, or even international law? Once you choose the field, think about the position you’d like to have in it, in ten years from now . Maybe you want to work for a particular company, or on a particular case.

Perhaps you want to represent a particular group of people , or help members of a specific community. And maybe you’d like to start your own legal practice eventually, working for yourself, instead of for someone else. And while your goals may change several times until you earn your degree (if you manage to earn it at all, the average dropout rate at law school is over 20% ), it is still good to have a specific vision for your future , a vision which motivates you, and will help you to handle the heavy workload at school, as well as other challenges. The more specific you are in your answer, the better your chances to succeed. I wish you good luck!

Ready to answer this question? Great! But do not forget to check also other tricky questions you may face in your school admission interview:

• Does your academic record accurately reflect your capabilities?
• Where do you see yourself in five years from now?
• How do you handle success?
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College Application Essay Tips for Aspiring Lawyers

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Alexander Oddo in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Describe your reasons why, career goals, the personal statement.

Your aspirations are an important component of what makes you who you are, and if you aspire to become a lawyer, you should share this information with any college or university that you apply to. In the college application process, essays are the best opportunity for you to discuss your passion for the law and your interest in becoming a lawyer. You may incorporate your legal aspirations into your personal statement or they may form the backbone of your supplemental essays where you respond to questions about why you are interested in a particular school, program, or major.

Generally speaking, a smart way to approach your essays is to introduce your interests and connect them to specific personal stories and goals. As a person who aspires to be a lawyer, you want to introduce your interests that relate to the law and describe what attracts you to the legal field. What is it about studying the law and becoming a lawyer that you find most compelling? Why does this path feel meaningful and necessary to you? Draw on specific experiences in your life and lessons you have learned to formulate your rationale for pursuing this career path. 

When you explain why you aspire to be a lawyer, be as specific as possible. “ Lawyers help people. The legal profession is lucrative.” These reasons are too simplistic and generic to provide any useful insight for an admissions officer to understand who you are. If you want to become a lawyer, you should explain your motivation to pursue this career path in terms of: 

• Why you want to help others and who you want to help, such as immigrants or victims of domestic violence
• What areas of the law interest you, such as tax law, family law, or corporate law
• What it is about studying and practicing law that appeals to you intellectually, such as that you have an analytical mind and enjoy solving complex problems
• What disciplinary perspectives you find interesting in relation to the law, such as history, philosophy, political science, public policy, or criminology 
• What experiences you have had and people you have met that have inspired you to pursue a legal career. Any experiences you cite should extend beyond your favorite episode of “Law and Order” or “How to Get Away with Murder.” Maybe a movie or TV show about the law initially sparked your interest, but then you developed this interest into an enduring passion by volunteering at your local courthouse, joining your high school’s mock trial team, or becoming certified as a paralegal. 

After you have thoroughly explained why you are interested in becoming a lawyer, you should look to the future and discuss your career goals. Identify a specific area of the law that you want to practice, and ground this in the various reasons why you want to become a lawyer. It is completely fine if you are not entirely sure what area of law you want to practice. Regardless, the winning strategy is to pick a specific area of law that you want to pursue and cite this consistently throughout your college applications. It will allow you to construct an application that is specific, developed, and memorable rather than overly general, unfocused, and potentially forgettable.

Ultimately, colleges and admissions officers will not hold you accountable for matching the goals and plans you outline in your essays. You are free to start college and decide that you don’t want to pursue a legal career at all. You should know before you apply to and attend law school whether you want to practice law, but undergraduate institutions recognize that you are young and still trying to explore your interests and define your goals. If you do pivot, admissions officers will rest assured because they know you have been through the process of creating a goal and that you can go through this process in any field you choose. 

If you are applying to a school that does not have any supplemental essays as part of its application, then you should discuss your legal aspirations in your Common Application personal statement. Your personal statement is the place in your application where you share your personal story, and you should tell this story in such a way that you weave your past, present, and future together. When you discuss your future, include some information about your interest in becoming a lawyer, drawing connections between this goal and your past experiences and present endeavors that inform and relate to your aspirations.

For more information, review this comprehensive guide on How to Write the Common Application Essays for the 2022-2023 application cycle.

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How to Answer “Why Did You Decide to Pursue a Legal Career?”

Published: Feb 16, 2021

Whether it is during a job interview or a conversation at a networking event, chances are that every law student and lawyer will be asked at least once (or 30 times) why they pursued a career in law. The question seems simple enough on its face—everyone has some reason for heading to law school (even if it is just that they weren’t sure what else to do after undergrad). The key is providing a memorable response that sets you apart from other applicants and connects you to the employer or new connection. In other words, avoid providing generic responses or droning on about your life’s history. Follow one of the below approaches to plan a detailed, yet brief, response ahead of time.

  1.  Make It Personal.

  Your reasons for becoming a lawyer will seem genuine if you mention a specific moment in your life that influenced your decision. Consider discussing how you discovered your passion for the law, whether it was through a college professor who piqued your interest with an assignment or volunteer work that opened your eyes to a legal career path. If you use a concrete moment from your life, your answer will be unique to your own experience and most likely resonate with the listener. Don’t forget to include some specifics about why exactly this moment set you on your current path—and take the further step to describe how your experiences since have drawn you to this particular employer or a specific practice area.

2. Select a Practice.

Your answer does not have to be a profound “Aha!” moment. Perhaps you gravitated toward law due to your interest in a practice area. If so, describe why that practice area stood out to you and what experiences in your education or career have led you to this point. During job interviews, be sure to link your goals to the employer’s work in this area, including specific types of matters and tasks they handle.  

3. Focus on Your Legal Career Goals.

Another angle is to discuss what you hope to achieve in your legal career and how these goals have put you on this career path. For example, are you focused on advocating for a specific group or spearheading policy change in a certain area? Sometimes the best answer is not something that has already happened, but rather one that you are determined to accomplish. This answer will convey to the listener that you are goal oriented and also will allow you to tie your future goals to the interviewer’s own work.

Your reasoning for pursuing a legal career says a lot about you to interviewers and new connections. Take time before your next interview or event to think about your reasons for entering the legal field. Prepare a response that genuinely conveys your motivations and goals with enough detail to make the response personal to you but not so much detail that you lose your audience. Then, practice answering the question out loud several times so you are comfortable responding at interview time.

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How To Become A Lawyer: Education, Salary And Job Outlook

Expert Reviewed

Updated: Mar 22, 2024, 5:03pm

If you’re passionate about the pursuit of justice—or you simply can’t back down from the promise of a healthy debate—a career in law might be the right move.

But what is a lawyer, exactly? Lawyers, also known as attorneys, are professionals hired to help clients navigate the complex legal system. Attorneys understand how laws and regulations apply to their clients. In many cases, lawyers appear in court to argue for favorable outcomes on behalf of clients. However, some specialize in areas of the law that do not typically involve court appearances.

Entering the legal profession requires many years of higher education, passing the bar exam, and keeping up to date with ever-changing laws and regulations. Read on to discover everything you need to know about becoming a lawyer.

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What Is a Lawyer?

Lawyers are professionals hired to provide legal counsel to their clients. Attorneys represent their clients in legal proceedings, including court hearings and trials. They work with individuals, corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations, to name a few.

What Does An Attorney Do?

Attorneys are experts in the legal and judicial system. They interpret laws on behalf of their clients, research and analyze legal issues, represent clients in court, and prepare legal documents such as wills, contracts and lawsuits. They also advise their clients in writing about courtroom proceedings and the execution and implications of various transactions.

While the image of a lawyer standing up and arguing before a judge and jury is popularly associated with the profession, not all lawyers regularly appear in the courtroom. As founder and CEO of PreLawPro Ben Cooper points out, “There are also a lot of lawyers that work in areas outside of the courtroom; these areas often involve working with clients as they navigate complex transactions. Whether working in the courtroom or transactional work, lawyers can represent a broad spectrum of clients.”

All attorneys provide legal counsel, but specific duties vary depending on their specialization. For example, defense attorneys appear in criminal court on behalf of clients who have been charged with crimes. On the other hand, family lawyers help their clients navigate the legalities of divorce and child custody. Whatever branch of law they specialize in, lawyers help their clients achieve the best possible outcome of their trial or transaction.

Where Do Attorneys Work?

Most lawyers work in office settings for legal practices. Others work for state, local and federal governments. Public defenders frequently appear in court, but for many other lawyers, court appearances are a small part of their responsibilities. In some rare cases, attorneys may travel to meet with clients in their homes, hospitals, or prisons.

Being an attorney can be stressful and demanding, and it’s not uncommon for lawyers to work over 40 hours per week. Attorneys who work with vulnerable populations—such as children, the elderly and incarcerated people—may find the job rewarding yet emotionally taxing.

Lawyer Education Requirements

Prospective lawyers must earn a four-year undergraduate diploma as well as a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree . Attorneys commonly earn their degree from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), but not all states and jurisdictions require this.

Certification and continuing education requirements vary by state and specialization. For example, tax attorneys may pursue a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree after earning their J.D.

Top Skills for Lawyers

Lawyers take on demanding work that requires strong reasoning and communication abilities. Here are some of the top skills needed.

• Analytical skills: Lawyers must be able to analyze laws and understand how they apply to client cases.
• Relationship building and collaboration: Lawyers must develop trusting relationships with their clients to be successful advocates.
• Research and critical reading: Attorneys spend hours researching laws and regulations that affect their clients to provide accurate and relevant legal counsel.
• Written and verbal communication: Lawyers must be able to deliver compelling arguments and provide clear and detailed written advice.

How To Become a Lawyer

It takes several years of study plus licensure to become a lawyer. Every attorney must be admitted to the state bar in order to practice law in their jurisdiction of choice.

Earn a Bachelor’s Degree

The first step toward becoming a lawyer is earning a bachelor’s degree. Law school programs don’t require any specific field of undergraduate study, but common pre-law majors include history and social sciences. Cooper notes that although your specific major is less important, “law schools do place a great deal of emphasis on your success as an undergraduate in the form of your GPA.”

Take the LSAT® or GRE®

Most ABA-accredited schools require applicants to pass the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The LSAT tests your reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, logical reasoning and writing abilities. The exam consists of several multiple-choice sections and a separate writing assessment.

General graduate school admissions use the GRE. This standardized exam tests your verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing capabilities. As of January 2023, about 100 institutions also accept GRE scores instead of LSAT scores . However, the LSAT remains the only graduate admissions test accepted by every ABA-accredited law school.

Complete Law School

Earning a J.D. typically takes three years of full-time study, although part-time programs do exist. Attending law school equips you with the necessary tools to thrive as a lawyer, including communication skills, legal analysis and an understanding of the areas of law covered on the bar exam. Some examples of J.D. courses you will encounter include civil procedure, criminal law, torts, and legal research and writing.

Pass the Bar Exam

Aspiring lawyers must pass the bar exam to become licensed in their state. The two-day exam includes an essay component and a 200-item test covering contracts, constitutional law, evidence, criminal law, real property and torts. Cooper advises, “Many states have accepted the Multistate Bar Exam while also incorporating aspects that are state-specific. To confirm the requirements of your desired jurisdiction, be sure to do your own research as the requirements do vary.”

Meet Character and Mental Fitness Requirements

Every individual must undergo a background investigation to be accepted to the bar. Even before reaching this stage, aspiring lawyers must disclose certain issues, such as academic discipline, arrests and criminal convictions, when applying to  J.D. programs.

Jurisdictions evaluate whether the applicant possesses strong moral character and mental fitness. They consider the applicant’s personal history, including any felony convictions, substance abuse or academic misconduct.

However, these concerns may not disqualify you from becoming a lawyer if they happened a long time ago or were isolated incidents and you can show that your behavior and character have changed for the better. “If you have concerns about this as it relates to your own journey,” Cooper suggests, “it is wise to contact the bar association of your desired state to seek guidance.”

Take Your Oath

After passing the bar exam, the final step is to take your oath and complete the process of becoming a licensed, state-recognized attorney. This involves a swearing-in ceremony organized by the local bar association, law school or other group. In limited instances, you can take your oath in a virtual ceremony rather than in person.

Lawyer Salary and Job Outlook

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), lawyers make a median wage of $135,740 per year. Attorneys employed by the federal government earn the highest median salary, clocking in at $158,370 annually. The most lucrative states for practicing attorneys are California, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. Regardless of where an attorney works, salaries vary by area of practice, years of experience and employer size.

Employment for attorneys is projected to grow 8% from 2022 to 2032—much faster than the average growth rate of 3% across all occupations.

Lawyer Specializations

Governments, nonprofits, corporations and individuals rely on attorneys to provide legal advice tailored to their particular situation. Below, we detail a few examples of attorney specializations.

• Environmental lawyers work on behalf of advocacy groups, government agencies, nonprofits and corporations. They ensure compliance with environmental laws and help clients interpret relevant regulations.
• Tax lawyers help businesses and individuals navigate tax issues and understand relevant tax regulations.
• Family lawyers advise families on issues such as divorce or child custody.
• Intellectual property lawyers interpret and apply laws relating to intellectual property, including trademarks, patents and creative works.

Certifications for Lawyers

Several certifications exist for lawyers to prove their competency in specific areas. We explore two examples below.

Accredited Legal Professional (ALP)

The ALP demonstrates overall preparation for entering the legal field. The certification is awarded after passing a three-part exam; each component takes 75 minutes. The exam costs $170 for National Association for Legal Support Professionals members and $195 for nonmembers.

Estate Planning Law Specialist (EPLS)

An EPLS certification indicates a high level of professionalism within the estate planning law specialization. Requirements for this certification include:

• Five or more years of experience as an estate planning attorney
• 36 or more hours of continuing legal education in estate planning over the last three years
• Professional liability insurance coverage
• Recommendations from at least five colleagues
• Passing a national exam

The certification exam costs $500 for members of the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils and $600 for nonmembers.

State Board Certification

Individual states sponsor or approve board certification in various legal specialties. Lawyers can pursue board certification in dozens of legal subdisciplines. These include broad categories such as labor and employment, personal injury, criminal law and tax law along with niche focuses such as aviation, admiralty and maritime law, and franchise and distribution law. Check with your local authority to see what board certifications are available in your area.

Professional Organizations for Lawyers

Lawyers may join a professional organization relevant to their focus areas or specific communities. These include local bar associations and international organizations like the American Inns of Court .

Cooper offers this insight for emerging attorneys: “Many state and local bar associations have ‘sections’ or ‘divisions’ that are intended for lawyers in certain practice areas and often have a ‘young lawyers’ section which is great way for those in their first few years of practice to meet other lawyers in the same career stage.”

Women’s Bar Associations

Women’s bar associations provide for the legal needs of women and girls around the country. These area-based professional organizations for female attorneys offer local networking and professional development opportunities and promote the advancement of women in the legal profession.

National Bar Association (NBA)

The NBA is the nation’s oldest professional organization for Black attorneys and judges. It promotes diversity in the legal profession, provides networking opportunities for its members, and hosts several events and webinars throughout the year.

American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)

AIPLA provides members with education, advocacy and peer support resources, including in-person and online meetings and events, committee programs, and legislative policy activities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Becoming a Lawyer

How hard is it to become a lawyer.

Becoming a lawyer is challenging but possible. You’ll need to earn a J.D., pass the bar exam and become licensed in your state. This process takes at least seven years and is generally quite rigorous.

How do you start being a lawyer?

Start by earning your bachelor’s degree. You don’t need to major in any particular field, but it’s a good idea to pursue a degree in a subject that will sharpen the skills you’ll need to pass the bar and practice law.

How many years does it take to become a lawyer?

Becoming a lawyer typically involves four years of undergraduate study and three years to earn a J.D. Count on the process taking a minimum of seven years.

What education is needed to become a lawyer?

To become a lawyer, you must earn a bachelor’s degree and a J.D. You also need to pass the bar exam to earn licensure in the state where you intend to practice.

Can you be a lawyer without going to law school?

Most attorneys earn a J.D. before taking the bar exam. However, it’s possible to become a lawyer without going to law school in California, Virginia, Vermont and Washington. These states allow prospective lawyers to complete self-study or law clerk programs in lieu of attending a traditional law school program.

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Cecilia is a freelance writer, content marketing strategist and author covering education, technology and energy. She is a current contributor to the Forbes Advisor education vertical and holds a summa cum laude journalism degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

A licensed attorney with nearly a decade of experience in content production, Valerie Catalano knows how to help readers digest complicated information about the law in an approachable way. Her writing has been featured in the State Bar of Texas Family Law Section report.

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The 5 Steps to Becoming a Lawyer: Complete Guide

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Law is one of the toughest trades to break into—there's a lot of competition out there, and there's a lot at stake (law school isn't exactly cheap). If you're interested in entering the legal profession, you should be well-informed about everything it takes to become a lawyer.

Here, I'll go through all the steps of how to become a lawyer. Before I jump into that, however, I'll begin by touching briefly on what the job market looks like for lawyers both now and in the future.

What Is the Career Outlook for Law?

Before we get into exactly how to become a lawyer, I'll talk a bit about what the job is actually like before jumping into more logistical concerns (like salary and projected job availability). This stuff may not be particularly exciting, but it's helpful to be informed about how easy (or difficult) it'll be to find a job in the field after you're done with school.

What Does a Lawyer Do?

Law is a very broad profession—lawyers can do all sorts of different jobs. They may work in corporate, private, and government settings.

Common responsibilities include providing legal counsel and advice, researching information or evidence, drawing up legal documents, and prosecuting/defending in court.

Occupational Outlook

Here's some important info about the law profession from the Bureau of Labor Statistics :

• 2014 Median Pay: $114,970 per year
• Job Outlook, 2014-2014 (i.e. the average growth in the number of jobs): 6% , which is about average across all professions

The number of jobs may be projected to grow as fast as average, but there are some other important factors at play here. Namely, competition for jobs is likely to be extremely high - the number of students who graduate from law school each year is higher than the number of new jobs available .

In a nutshell: the market is pretty saturated with law graduates at the moment, which means that finding and keeping a job in the field is no small feat. Even the American Bar Association started discouraging people from going to law school after the 2008 market crash—the profession is recovering very, very slowly. If you're on the fence about law school, I'd encourage you to read this article, written by a lawyer, in the Huffington Post (fair warning, it includes plenty of colorful language).

This isn't to say that no one should become a lawyer—if you plan on pursuing this career path, however, you should be aware of all the challenges you'll face along the way.

Step 1: Excel in High School

With such serious competition in the field, it's best to take your academic performance seriously from an early age. One of the best things you can focus on is bettering your chances of getting into a great college or university .

Put simply, better grades in high school → better school for your BA degree → better law school → better chances of getting a job. Law is one profession where it really matters where you go to school. Attending a top-15 law school doesn't guarantee that you'll end up with a great job, but it really helps. Attending a lower-ranked school will likely make it very difficult to find work. As such, you'll want to put yourself in the best position to succeed starting as early as high school.

Follow these tips in high school to start off on the right foot:

There aren't really any specific classes you can take to prep this early for law school, but you can work on developing some of those critical skills that I mentioned earlier, like writing and critical thinking .

Aim to take as many advanced and/or AP courses as possible. Classes in English, Government, Economics, and Math will all you well in college and law school (and will pay off even if you change your mind about becoming a lawyer).

Extracurricular Activities and Leadership

Extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and leadership experience all help boost your college applications. Some activities might double as a way to get a feel for the legal profession. Check out these posts for more information on these activities:

• Complete list of extracurriculars
• How to get leadership experience in your extracurriculars
• 9 best places to do community service

If available at your school, you may want to check out Mock Trial (a club that simulates court trials), Debate, or Model UN —all of these activities help students develop writing, critical thinking, and leadership skills. If your school doesn't have any of these clubs, consider starting one yourself!

Finally, high school is a good time to learn more about what being a lawyer is actually like. Here are some ways to get more hands-on experience:

• Shadow a lawyer.
• Volunteer with a local legal aid organization.
• Talk to any friends or family members who work in the field about how they spend their time at work, what they like/don't like about their jobs, whether they would do anything different, etc.

ACT/SAT Prep

One big part of getting into a good college is doing well on your ACT or SAT. Whichever test you choose , it's best to take it more than once—aim to take your first test fall of junior year (at the latest).

Read more about:

• Whether to take the SAT or ACT
• How long you should study for the SAT or ACT
• Complete study guide for the SAT or ACT
• How to get a perfect score on the SAT or ACT

College Applications

If you end up at a well-ranked school, the following steps you'll have to take to become a lawyer will be that much easier. Like I mentioned earlier, students at top-15 law schools have a much easier time finding a job than students at lower-ranked schools. The better your undergraduate program, the better your chances of getting into one of these top law schools.

So where do you start when it comes to looking at colleges?

You don't have to look for schools with dedicated pre-law programs. In fact, some people argue that students hoping to go to law school should avoid pre-law majors altogether (I'll talk more about this in the next section).

Learn more about how and when to apply for college.

Step 2: Get Involved in College

You need a Bachelor's degree at minimum in order to go on to law school, and it definitely helps if you end up at a school with a strong reputation.

Once you get to college, it's important to keep up your academic performance (your grades will be important when you apply to law school). A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required for pretty much every law school in the US, but the truth is that this probably isn't competitive enough. Aim for 3.5+ (the higher the better).

Staying on the Right Side of the Law

The first thing you should keep in mind as a college student is that any sort of criminal record may prevent you from becoming a lawyer . The American Bar Association puts aspiring lawyers through a moral character screening process (I'll speak more about this towards the end). If you're generally honest and haven't broken any laws, you won't have any issues—just try to stay out of trouble as you make your way through the following steps.

Choosing a Program or Major

The American Bar Association (ABA) doesn't recommend any specific major or discipline for students who hope to become lawyers. Some schools have pre-law programs, but (as I've mentioned) they're rare and not necessary in order to get into a great law school.

The most important core skills you can develop include critical thinking, logic & reasoning, reading comprehension, and communication. Some majors which may prove useful for the LSAT/law school include:

• Political Science

You don't have to know exactly what kind of law you hope to go into. If you do have an idea, though, you might use that to inform your choice of major . If you're interested in corporate law, for example, you might major in Business. If you're interested in tax law, consider Math.

Develop Relationships With Professors

You'll need several strong letters of recommendation from respected faculty members when you submit your law school applications—use this to motivate you to network with as many people as possible.

Develop relationships with professors and mentors by going to office hours, participating in class, and taking opportunities to work on research projects.

Get Involved

I'll go into more detail when I discuss law school apps, but most schools are looking for applicants who demonstrate some sort of social and professional engagement, community service, extracurricular involvement, and/or work experience .

Start by looking into volunteering with legal aid services at your university or in your neighborhood. If you'd like more ideas, check out our posts on different community service opportunities and extracurricular activities .

You can gain similar hands-on law experience by getting a student job. A position in a law firm (even in an administrative capacity) will help you get a better idea of the day-to-day work as a lawyer. A paying job also means more funds to cover college and law school expenses.

Prepare for Law School Applications

You'll have the best chances of finding a job (especially a well-paying job) after getting your J.D. if you attend a top-15 law school (remember how I talked about how competitive it is out there for new lawyers)? To optimize your chances of getting into one of these schools, start working on your apps the summer before the year you want to begin your J.D . For example, if you want to start law school right after college, start working on apps the summer before your senior year

First, you should figure out whether you want to go to law school right after you graduate from college. If so, you need to plan on spending most of your senior year preparing for the LSAT and law school applications (I'll go into more detail about the LSAT in the next section). The LSAT should be completed, and applications should be sent off the winter of your senior year if you don't want a gap between college and law school.

A small side note: there is nothing wrong with taking time off from school after college graduation. If this is what you hope to do, you can use this time to get more law experience (e.g. working as a paralegal).

You'll also need to prepare those letters of recommendation—ask professors/mentors if they'd write them for you at least 12 weeks prior to application due dates.

Finally, register for the LSAT, and take the exam (at the latest) in December the same year you submit your apps.

Step 3: Ace the LSAT and Law School Applications

The Law School Admissions Test, or LSAT, is an exam all aspiring law students must take. It's a half-day standardized test for admission to all American Bar Association-approved law schools and serves the same purpose as the SAT and ACT when students apply to colleges.

• Exam scores range from 120-180
• The average score is about 150
• You have to score well over 160 to get into a top 25 law school

The LSAT is a huge part of your law school applications—it might even be as important as your college GPA. As such, it requires that you dedicate some serious study time to the exam.

The recommended study time for the LSAT is 150-300 hours. This comes out to 20-25 hours a week for 2-3 months, which is obviously a serious commitment. You might want to look into a LSAT study program if you have trouble staying on track and/or motivated.

The test is administered only four times a year - usually in February, June, September, and December—so plan on registering months in advance. The latest you can take the LSAT for Fall admission is December of the previous year, although it's best to take it earlier (aim for June or September).

Submitting Your Law School Applications

Just like with college apps, law school apps consist of several parts. Their major components are your personal statement, LSAT score, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and resume. Let's go through what you should do to submit each of these components.

I've already talked about the importance of preparing for the LSAT, forming relationships with profs for letters of rec , and doing well in college for a great transcript.

Personal Statement

Your personal statement is one of the only ways that admissions offices will get any insight into who you are and why you care about going to law school. You should write several drafts, well in advance of your application deadlines. Have a trusted prof or mentor read over your personal statement and give comments 3-4 months before the deadline.

Read more about how to write a great personal statement .

Your personal statement may demonstrate what you think and believe, but your resume demonstrates what you actually do.

According to UChicago's Law School admissions office, schools are looking for several things in an applicant's resume, including:

• Evidence of a strong work ethic
• Social and professional engagement
• Some combination of community service, extracurricular involvement, or work experience

It should be polished and professional—visit your school's career center for guidance.

Submitting Your Applications

All materials should be submitted by the winter before you hope to go to law school.

Competition for a reputable school is tougher than it is for colleges, so you should plan on submitting more apps. Most applicants apply to at least four schools , but I would encourage you to apply to 8-10. Whatever you do, only apply to American Bar Association-approved law schools —an unapproved law school degree is basically worthless.

Don't wait until the last minute to submit all of your materials . This doesn't leave you any extra time to fill any gaps in your application, or opportunities to fix any issues.

Finally, you should be prepared for potentially uncomfortable application costs. Some applications are free, but others may cost $100 or more. It may be helpful to start budgeting for these expenses a few months before applications are due.

Step 4: Earn Your JD at Law School

It'll take you three years to earn your law school degree. If you want one to find success after graduation—no matter what type of law you hope to go into—you've got to do well in law school. The way students are graded here is very different from how they're graded in college.

Here are some important things you should know before heading off to law school:

• Your first year is really important. Law firms usually hire summer associates at the beginning of the second year—at this point, only grades from your first year will be available. The type of jobs available to you as a student—and after graduation—will be heavily dependent on your grades from 1L.
• Your grades are mostly dependent on your exam performance . You'll receive few (if any) graded assignments outside of your final exams. This means that it's important to keep up with your work and your reading through the entire semester.
• Plan on keeping meticulous notes. You'll be learning about a lot of cases, and it's important that you're able to easily access notes from class about each one. It's not uncommon for professors to allow notes in some final exams. Many successful students form study groups to work together to share notes.
• Do your readings and prepare to get cold-called . Law professors are notorious for cold-calling on students in class, so you'll want to do the reading (and take notes) prior to heading to lecture. You want to make a good impression on your profs!

You'd think that acing your classes is the last big step to becoming a lawyer—but there's so much more to do.

While you're in law school, you may have to take the MPRE (Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination) , which is required for admission to the bars of most states. The examination is meant to test students' knowledge and understanding of established standards related to a lawyer's professional conduct.

When you need to take it, and the minimum passing score, varies based on your jurisdiction. For example, some states require you to pass it before you take the bar exam (sometimes months in advance).

Do your research on what's required in your jurisdiction (or where you hope to practice in the future) early on in law school.

Professional Experience

A big part of law school involves networking (and just plain working) in an effort to secure a job before you even graduate.

You're going to be very busy keeping up with your schoolwork, but, if possible, it's to your advantage to work part-time at a law firm. Examples of possible jobs include assistant, file clerk, messenger, or intern (paid or unpaid).

More importantly, you'll want to start thinking about landing those summer associate and internship positions . The best way to secure these jobs while you're in school is to network as much as possible—attend student events, communicate with your profs, and be on the lookout for recruiters.

Unfortunately for students without a ton of available resources, many legal internships (even at very prestigious firms) are unpaid. Some law students take out loans, in addition to loans that they use to pay for tuition, to cover expenses associated with taking summer internships. This is important to consider as you budget for both law school and your career after you pass the bar.

Be conscious of the sort of internships and associate positions you seek out for yourself. Oftentimes (if you do well), these employers will offer you a full-time job after you graduate. In fact, it's pretty normal to have a job like this lined up in your third year of law school.

To sum up: the better your grades (especially your first year), the better your summer job opportunities. The better your summer job opportunities, the more likely you are to land an awesome job after graduation.

Step 5: Pass the Bar Exam

In order to practice law in the US, you have to pass the Bar exam . Most students do this the summer after they graduate from law school, when information is still fresh in their minds. The exam varies by state, but some parts are standardized:

• MEE: Essay exam
• MPT: Performance Test
• The Bar: A separate test administered by each jurisdiction/area

Most exams last two days total, although some states (e.g. CA) have 3-day exams. To find out more about what the exam is like in different jurisdictions, check out the National Conference of Bar Examiners' website .

Preparing for the Bar

The Bar is a notoriously difficult exam. Pass rates vary by state, although some states (again, like CA) have rates as low as 46.6% . It doesn't matter how well you do as compared to other test-takers, as long as you pass .

You'll have to prep for all areas of law that will show up on the test, even if you don't plan on practicing in most of them. These areas include:

• Constitutional law
• Criminal law and procedure
• Real property

One expert suggested that if you're preparing for the California Bar Exam—one of the most difficult in the country—you should study for 400 to 600 hours . If you study for 20 hours a week, that comes out to 20-30 weeks of prep time.

There are a few different ways to prep for the bar exam:

• Independent study. This may work for students at a well-reputed law school who are also performing well in their classes. A quality education + strong foundational knowledge are the factors that most positively affect performance on the bar, but students would still of course need to spend significant time preparing.
• A bar prep course. Law students commonly take prep courses when they want a solid review schedule that will keep them on track. There's a lot of material to cover, and a good course helps you make sure there aren't any major gaps in your knowledge of content or strategy. They can be very expensive, however—most are several thousand dollars. Check out Barbri.com , Kaptest.com , and Adaptibar.com (a less expensive, supplemental option).
• A private tutor. Students who attend a poorly-ranked law school, whose grades weren't up to par, or who have failed the bar before may want to consider this option. If you choose to seek out a tutor, choose someone with glowing recommendations and years of tutoring experience—they won't come cheap, but they're also less likely to waste your time and money.

Like I mentioned earlier, most students plan on taking the bar (in the jurisdiction they plan to practice) the summer after they graduate from law school. Read a more detailed guide on preparing for and taking the bar exam .

Final Steps: Beyond the Bar

If you've made it this far, you know that there are so many hoops to jump through for aspiring lawyers. Once you've passed the bar and gotten a job, however, you should know you're not quite done!

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is an important part of staying informed and up-to-date. Information on state-by-state requirements for CLE available through the American Bar Association. Fortunately, it's not too big of a deal when compared to all of the education and exams you would have to endure through this point.

Finally, The ABA puts aspiring lawyers through a moral character screening process. If you're generally honest and haven't broken any laws, you won't have any issues. The process varies by state—see CA as an example .

How to Become a Lawyer: Summary

This is a ton of information to take on at once, especially if you're at the beginning of this process (or even if you're still unsure about becoming a lawyer). Let's review the five main steps:

#1: Do well in high school.

#2: Study hard and get involved in your community in college.

#3: Prepare for the LSAT and give careful thought to your applications.

#4: Attend law school.

#5: Pass the bar exam and become licensed to practice law.

This process may feel overwhelming, but here are a few important things to keep in mind:

• The path to becoming a lawyer is fairly flexible until you actually have to submit law school applications. This gives you tons of time to figure out whether the path is right for you.
• You don't have to think about all of these steps at the same time. Once you're in law school, your peers will be thinking about (and worrying about) the same things—there's no way you'll forget any important steps.

Becoming a lawyer is definitely not for everyone—it's a particularly competitive field right now, and most lawyers' jobs are nothing like what you see on TV. But if you decide you want to enter the legal profession, you now have the info you need to start off on the right foot.

What's Next?

You have a lot to think about, but remember: you just have to take it one step at a time.

To give yourself a head start, think about seriously preparing to get into a great college. Read about how to get a perfect score on the ACT or the SAT , and check out our guide on how to get into an Ivy League school .

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Francesca graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and scored in the 99th percentile on the SATs. She's worked with many students on SAT prep and college counseling, and loves helping students capitalize on their strengths.

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Essay on My Future Profession Lawyer

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Future Profession Lawyer in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Future Profession Lawyer

Choosing law as a career.

When I think about my future job, I want to become a lawyer. This is a person who helps others with the law. Lawyers can work in many places like courts, companies, or schools.

Helping People

Lawyers are important because they protect people’s rights. If someone is in trouble or doesn’t understand the law, a lawyer can help. They make sure everyone is treated fairly.

Studying Hard

To be a lawyer, you need to study a lot. You have to read many books and understand the rules of the country. It takes many years, but it is worth it to help others.

I dream of standing in a courtroom, speaking for those who need help. I want to be someone who makes a difference and stands up for what is right. Being a lawyer will let me do that.

250 Words Essay on My Future Profession Lawyer

Why i want to be a lawyer, the work of a lawyer.

Lawyers do many different things. They can work in a court, talking to judges and trying to win cases. They can also give advice to people or companies about what the law says they can or cannot do. Some lawyers help write new laws or work for the government. What excites me is that every day can bring a new challenge and a chance to learn something new.

Studying to Become a Lawyer

To become a lawyer, I will have to study a lot. After finishing high school, I need to go to a university and study law for several years. I will learn about different kinds of laws, like those for buying and selling things, for crimes, or for family matters. After that, I must pass a big test to show I’m ready to be a lawyer.

My Goals as a Lawyer

As a lawyer, my goal is to be someone people trust. I want to work hard to protect people’s rights and make sure everyone is treated equally. I also hope to help make the laws better so that they are fair for everyone. Being a lawyer is not just a job; it’s a way to make a difference in the world.

500 Words Essay on My Future Profession Lawyer

Introduction to my dream job.

Ever since I was young, I have been fascinated by the idea of becoming a lawyer. A lawyer is someone who knows a lot about the law and helps people solve problems that involve rules everyone must follow. They work in courts, talk to judges, and stand up for others. I think this job is very important because it’s all about making sure that fairness wins.

What Lawyers Do

A lawyer’s job is not just about arguing in court. They do many things like giving advice to people, writing legal papers, and researching old cases to help with new ones. They must be good listeners and speakers because they need to understand their clients’ stories and then explain them to others. Lawyers also need to be very good at convincing people because they often have to persuade judges and juries to see things their way.

The Skills I Need

Being a lawyer is not just about knowing the law. You also need to have certain skills. For example, you must be able to solve problems, think quickly, and pay attention to details. Lawyers also need to be honest and trustworthy because people share their secrets with them, hoping for help. I am working on these skills every day, even in school, by joining debate clubs and paying close attention to my lessons.

I want to become a lawyer because I love the idea of making a difference. When someone is treated unfairly, a lawyer can step in and make things right. I also enjoy reading and writing, which are big parts of a lawyer’s job. Plus, I think it’s exciting to work on different cases, meet many people, and learn new things all the time.

My Future as a Lawyer

Becoming a lawyer is my big dream, and I am willing to work hard to make it come true. I understand that it will take many years of studying and lots of practice to be good at it. But I am excited for the day when I can stand up in court and help someone who really needs it. That’s what being a lawyer is all about, and that’s why I can’t wait to start my journey towards this amazing profession.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

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Lawyers advise and represent individuals, businesses, and government agencies on legal issues and disputes.

Lawyers typically do the following:

• Advise and represent clients in courts, before government agencies, and in private legal matters
• Communicate with their clients, colleagues, judges, and others involved in the case
• Conduct research and analysis of legal problems
• Interpret laws, rulings, and regulations for individuals and businesses
• Present facts in writing and verbally to their clients or others, and argue on behalf of their clients
• Prepare and file legal documents, such as lawsuits, appeals, wills, contracts, and deeds

Lawyers, also called  attorneys , act as both advocates and advisors.

As advocates, they represent one of the parties in a criminal or civil trial by presenting evidence and arguing in support of their client.

As advisors, lawyers counsel their clients about their legal rights and obligations and suggest courses of action in business and personal matters. All attorneys research the intent of laws and judicial decisions and apply the laws to the specific circumstances that their clients face.

Lawyers often oversee the work of support staff, such as paralegals and legal assistants and legal secretaries.

Lawyers may have different titles and different duties, depending on where they work.

In law firms, lawyers, sometimes called  associates , perform legal work for individuals or businesses. Those who represent and defend the accused may be called criminal law   attorneys  or  defense attorneys .

Attorneys also work for federal, state, and local governments.   Prosecutors  typically work for the government to file a lawsuit, or charge, against an individual or corporation accused of violating the law. Some may also work as  public defense attorneys , representing individuals who could not afford to hire their own private attorney.

Others may work as  government counsels  for administrative bodies and executive or legislative branches of government. They write and interpret laws and regulations and set up procedures to enforce them. Government counsels also write legal reviews of agency decisions. They argue civil and criminal cases on behalf of the government.

Corporate counsels , also called  in-house counsels , are lawyers who work for corporations. They advise a corporation’s executives about legal issues related to the corporation’s business activities. These issues may involve patents, government regulations, contracts with other companies, property interests, taxes, or collective-bargaining agreements with unions.

Public-interest lawyers  work for private, nonprofit organizations that provide legal services to disadvantaged people or others who otherwise might not be able to afford legal representation. They generally handle civil cases, such as those having to do with leases, job discrimination, and wage disputes, rather than criminal cases.

In addition to working in different industries, lawyers may specialize in particular legal fields. Following are examples of types of lawyers in these fields:

Environmental lawyers  deal with issues and regulations that are related to the environment. For example, they may work for advocacy groups, waste disposal companies, or government agencies to help ensure compliance with relevant laws.

Tax lawyers  handle a variety of tax-related issues for individuals and corporations. They may help clients navigate complex tax regulations, so that clients pay the appropriate tax on items such as income, profits, and property. For example, tax lawyers may advise a corporation on how much tax it needs to pay from profits made in different states in order to comply with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules.

Intellectual property lawyers  deal with the laws related to inventions, patents, trademarks, and creative works, such as music, books, and movies. For example, an intellectual property lawyer may advise a client about whether it is okay to use published material in the client’s forthcoming book.

Family lawyers  handle a variety of legal issues that pertain to the family. They may advise clients regarding divorce, child custody, and adoption proceedings.

Securities lawyers  work on legal issues arising from the buying and selling of stocks, ensuring that all disclosure requirements are met. They may advise corporations that are interested in listing in the stock exchange through an initial public offering (IPO) or in buying shares in another corporation.

Lawyers held about 833,100 jobs in 2021. The largest employers of lawyers were as follows:

Lawyers work mostly in offices. However, some travel to attend meetings with clients at various locations, such as homes, hospitals, or prisons. Others travel to appear before courts.

Lawyers may face heavy pressure during work—for example, during trials or when trying to meet deadlines.

Work Schedules

The majority of lawyers work full time and many work more than 40 hours per week. Lawyers who are in private practice and those who work in large firms often work additional hours, conducting research and preparing and reviewing documents.

Lawyers must have a law degree and must also typically pass a state’s written bar examination.

Becoming a lawyer usually takes 7 years of full-time study after high school—4 years of undergraduate study, followed by 3 years of law school. Most states and jurisdictions require lawyers to complete a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from a law school accredited by the  American Bar Association  (ABA). ABA accreditation signifies that the law school—particularly its curricula and faculty—meets certain standards.

A bachelor's degree is typically required for entry into most law schools. Undergraduate fields of study may include law and legal studies, history, or social science.

Almost all law schools, particularly those approved by the ABA, require applicants to take the  Law School Admission Test  (LSAT). This test measures applicants’ aptitude for the study of law.

A J.D. degree program includes courses such as constitutional law, contracts, property law, civil procedure, and legal writing. Law students may choose specialized courses in areas such as tax, labor, and corporate law.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations

Prospective lawyers take licensing exams called “bar exams.” Lawyers who receive a license to practice law are “admitted to the bar.”

To practice law in any state, a person must be admitted to the state’s bar under rules established by the jurisdiction’s highest court. The requirements vary by state and jurisdiction. For more details on individual state and jurisdiction requirements, visit the  National Conference of Bar Examiners .

Most states require that applicants graduate from an ABA-accredited law school, pass one or more written bar exams, and be found by an admitting board to have the character to represent and advise others. Prior felony convictions, academic misconduct, and a history of substance abuse are just some factors that may disqualify an applicant from being admitted to the bar.

Lawyers who want to practice in more than one state often must take the bar exam in each state.

After graduation, lawyers must keep informed about legal developments that affect their practices. Almost all states require lawyers to participate in continuing legal education either every year or every 3 years.

Many law schools and state and local bar associations provide continuing legal education courses that help lawyers stay current with recent developments. Courses vary by state and generally cover a subject within the practice of law, such as legal ethics, taxes and tax fraud, and healthcare. Some states allow lawyers to take continuing education credits through online courses.

Advancement

Newly hired attorneys usually start as associates and work on teams with more experienced lawyers. After several years, some lawyers may advance to partnership in their firm, meaning that they become partial owners of the firm. Those who do not advance within their firm may be forced to leave, a practice commonly known as “up or out.”

After gaining a few years of work experience, some lawyers go into practice for themselves or move to the legal department of a large corporation. Very few in-house attorneys are hired directly out of law school.

Other Experience

Part-time jobs or summer internships in law firms, government agencies, and corporate legal departments provide valuable experience. Some smaller firms, government agencies, and public-interest organizations may hire students as summer associates after they have completed their first year at law school. Many larger firms’ summer associate programs are eligible only to law students who have completed their second year. All of these experiences can help law students decide what kind of legal work they want to focus on in their careers and may lead directly to a job after graduation.

Lawyers typically have an interest in the Thinking and Persuading interest areas, according to the Holland Code framework. The Thinking interest area indicates a focus on researching, investigating, and increasing the understanding of natural laws. The Persuading interest area indicates a focus on influencing, motivating, and selling to other people.

If you are not sure whether you have a Thinking or Persuading interest which might fit with a career as a lawyer, you can take a career test to measure your interests.

Lawyers should also possess the following specific qualities:

Analytical skills . Lawyers help their clients resolve problems and issues. As a result, they must be able to analyze large amounts of information, determine relevant facts, and propose viable solutions.

Interpersonal skills. Lawyers must win the respect and confidence of their clients by building a trusting relationship, so that clients feel comfortable and share personal information related to their case.

Problem-solving skills. Lawyers must separate their emotions and prejudice from their clients’ problems and objectively evaluate the matter. Therefore, good problem-solving skills are important for lawyers, to prepare the best defense and recommendation.

Research skills. Preparing legal advice or representation for a client commonly requires substantial research. All lawyers need to be able to find what applicable laws and regulations apply to a specific matter.

Speaking skills. Lawyers are hired by their clients to speak on their behalf. Lawyers must be able to clearly present and explain evidence to a judge and jury. 

Writing skills. Lawyers need to be precise and specific when preparing documents, such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney.

The median annual wage for lawyers was $127,990 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $61,400, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $208,000.

In May 2021, the median annual wages for lawyers in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Lawyers who own their own practices usually earn less than those who work in law firms or other business establishments. Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey wage data only includes lawyers working in business establishments.

Employment of lawyers is projected to grow 10 percent from 2021 to 2031, faster than the average for all occupations.

About 48,700 openings for lawyers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. 

Demand for legal work is expected to continue as individuals, businesses, and all levels of government require legal services in many areas.

Despite this need for legal services, more price competition over the projections decade may lead law firms to rethink project staffing to reduce costs to clients. Clients are expected to cut back on legal expenses by negotiating rates and scrutinizing invoices. Work that was previously assigned to lawyers, such as document review, may be assigned instead to paralegals and legal assistants. Some of this routine legal work may be outsourced to lower cost legal providers located overseas.

Although law firms will continue to be among the largest employers of lawyers, many large corporations are increasing their in-house legal departments to cut costs.

The federal government is likely to continue needing lawyers to handle civil or criminal actions on behalf of the United States. However, demand for lawyers across all levels of government is contingent on available funding.

For more information about law schools and a career in law, visit

American Bar Association

National Association for Law Placement

For more information about the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and the law school application process, visit

Law School Admission Council

For a list of state and jurisdiction admission bar offices, visit

National Conference of Bar Examiners

The requirements for admission to the bar in a particular state or other jurisdiction may be obtained at the state capital, from the clerk of the state Supreme Court, or from the administrator of the State Board of Bar Examiners.

Where does this information come from?

The career information above is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook . This excellent resource for occupational data is published by the U.S. Department of Labor every two years. Truity periodically updates our site with information from the BLS database.

I would like to cite this page for a report. Who is the author?

There is no published author for this page. Please use citation guidelines for webpages without an author available. 

I think I have found an error or inaccurate information on this page. Who should I contact?

This information is taken directly from the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Truity does not editorialize the information, including changing information that our readers believe is inaccurate, because we consider the BLS to be the authority on occupational information. However, if you would like to correct a typo or other technical error, you can reach us at [email protected] .

I am not sure if this career is right for me. How can I decide?

There are many excellent tools available that will allow you to measure your interests, profile your personality, and match these traits with appropriate careers. On this site, you can take the Career Personality Profiler assessment, the Holland Code assessment, or the Photo Career Quiz .

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Writing Samples, References & Transcripts

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RFK Jr. as Trump’s health secretary? Here’s what he wants to do

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is setting aside one ambition and making room for another. 

Kennedy ended his independent presidential campaign Friday and endorsed former President Donald Trump. While announcing his decision, Kennedy said Trump had “asked to enlist me in his administration,” though Kennedy did not specify a role.

On Tuesday, Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, told an interviewer the campaign was weighing whether to “join forces” with Trump and suggested that Kennedy would do an “incredible job” as secretary of health and human services. Trump later told CNN that he “probably would” appoint Kennedy to some role. 

“I didn’t know he was thinking about getting out, but if he is thinking about getting out, certainly I’d be open to it,” Trump said. 

(Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, said Wednesday that there was no quid pro quo deal to offer Kennedy a Cabinet post in exchange for his endorsement and that any conversations about a future role would be separate.) 

Neither Kennedy nor his campaign responded to requests for comment on just what he would do if he were nominated and approved by the Senate to serve in a position former HHS Secretary Alex Azar described as having “a shocking amount of power by the stroke of a pen,” at the head of a department with a more than $1.5 trillion budget .

By historical comparisons, Kennedy, a famous anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist, would be an odd pick for HHS secretary. Previous appointees have had varied backgrounds in medicine, government, law and public health. The current secretary, Xavier Becerra, served as attorney general of California.

Kennedy, also an attorney, practiced environmental law and founded Children’s Health Defense, which is now the most well-funded anti-vaccine organization in the country. During the pandemic, he became the purveyor of wild conspiracy theories , often aimed at public health officials in the agencies he now seeks to lead. Kennedy has criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for Covid’s death toll and said Fauci should be prosecuted if he committed a crime. He has also said the attorney general should force editors of medical journals to publish retracted studies. 

HHS oversees 13 agencies , including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. On the campaign trail, in podcasts and in news interviews, Kennedy has described wanting to dismantle those offices and rebuild them with like-minded fringe figures. 

The agencies have become “sock puppets” for the industries they regulate, Kennedy told NBC News in an interview last year, in which he laid out his plans for public health if he were elected president. Faced with another pandemic, Kennedy said, he wouldn’t prioritize the research, manufacture or distribution of vaccines. 

“The priority should be finding treatments that work and building people’s immune systems,” he said, falsely adding that “vaccines have probably caused more deaths than they’ve averted.” He mentioned ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments — which he says worked against Covid, even though numerous studies say they didn’t.

Kennedy’s campaign has been supported and led by the anti-vaccine movement he helped build. In November, he credited activists at Children’s Health Defense, which he chaired until he took leave to run for president, for boosting his campaign. Accepting an award at the group’s annual conference, he said he would stop the National Institutes of Health from studying infectious diseases, like Covid and measles, and pivot it to studying chronic diseases, like diabetes and obesity. Kennedy believes environmental toxins, a category in which he places childhood vaccines, to be the major threat to public health, rather than infectious disease. 

“I’m going to say to NIH scientists, God bless you all,” Kennedy said at the time. “Thank you for public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.” 

Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a longtime target of the anti-vaccine movement, said a Kennedy reign over HHS — a department tasked with overseeing health policy, providing and regulating care, sponsoring medical research and training, and communicating with the public during emergencies — would be disastrous.

“He no doubt will try to perform studies that prove his views and thus further weaken America’s trust in vaccines and, no doubt, try to eliminate all mandates,” Offit said. “He said he doesn’t want to study infectious diseases. He would eliminate studies around real problems and gear them toward what he thinks the problems are, independent of what good data show.

“It doesn’t matter whether the data show that he’s wrong; he’s still going to be convinced that he’s right,” Offit continued, referring to Kennedy’s focus on proving the harms of vaccines that have repeatedly been proven to be safe. “In no way would this advance human health.”

In Kennedy’s interview with NBC News last year, he sharply criticized the FDA, the NIH and the CDC and said he would “unravel the corrupt corporate capture of these agencies that turned them predatory, against the American public.” He said he would boot the officials in charge and appoint people who would “turn them back into healing and public health agencies.”

He declined to name names, but he has surrounded himself with those on the fringe of public health. He has praised “brave dissidents,” including discredited vaccine scientist Robert Malone , and Dr. Pierre Kory, who was stripped of his certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine this month for promoting and peddling false cures for Covid. Kennedy posted that doctors like Kory “help clear away the smoke of corporate profiteering so that we can see clearly the causes and solutions to the chronic disease epidemic.”

Last year, candidate Kennedy told a group of anti-vaccine doctors and influencers assembled for a health policy roundtable that he would surround himself with “dissidents.” 

“Have faith and watch what we do,” he said. “I think you’ll be pleased.” 

Brandy Zadrozny is a senior reporter for NBC News. She covers misinformation, extremism and the internet.

Suicide by Cop? How Junk Science and Bad Law Undermine Accountability for Killings by Police

55 Pages Posted: 6 Aug 2024

Jeffrey Selbin

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law

Date Written: August 01, 2024

This article offers the first critical examination of "suicide by cop" as a law enforcement theory that shifts the blame for excessive use of police force to victims, shields police officers from accountability, and undermines civil rights. The term suicide by cop appeared in the 1980s as a moniker for encounters in which civilians intentionally provoke a lethal response from law enforcement, for example, when they leave behind a note expressing their wish to die at the hands of police. Since then, police and their advocates have developed suicide by cop into a malleable form of junk science that serves as a broad defense against personal and institutional liability.

Keywords: junk science, civil rights, police accountability, suicide by cop, 1983

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Jeffrey Selbin (Contact Author)

University of california, berkeley - school of law ( email ).

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Aug 20, 2024

After raising minimum wage, California has more fast food jobs than ever before

What you need to know:  Since the $20 an hour minimum wage law went into effect, California has added 11,000 new  fast   food  jobs. As of July, California now has 750,500  fast   food  jobs – the most in state history.

SACRAMENTO —  According to new state and federal employment data, California’s  fast   food  industry has added jobs every month this year, including  11,000 new jobs  in the four months since Governor Gavin Newsom signed the  fast   food  minimum wage increase into law, helping workers get the benefits they deserve

For the first time in history, California now boasts  750,500  fast   food  jobs  throughout the state – more than ever before. Since raising worker wages, every month this year has seen consistent  fast   food  job gains, and nearly each month has seen more jobs than the same month last year.

Here’s a breakdown of the  data  from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

• January 2023: 715,000
• February 2023: 725,100
• March 2023: 730,900
• April 2023: 734,400
• May 2023: 742,600
• June 2023: 745,800
• July 2023: 746,700

“What’s good for workers is good for business, and as California’s  fast   food  industry continues booming every single month our workers are finally getting the pay they deserve. Despite those who pedaled lies about how this would doom the industry, California’s economy and workers are again proving them wrong.”

Governor Gavin Newsom

In September of last year, Governor Newsom  signed legislation to increase the minimum wage  for California’s more than 500,000  fast – food  workers to $20 per hour. It also created the  Fast   Food  Council where workers have a stronger say in setting minimum wages and working conditions, including health and safety standards.

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Californians can now add their mobile driver’s license to google wallet.

Aug 23, 2024

News What you need to know: Californians participating in the mobile driver’s license pilot program have a new, convenient alternative for storing digital licenses on smartphones.  SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the California Department of Motor...

Governor Newsom awards more than $789 million to build thousands of sustainable homes for Californians

News 2,483 sustainable homes, and infrastructure, created through state cap-and-trade funds What you need to know: Governor Newsom announced that 24 projects in 20 California communities will receive more than $789 million in cap-and-trade funds to build housing and...

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Aug 22, 2024

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Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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The 47 Seconds That Saved Kamala Harris’s Political Career

Nearly 14 years ago, Kamala Harris’s opponent in the California attorney general’s race gave an answer at a little-watched debate that was frank — and fateful for the future Democratic presidential nominee.

Steve Cooley, left, then the district attorney of Los Angeles County, and Kamala Harris at a debate during their race for California attorney general in 2010. Credit... Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

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By Shane Goldmacher

Shane Goldmacher, who reports on the presidential race for The Times, previously covered California politics, including the 2010 attorney general’s race, for The Los Angeles Times.

• Aug. 18, 2024

The first thing to know about Kamala Harris’s campaign for California attorney general is that she was not necessarily favored to win.

It was 2010 — the pinnacle of the Tea Party’s power — and Ms. Harris was running statewide for the first time and struggling to shed the same San Francisco liberal label that Donald J. Trump is yet again wielding as an epithet.

Ms. Harris, then 45, was already seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party. “The female Barack Obama,” Gwen Ifill had memorably tagged her the year before. But plenty of rising stars are snuffed out early, and Ms. Harris was facing a formidable Republican foe that year in Steve Cooley, the popular and moderate district attorney of Los Angeles County.

Mr. Cooley’s reputation as an evenhanded, corruption-busting prosecutor had put him tied or narrowly ahead of Ms. Harris entering October — largely on the strength of his uncommon popularity for a Republican in Los Angeles. He had won election three times in what is the state’s most populous Democratic stronghold.

Ms. Harris was running out of both time and money when she arrived at their only debate on the first Tuesday of October . Then, about 45 minutes into the hourlong clash, Mr. Cooley gave an answer that was frank, fateful and foolish.

It was a turning point in the campaign. Ms. Harris would escape a month later with one of the narrowest statewide victories in modern California history — by less than 0.85 percent of the vote. Yet even on election night, Ms. Harris’s chances had appeared so bleak that Mr. Cooley declared victory. The race remained unsettled for three weeks.

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