Considering Law School?

In The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law (Oxford University Press 2010, p. 115), authors Levit and Linder write ”a law degree . . . can open doors in politics, business, law enforcement, and other fields where clear thinking and a knowledge of our nation’s laws is valued.” Depending on a person’s interests, strengths, and past work or personal experiences, earning a law degree may open doors to working in private law firms, corporate legal departments, federal or state government positions; and a law education gives an edge over the competition in getting jobs that value legal training but do not require bar passage.

Yet, like anything worth pursuing, earning a law degree requires a significant commitment in spending time, energy, and money. The investment you make in getting a law degree begins with learning everything you can about the law-whether it is the law itself, law schools, the practice of law, and what lies ahead after you earn the degree. Above all, you must candidly evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses as one who will be asked, as a legal professional, to represent others in solving their problems and giving legal advice: that is, as a fiduciary that serves the best interests of others and understand, in a realistic way, the different costs of what it takes to achieve your professional goals and what legal professionals do while engaging in reality of legal practice in a diverse range of legal settings.

The following steps may help you learn about the legal profession and what it takes to become a part of it:

• Make an appointment with a pre-law advisor to discuss your interest in law.
• Take law or law-related courses that expose you to the law, courts, and the legal profession and the different skills used by attorneys or judges in practice.
• Learn about the realities about achieving a law degree—how much it will cost in terms of anticipated debt to get there, what you will asked to do in a professional setting, and how you can strike a healthy balance between work and family responsibilities (essentially your quality of lifestyle) to get there and remain happy over the long-term.
• Being brutally candid and realistically assess your skills and talents and whether being engaged in the law or a law-related career fits your interests.
• Work to establish learning through a trusted advisor or mentor. Do so by beginning to form a professional network of professors, law school graduates and alumni, and practicing attorneys; and, do not hesitate to ask them about their legal education and career experiences. 
• Immerse yourself in campus and off-campus organizations that promote the application of law, legal skills, or serving the public interest, such as Mock Trial, the pre-law club, student government clubs, or volunteer organizations that serve the community.
• Join the political science pre-law listserv by emailing a request to Professor Christopher Banks (cbanks6@kent.edu) and make an effort to attend political science-sponsored pre-law events to learn more about the legal profession.