Law Degree

Factual Questions
1

Does one need a degree to become an attorney or can anyone who passes the bar put out a shingle?

2

The rules vary by state. In California, to practice law, one must pass the Bar Exam. In order to be elligible for the Bar Exam, the applicant must satisfy “pre-legal education” and “legal education” requirements as follows:

PRE-LEGAL EDUCATION:

Pursuant to Rule VII, Section 1 of the Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California, every general applicant must have (a) completed at least two years of college work at a regionally accredited or approved school, or (b) achieved three passing scores on the College Level Examination Program general examinations.

LEGAL EDUCATION:

Pursuant to Rule VII, Section 2 of the Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California, in order to establish eligibility every general applicant must have
(a) Graduated from a law school approved by the American Bar Association or accredited by Committee of Bar Examiners; or
(b) Completed at least four years of law study in any of the following manners

  1. In a law school that is authorized by the State of California to confer professional degrees; is registered with the Committee of Bar Examiners; and which requires classroom attendance of its students for a minimum of 270 hours a year; or
  2. In a law office in the state of California and under the personal supervision of an active member of the State Bar of California for at least five years; or
  3. In the chambers and under the personal supervision of a judge of a court of record of this state; or
  4. In a correspondence law school registered with the Committee of Bar Examiners, and requires no less than 864 hours of preparation and study per year; or
  5. By any combination of the methods referred to in this subsection (b).

So, one doesn’t necessarily need a degree to practice law in California.

3

Most states don’t require a J.D., but they do expect you to have to worked in the profession in some way for a while. You need to check each State Bar’s rules.

It’s not as if you can sign up to take the bar exam in your state and go in cold, pass the test, and go to work.

4

BearFlag70 said what I was trying to say, except he used facts. :slight_smile:

5

As far as I know, California, Vermont, and New York do not require a law degree. You can “clerk” for a few years instead. Note that if you get admitted to these states in such a way, you will have problems if you ever want to be admitted in other states.

6

Here are the precise New York requirements for “office study”, courtesy of the New York State Board of Law Examiners:

520.4 Study of law in law office. (a) General. An applicant may qualify to take the New York State bar examination by submitting to the New York State Board of Law Examiners satisfactory proof:

(1) that applicant commenced the study of law after applicant’s 18th birthday; and

(2) that applicant successfully completed at least one academic year as a matriculated student in a full-time program or the equivalent in a part-time program at an approved law school and at the conclusion thereof was eligible to continue in that school’s degree program; and

(3) that applicant thereafter studied law in a law office or offices located within New York State under the supervision of one or more attorneys admitted to practice law in New York State, for such a period of time as, together with the credit allowed pursuant to this section for attendance in an approved law school, shall aggregate four years.

Since you’re required to attend a year of law school anyway, and the choice is thus two more years of school or four years of practice…it’s not an option of which many avail themselves.