Law School / Lawyer Dopers

In My Humble Opinion
1

I haven’t posted to these forums in forever, but I couldn’t think of a better group of people to put this question to.

I’m starting school again this January. This is after taking a two year hiatus as a result of my miserable first semester performance. I’m ready to retun now, though, and work hard at it.

Ultimately, I want to go to law school. I think I’ve wanted to be a lawyer my entire life but never did anything about it because my dad was a lawyer and I didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. I’m older and more mature now, and I can see that my dad is an honorable person in an honorable profession. A profession that I believe I can be very good in.

So my question to you is: when I return to school (with a clean slate) what should I major in? What classes should I take to better prepare myself for law school? I know it’s very difficult to get in to law schools nowadays, and I want to get into the best. Good grades will help, but they won’t take me the whole way. What, besides grades and LSAT scores, do law schools look at for admissions? Any advice or anecdota would be very helpful to me.

Thanks.

2

AAAAHHHH!!! I just committed the cardinal sin of forum posting. I DIDN’T SEARCH THE FORUMS FIRST!

So sorry.

Please ignore this thread, as there are already a few circulating around the boards.

3

Those threads seem to have dropped away, and were concerned with “what school” and "should I go?

You’re more interested in prepping, having decided to go, so I’ll post here.

  1. Keep yourself physically fit. That sounds a bit weird, but a lot of law school is sitting. Sitting in class, sitting in the library, sitting in your room - reading, reading, reading. To get through it, make sure you exercise regularly, eat properly, get some sleep, don’t drink too much (which is not the same as total abstinence :wink: ) - you know - all the typical mum & dad advice. But regular exercise is important.

  2. The schools I went to didn’t have “majors” as such - they weren’t like Arts programs. The first year was mainly required classes. Second and third were wide open, but you generally try to take as wide a variety of classes as possible, to be well-rounded. There’s usually quite a wide selection, so you won’t be able to take them all. (For example, I took Income Tax in my fourth year, and never got around to Wills or Trusts, which I regret.) When you’re at law school, it’s very rare to know where you will end up, so you want as general a grounding as possible. (But take some classes for fun, just because they look interesting. When I’ve been involved in hiring young lawyers, I’m always interested in the clearly “optional”/not-mainstream classes that they’ve taken - gives me some idea of their interests.)

  3. If you’ve got the time, I would do some reading now about real-life cases. Two books that I highly recommend are The Nuremberg Trial by Anne and John Tusa, and Judgement in Berlin by Herbert Stern. Both of them explore the very nature of what criminal law is, how courts work, and what is fair and just in a legal system - and they’re good reads.

The Tusa book is about the trial of the Nazi leaders after WWII. The Stern book is about a trial of two people who hijacked a Polish plane, landed in the US sector of Berlin, and were tried by a US federal court for hijacking, even though they were trying to escape from the Iron Curtain. There’s also a movie version of it, although it’s not as good. Sean Penn played one of the hijackers, and Martin Sheen played the judge (that was before he ran for President.)

That’s all I can think of for now.

4

Oh, one other book that just occurred to me - * Judge of the Far North* by Sissons. It’s probably out of print by now, but it’s a fascinating read, written by the first judge of the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories in Canada. Most books about trials are written by lawyers or parties - this one is by the judge, after he retired. It’s a good account of how judges think and approach cases, battles with government bureacracies, the need for the common law to adapt to unusual situations. Highly recommended.

5

If you are trying to decide what to major in as an undergraduate, I’d suggest philosophy. I know, it sound weird, but philosophy revolves around the use of language, and the creation of logical thought processes. The writing that is involved is rather stylized–good exposure to the wacky world of legal writing (for Gods’ sake, don’t major in English or take a lot of creative writing classes–legal writing is becoming more intelligible, but it is still rigid enough to drive a really good writer mad). Any subject that requires you to examine why whatever it is is, and to be able to defend the reason you come up with, is good training for the law.

A second way to look at your major is to consider what areas of law you might have an interest in. I went to law school with a lot of biologist who were interested in environmental law, and several business majors who were heading into coprorate or tax law.

Try to get a good, well-rounded education–general requirement courses are your friends. You would be surprised at how many different things become the subject of a lawyers time. I’m a labor lawyer, some of the people I represent work in technical or scientific professions. If I had a better grounding in science, it wouldn’t be so difficult for them to explain their work to me–and me understanding what they do is often key to what I do for them. Do take classes that are challenging–look at how many papers you’ll be required to write, and how much reading–the more reading the better, because law school is 90% reading. And be involved in your classes–get use to asking questions, participate in any discussions. You will be required to answer questions in law school, so any practice you can get as far as thinking on your feet is helpful. Take debate, in any form, if it’s offered (or just have lots of fights with your friends and loved ones). Oh, political science is another common major, and these classes often include debate opportunities.

Practical experience in a law firm won’t help you in law school–but it may help you know that going to law school is right for you, and it will be a plus when you start looking for a job as a lawyer. The same goes for going to trials–it can be fun, but it won’t help you when professor X asks you to explain the parole evidence rule.

As with undergraduate admissions, law schools do look at your extra-curriculum activities, but they don’t carry all that much weight (I don’t think). Some schools will look at achieving a geographic mix, so a guy from New York who wants to go to school in Oregon may get a second look. Other schools like “life experience”, so the whole “I took 2 years off and now I’m more mature” angle might also get your application a second look. There are several books on getting admitted to law school, above and beyond getting good LSAT results; they’d be more up to date than my advice (mind you, it didn’t keep me from giving you advice).

Oh, and this is really important don’t forget to have fun in college, and continue to have fun in law school. If you get into the habit of enjoying life while you’re still in college, it’s a lot easier to hang on to as you pursue your career.

Good luck, romanticide!!

6

Just wanted to chime in and agree with Kallessa. I was a philosophy major in college, and it really helped with law school. Most of my fellow philosophy majors went on to law school. Heck, the philosophy advisor uses law school as a selling point to undecideds.

Poli Sci is good too.

7

I’m going to agree with the English thing partially. I didn’t major in English, but I consider myself to be a fairly good writer. Anyway, my first (and only) writing class in law school, the professor kept writing this on my paper (obviously paraphrased):
“Loved your writing. Your research sucks.”

grrrr…
I’ll do better this spring.

But what should you major in? Doesn’t really matter. Truly, it doesn’t. My class has people who have been out in the real world for 20 years and people who graduated college literally the day before starting Law. There are archeologists and former police officers. There are people with sociology degrees and ones with business majors.

It’s not what you have done but what you can do. Being familiar with the law is most assuredly helpful. Knowing the legal system as far as how the government works and the positions in the court and that district courts come before appeals courts come before supreme courts (except in backwards-assed NY) are helpful. But if you’re willing to learn, all you need to know will be taught in Law School.

Good luck.