So, you want to become a lawyer?  You must either be on some kind of power trip (since law involves administering the most punitive sanctions a society gives out) or you truly care about fair play, rights, and liberties (in which case, you hope one day to finally show those cynics who thought you were naive and idealistic).  It could be that family and friends always groomed you to become a lawyer.  After all, there's something aristocratic about that Esquire (Esq.) title you'll be using.  It's also possible you simply want to make a lot of money fast.  The average lawyer is usually able to cash in on some big liability settlement ("jackpot justice") within seven years of starting their career, and if that happens to you, you can then retire and pursue other adventures at your leisure.  However, be advised that because there are so many lawyers, the law of big numbers applies, and there are just as many stories of failure as success.  The first and most important hurdle you'll face is getting the law degree.

    Legal education in colonial America began with study abroad in England or apprentice training under a colonial practitioner who was called a preceptor.  Although William and Mary College had the first appointment of a law professor, the first law school in America was the Litchfield School in Connecticut (1784-1833).  It was a proprietary school (no university base) with the first systematic curriculum and helped diminish the practice of apprentice training (which lingered on until about 1920).  The predominant instructional method used in law schools, the "case method" involving Socratic dialogue, was devised in 1870 by Christopher Langdell of the Harvard Law School.  This method required students to read "casebooks" which were put together by their professor out of appellate court opinions. Cases were selected because they were illustrative of good or bad legal reasoning.  The professor then called on students to independently know the facts of each case, the legal reasoning behind it, and how to predict similar cases in the future based on the doctrine of stare decisis (once a court has set forth a principle of law in regard to a particular set of facts, courts of the same or lower rank must adhere to that principle in deciding similar cases).  At its best, the case method promotes student learning for its own sake; at its worst, it leads to humiliation and is used to weed out weaker, more introverted students.  Not all law professors use the case method today, and a student is just as likely to find one who gives exams over textbooks, utilizes some variation of the case method, or has an unique pedagogy.  It may be important to know that successfully navigating the "politics" of law school involves adjustment to diverse pedagogies rather that the ideologies of a typical grad school.  It is safe to say that law school instructional approaches, devices, and procedures are unlike anything employed in other undergraduate and graduate schools.

    ADMISSION TO LAW SCHOOL is not going to be affected much by astronomical grade point averages which look like a noninterference pact existed between teachers and student.  Law schools are more impressed by signs of a struggle, overcoming adversity (sometimes even having a criminal background) or difficult, demanding coursework involving critical analysis, problem-solving, and extensive reading and writing requirements.  There are a few "prestige" law schools that still want high GPAs, but for the most part, the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) is more important see this site for some sample questions or read on below).  While far from perfect, this half-day exam has high validity in predicting who will succeed the first year of law school, the most difficult year.  Most law schools require recommendations, and they are rarely a factor in the admissions decision unless one is written by an employer (law-related, if possible) who attests that the applicant was trusted with client's lives, property and liberty.  Personal statements written by the applicants themselves are rarely remarkable since they all contain the usual ramblings about justice, and wanting to serve people and the profession.  Law schools are looking for real people with depth, not just people who have slid down the pipeline from kindergarten to college.  The ideal time to take the LSAT is before December in the undergraduate senior year, and most students apply to at least 5 law schools in the "application season" from January to March (the earlier, the better).  Law schools will then calculate the profile of that year's crop, and send out a wave of acceptances around April or May.  If the number of seat deposits to guarantee a full entering class are not sufficient, the law school will send out a second wave of acceptances in June or July.  For this reason, it is sometimes well into August before the final deposit completes the entering class.

    The American Bar Association (ABA) which was created in 1878 "approves" law schools on a number of criteria, including acceptable student-faculty ratios, volumes in law libraries, and curricular issues.  Lack of approval often means that their graduates cannot take the bar exam except in the state in which the law school is located (if then).  Many law schools offer post-JD degrees.  However, the most common degree is the juris doctor, or J.D., which is the first professional degree in law, and a "ticket" to practice law.  Some law schools calling themselves "traditional" schools may require a fourth year of law school toward obtaining the master's of letters in law (LL.M.) or the doctorate in law (J.S.D. or S.J.D.).  Still other law schools will offer "specialized professional" degrees in taxation, trade regulations, corporate law, labor law, international law, entertainment law, or various other specialties.  Still others offer "joint degrees" (like the MBA, MSW, or MA and MS in criminal justice) which may or may not be available on an accelerated basis, which means they might be obtainable in three years along with the J.D., but more typically require an extra year of study.   ABA rules have standardized three years of full-study (and four years of part-time study) to earn the J.D.  The ABA also requires that no full-time student hold an outside job for more than 20 hours a week.

    The J.D. is, of course, the desired degree (the "ticket") because it permits you to take the bar exam and practice law.  If your law school had a required clinical or "extern" program, you will have already had some real life experience, and some states allow law students (in their second or third year) to handle misdemeanor cases.  Not all JDs go into practice.  Some apply for government jobs, become a salaried lawyer or business executive, or they compete with Ph.D.s for faculty or administrative positions in colleges and universities.  ADMISSION TO THE BAR involves applying to the office of the highest court in your state and/or a board or committee (on character and fitness) set up by the court or state bar association.  While state statutes may spell out regulations on who may practice law, it is the highest state court which has exclusive authority to regulate admission to the bar, and this involves a BAR EXAM (unless petitions to waive are available) and evidence of GOOD MORAL CHARACTER (unless exemptions exist under state law or by court rule). The bar examination is usually a series of essay questions; see this site for some sample questions and answers.  Federal courts usually have requirements separate from state courts (unless derivative reciprocity agreements exist), as do various regulatory agencies (like the Securities Exchange Commission).  Practice in another state is prohibited unless a reciprocity agreement exists between the two states, or under pro hac vice, the attorney is allowed to practice in another state for a limited time and only for a particular case.  An unpardoned felony conviction or falsification of information are usual grounds for failing the character and fitness check.  Upon acceptance to the bar, the attorney must then obtain a certificate or license from a clerk of the court and comply with all local and state registration requirements.

AREAS INVOLVED IN THE STUDY OF LAW

    One can find numerous resources which are designed to help law students outline and study for their coursework.  Law school professors were among the first to post instructional materials online, so by visiting a specific school's web site, you might be able to see an actual online course, some web-augmented stuff (or if you're really lucky, a law professor's blog).  As a first-year law student, you will encounter a standardized curriculum that will challenge you on the following topics:

• Civil law - the concepts of jurisdiction and standing, motions and pleadings, pretrial procedures, the structure of a lawsuit, and appeal.
• Constitutional law - detailed study of the Bill of Rights, constitutional freedoms, civil rights, and history.
• Contracts - the nature of enforceable promises and determining remedies for nonperformance.
• Criminal law - rules and procedures as well as notions of responsibility for behavior that evokes official sanctions; also the rights of the accused.
• Property law - the concepts and uses associated with the treatment of land, buildings, natural resources, and personal objects.
• Tort law - private wrongs, such as acts of negligence, libel & slander, defamation, etc.
• Internet law - entertainment, free speech, copyright protection, digital commerce, etc.
• Legal method - introduction to the legal system and its processes.
• Legal writing - introduction to legal research and writing legal memoranda like briefs.
• First-year program - any special first-year academic support program the school has.

PREPARATION FOR LAW SCHOOL

    Any lawyer and every professional association will tell you that no such thing as a "prelaw major" should exist at any undergraduate institution.  Where they exist, however, prelaw advisors at such 4-year schools come from a variety of disciplines, and receive frequent correspondence that comes from LSAC, posting the brochures, flyers, etc. that law schools send out.  You can get advice about applying and attending law school from a variety of people, but this should not replace the advice you get from your regular academic advisor.  Any of a dozen LSAT workshops or test prep services exist, but vary widely, and the best advice is that some test prep is better than none.  It may likely help your chances and definitely your preparations if you've been a PARALEGAL.  Here's a link to what I think is the best Paralegal Resource Guide on the Net.  Now, and this is important, I have to be honest and tell you that criminal justice is probably NOT what you should major in.  Many law school professors unfairly don't regard it as a rigorous enough field of study, or they have a personal bias of some sort (such as getting back at criminal justice academic departments for not hiring them at some point in time), or they may understandably prefer to teach you everything they think you need to know about criminal justice while you are in their hands.  Here's a table of the:

BEST MAJORS TO TAKE IN COLLEGE TO GET INTO LAW SCHOOL

Source: Chambliss, Wm. & Aida Yass (1995) "Law School Admission Criteria
and Criminal Justice Undergraduate Majors" ACJS Today XIV(2):1-3

    Law schools will expect you to be well-read and have a voracious thirst for knowledge. There are certain BOOKS that every prospective law student should have read, or you should read them the summer before starting law school, or they should be in your possession by the time you start law school.  Here's a partial list, followed by another list of law schools:

RECOMMENDED PRELAW READINGS

NOTES: LSAT/GPA scores may not be accurate in some cases, and in no way should be interpreted as any indicator of the prestige or quality of a law school individually or in comparison to others.  Part-time tuition was calculated by multiplying credit hour cost by an average of two courses per semester ("no" indicates that part-time study is not normally available).  Full-time tuition was calculated similarly per five courses a semester.  Note that some schools charge higher out-of-state tuition even for part-time.  Tuition figures do NOT reflect additional expenses, such as room & board, books, laptop computers, etc.  Joint degree programs like LLMs (Masters of Letters in Law), Masters in Corporate Tax Law, Masters in Law Librarianship, e.g., Doctorates in Jurisprudence, etc. were ignored because they seemed to be in-house, not joint, programs (similar programs often had different initials for the same master's degree, and almost all schools offered some kind of LLM as advanced study on top of the JD).  Where .. or ... appear after initials, there were too many master's programs to list.

The figures for LSAT/GPA scores were calculated by consistently following a process of looking at 1999 LSAC applicant profile grids, starting where the most number of applicants were admitted and then moving across the grid until the first double-digit number of applicants were admitted and then reading the minimum cross-tabulated LSAT/GPA score in that range.  Where profile grids were not available, I used the first rounded number in the 25th/75th percentile range in the 1998 first-year class data.  These data are NOT to be used for comparative or ranking purposes, and there is no such thing as a minimum GPA score, only medians.  Nonnumerical factors are strongly considered in the admissions process by all schools.  In addition, law schools typically manage the diversity of their student body, and/or may use other rejection index criteria.  For written information on medians, obtain a copy of The Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools:2000 Edition (1999), LSAC, NY:Random House.  For an online look at what schools you might be able to get into, based on your LSAT/GPA index, visit the Boston College Online Law School Locator's list of law schools by GPA.

    Law schools exist in countries other than the U.S.  The following is a list of CANADIAN schools: Univ. of Alberta, Univ. of British Columbia, Univ. of Calgary, Dalhousie Law School, Univ. of Manitoba, McGill Univ., Univ. of New Brunswick, Univ. of Ottawa, Queen's Univ., Univ. of Saskatchewan, Univ. of Toronto, Univ. of Victoria, Univ. of Western Ontario, Univ. of Windsor, and York University.

    There are a number of law schools in the U.S. which, for one reason or another, have NOT YET BEEN APPROVED by the American Bar Association. As of mid-1999, this list includes: Birmingham and Miles (Birmingham, AL), Jones (Montgomery, AL); numerous schools in California (American, CAL Northern, California Pacific, California Pacific, California Southern, Empire, Glendale, Humphreys, John F. Kennedy, Univ. of LaVerne, Lincoln of Sacramento, Lincoln of San Jose, Monterey, New College, Univ. of Northern California, Oakland, Pacific West, Peninsula, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Trinity, Ventura, Univ. of West LA, Western Sierra, and William Taft); Florida Coastal, Univ. of Orlando; John Marshall (Atlanta, GA); Massachusetts (Andover), Southern New England (North Dartmouth); William Boyd (Las Vegas), and the Nashville School of Law.

LAW-RELATED INTERNET RESOURCES: (COURT TV, Legal Dictionary, 5-Hour Law School).

• Legal Information Institute-Cornell The premiere legal site that posts key documents on the Web. Recommended resources include recent and historic Supreme Court cases, a complete copy of the U.S. Code, the Constitution, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the Rules of Criminal Procedure.
• Law and Politics Internet Guide Devoted to Law, Technology, and Internet Usage.
• Older Supreme Court Cases 1937-75 They pick up where Cornell left off.
• Constitutional Resources on the Web Extensive analysis of almost every line in the Constitution.
• The American Bar Association A useful index of starting points.
• Administrative Office of the Courts The federal courts, also see Understanding Federal Courts.
• The National Center for State Courts; also see A Guide to State Laws on the Internet.
• Substantive Law on the Web A nice topical page.
• FINDLAW Excellent, probably the best search engine; also see the LAWCRAWLER.
• ChooseLaw A comprehensive legal information site
• GotTrouble Online resources for legal and non-legal topics
• Key Cite from Westlaw An alternative to in-print shepardizing of cases.
• HIEROS GAMOS-The Comprehensive Legal Site Devoted to the worldwide practice of law.
• Laws Lots of women's rights/women's studies-related resources.
• Legal Information From LexisNexis; a free legal research resource
• MegaLaw.com A comprehensive legal site.
• Dr. Tavel's MegaLaw Page - a resource guide and update site for litigators.
• The Law Guru Free legal advice, "Ask the Expert", common questions and answers.
• ALL LAW-the Lawyer's Home Page Legal and nonlegal links of interest to lawyers.
• TnCrimLaw a primer-oriented Criminal Defense site with good Guide to CJ system
• Criminal Defense Online From the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office.
• LegalSurvival A resource site with answers to legal FAQs Guide to CJ system
• Legal and Court-Related Sites Ira Wilsker's mega-Courts site, with links in no order
• Victim-Assistance Online A reference and communications resource for victim support agencies.
•  A legal, courts and crime news site, covering live trials.
• Experts on the Net; JurisPro; and More Experts Use these to find an expert witness.