Pre-Law @ UMD

If you are considering law school, you are taking the initial step toward a potentially rewarding career in the legal profession. A legal education can be one of the most challenging and fulfilling endeavors an individual will pursue in their lifetime.

There are many potential reasons one may choose to attend law school. Obviously, learning the skills of a lawyer and then using them in practice is the most common reason.

However, some may simply be interested in the complexities of the law and seek to learn more about it. Still others are motivated to enter law school to effect change through government, interest groups, or other non-profit organizations.

Like any other profession, not all lawyers are rich and successful. However, the legal profession is generally rewarding both personally and financially. A person with a background in legal education can, in additional to practicing law, turn to other fields such as teaching, business, and advocacy.

LEGAL EDUCATION

There are many paths to choose when deciding on a law school: the large school with a well-known name and a highly competitive environment, or the smaller, lesser-known school where personal relationships are emphasized? Public or private?  Regardless of which path is chosen, the law school curriculum is designed to develop the legal skills essential for all successful lawyers. Law school education in the U.S. typically involves three years of intensive, full-time academic work (some law schools offer a part-time program, which typically takes 4-5 years to complete).

While attending law school, your analytical, logical, and creative thinking will be sharpened, and your reading and debating skills will be also be developed. As a law student, you will read case law (i.e. legal decisions by judges).  Students learn to make logical legal connections and to assert or refute legal arguments in specific areas of the law.  Typical law courses include Contracts, Torts (personal injury), Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Commercial Law, Family Law, Environmental Law, Tax Law, Labor Law, and Trust and Estate Law.

Law school is an intense educational process during which students work hard and learn much.  The course workload is generally heavier than that found at the undergraduate level, and the amount of material covered is usually immense (some have quipped that law school is like drinking water from a fire hose).

Once individuals have passed the rigors of legal education, they then may sit to take the bar exam. The exam broadly tests a lawyer's knowledge of the law. Upon passage of the bar, individuals may obtain a license to practice law. The exam is administered by the state in which a lawyer desires to practice. Students who graduate from an American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law school any where in the U.S. may sit for the bar exam in all 50 states. Those who graduate from non-ABA accredited schools may typically practice law in the school's home state, but their ability to practice in other states may be limited.


THE JOB OF A LAWYER

Lawyers must be able to examine legal issues, while keeping in mind the constantly changing law and legal system. They also must be able to advocate, to the best of their ability, diverse interests.  This also means advocating interests with which they may not personally agree. Lawyers must have skills to communicate effectively, either verbally or in writing. At the same time, successful attorneys must have the power to effectively persuade and negotiate.

Practicing attorneys, therefore, are intricately involved in business dealings, political negotiations, and debating some of the most difficult issues facing society. The work of an attorney often involves avoiding and negotiating past conflict. In this manner, the work of an attorney can be very interesting. You'll find lawyers at work in the center of the biggest deals in government, business, and the non-profit sector.

Attorneys find themselves in a wide variety of positions. Some become in-house counsel on corporate, governmental, or interest group staffs. Others work for large law frims who represent business clients. Still others work in smaller operations practicing a mix of criminal and civil law. And some lawyers pursue careers in academia or as jurists sitting on the bench.


BE REALISTIC

Sound like an interesting field? It is. But you should also go in with "both eyes open."  People often have inaccurate views about practicing law.

Some view law school as an automatic ticket to "big bucks." According to U.S. Census data, the median annual income for lawyers and judges in 1998 was slightly over $100,000. This figure, of course, included attorneys in all fields and all levels of experience, and in all diffrenet regions of the U.S.  The Internet Legal Research Group reports that the average starting salary for first year associates at private law firms was approximately $97,000. in 2003.   Top lawyers with big corporate law firms can make much higher six-figure salaries (the average annual salary for law firm partners in 2003 was a very handsome $593,000.)  And, of course,  there are some "high-flying" attorneys who make millions.

However, there are also large numbers of "everyday" lawyers who have small legal practices and earn much more modest incomes (starting salaries around $50,000. are not uncommon).  Many of these attorneys make a decent living at their trade, but they certainly don't qualify for a glamourous lifestyle. And there are many other lawyers who, burgeoning under massive student loan debt, struggle to find jobs and pay their bills. This has especially been a problem here in Southern New England: Massachusetts and Rhode Island have very high ratios of lawyers per capita. On average, most lawyers do fairly well. But there are no guarantees.

Some people have inaccurate views of what lawyers do. Having seen television programs such as The Practice or Law and Order, some may get the idea that all lawyers spend their time in the court room trying cases. This is not true for most attorneys. Much of a lawyer's work involves reading, research, negotiations, and discussions. Indeed, some lawyers hardly ever set foot in a courtroom. The job of many attorneys is often to study agreements and potential situations to avoid litigation, not engage in it.

Finally, some approach law from an unrealistic perspective. For example, many individuals seek to practice environmental law based upon their deeply held belief in environmental protection. But they should know that a large number of the positions in environmental law involve representing the interests of chemical companies, industrial manufacturers, and global oil corporations--the very groups most environmentalists oppose. Still others envision practicing criminal law to protect the innocent from arbitrary governmental power. But these budding lawyers must realize that those who practice criminal law represent many people who are guilty of commiting heinous crimes,  in addition to the innocent. And these attorneys frequently have a difficult time earning a living because their clients--overwhelmingly poor--often have little money to pay their attorney fees.

Like all fields, a career in law has "pros" and "cons." On the whole, however, many lawyers find their work to be interesting and rewarding. But you must be realistic about what a career in law, or any other field, entails.