Whether inspired by real life cases of lawyers standing up for the little guy, watching too many episodes of Law & Order, or in search of lucrative pay, you decided you want to be a lawyer huh? While becoming a lawyer is not easy, it is definitely doable. Here are some tips on how to become a lawyer from start to finish.
Get Your Degree
To be a lawyer you need to get your law degree and in order to attend law school you need to have a bachelors degree. What you do in your undergraduate program matters. While working towards your bachelors degree keep you eventual goal of a law degree in mind, to increase your chances of getting into a good law school, make sure you have a rock solid GPA. We are definitely talking 3.5 or up. You also want to enroll relevant extra circulars and try to make them relevant. While the college Quidditch team may be a lot of fun it won’t be as useful on your law school application as time spent volunteering with the ACLU. Speaking of volunteering, you can turn that volunteer gig into an internship you are better suited to apply for law school. Once you near graduation, start applying at law schools and pay close attention to deadlines and other factors, a good lawyer knows the fine-print. You will also need to take LSATs, these tests play a major role in law school acceptance.
So You Have Your Law Degree, Now What?
After years and years of hard work, late night cramming, and more applications than you ever thought possible, you have graduated from law school and successfully passed the bar exam. You want to be a lawyer? Congratulations, here is your job! Just kidding…. even with all your education finding your first job as a lawyer can still be difficult. Finding a lawyer job can take some time but with hard work you will get your dream job. Hopefully you made some good connections in law school because in this industry who you know is a big part of finding a job. Start calling up some friends from your early years at law school, see what they are doing for work, they will likely be more then willing to help you. Another tip is apply for every law job you see, even if it is not in the field you want to be in. Getting your foot in the toor is everything and having real world experience in the law field will make you exponentially more hirable than you were fresh out of school. Also, remember to keep your chin up, even if you find yourself flipping burgers for a few months to pay students loans, keep trying, be patient and who knows, maybe one day when you are sitting in your big office with a view, knee deep in legal briefs, you might even miss those simpler burger flipping days.
We know it is a lot of hard work but if you want to be a lawyer go for it! You can do it!