Introduction

In the United States, the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree is considered the primary professional preparation for people in the legal profession. The first J.D. in the United States was awarded by Harvard University in the late 19th century. Harvard professors James Hall and Christopher Langdell were instrumental in the creation of the J.D. program for legal education, as they believed the Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree awarded for undergraduate study in England was insufficient for the needs of lawyers in the U.S. Since 1971, every law school in the United States has offered the J.D. as its sole professional law degree.

Until 1997, the United States was the only country that offered the J.D. Since then, other countries have started to introduce their own version. Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines now offer the J.D., although each has slight variants in length and curriculum requirements.

Earning a J.D. requires completion of a three-year program, although it will obviously take part-time students longer to complete the full course of study. A research dissertation is not required to earn a law degree, as the J.D. is considered a professional doctorate.

Even if a student wishes to specialize in a specific field such as intellectual property law, the law school curriculum covers all aspects of the legal system in the United States. For example, key components of first year coursework for law students include torts, contracts, property law, constitutional law, criminal law, civil procedures, legal writing, and professional ethics.

Admission to law school requires a bachelor's degree with a high GPA and satisfactory scores from the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Most schools will also require an applicant to submit letters of recommendation from professors or other authority figures, as well as a personal statement discussing his reasons for wanting to attend law school.

Working as a Lawyer While earning a law degree is an important step towards entering the legal profession, a J.D. alone does not entitle you to practice law. After earning your degree, you must sit for the bar exam in the state in which you wish to practice. If you attended a school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), you will be eligible to take the bar exam in any state. However, if your degree is from an unaccredited law school, you must take the bar exam in the state in which the school is located.

Alternative Legal Careers Although the majority of law students hope to find positions as lawyers, there are a number of alternative career paths that may be better suited to your professional goals. The critical thinking skills developed through law school coursework make excellent preparation for careers in finance, insurance, or business. The research and writing skills that are part of the law school curriculum make graduates well-equipped to enter careers in journalism, broadcasting, or publishing. Education, social work, and civil service are options to consider as well.

Qualities of a Good Lawyer

If you're thinking about purusing a legal education, you must first consider if you have what it takes to be a successful lawyer. The legal profession can be challenging and extremely rewarding, but it's not the right choice for everyone.

Having an outstanding LSAT score and GPA will help you get into law school. However, having the right personal qualities is essential if you want to enjoy a career in the legal profession after you earn your degree. Even the best law school can only help you develop your innate abilities.

The Profile of a Good Lawyer Lawyers come from many different backgrounds, but most share the same basic personality traits and natural talents.

• Perseverance: Are you the type of person who looks at obstacles as challenges to be overcome? If you want to earn a law license, three years of intense study lay before you. Your social life will be put on hold for the most part as well. To get through these challenges, you must be persistent in your pursuit of a degree.
• Research Skill: Do you enjoy finding new information and learning about different areas of interest? As a law student, you can expect to spend many hours researching case law. If you lack a sense of intellectual curiosity, this will prove to be quite challenging.
• Logical Thinking Ability: Do you pride yourself in being considered a reasonable person? A lawyer's thought process must be precise, factual, and not distracted by outside details.
• Analytical Skills: Do you think of life as one big puzzle that must be solved? Complex problem solving is key in the practice of law. Courtroom preparation involves gathering and interpreting information to formulate and propose solutions for case conditions or issues.
• Public Speaking Skills: Are you comfortable speaking in front of a group? The ability to hold an audience in the courtroom is a vital skill. If you'd rather run around naked than speak in front of group of strangers, getting through law school will be difficult.
• Reading Comprehension Skill: Would you describe yourself as a bit of a bookworm? Reading 100 or more pages nightly is common practice for law students.
• Writing Skills: Do you have a way with words? Law students must do a lot of writing when earning their degree. In fact, many have undergraduate degrees in journalism, communications, or English.
• Interpersonal Skills: Does your sparkling personality make you the center of attention at a dinner party? People come from many different backgrounds. As a lawyer, you will deal with many of them as jurors, witnesses, and potential clients.
• Creativity: When friends want help finding a unique solution to a problem, are you the person they turn to? Considering how rigid the law can sometimes be, you must be a creative thinker in order to apply past judgments to the case at hand.

A Passion for the Law Above all else, successful lawyers have a passion for the law. Regardless of the area of law they eventually practice, they are committed to using their skills to help others. Lawyers who work in public interest believe they are called to use their legal training to advocate for people who can't speak for themselves. Lawyers who work in the field of intellectual property law help protect the rights of artists, musicians, and other creative professionals. Lawyers who settle divorce cases help people through a difficult time in their lives and give them what they need to move forward. If you are thinking about a legal career, take time to consider the reasons why you're passionate about the legal profession and use this information to help you get your career off to the best possible start.

Law Associations and Organizations

After you've graduated and passed the bar, law associations and organizations can provide a way to enhance your resume while learning more about the legal field.

American Bar Association If you're a recent graduate, you probably think of the American Bar Association (ABA) as the organization that provides law school accreditation. However, the ABA is also the largest professional association for lawyers. There are more than 400,000 members of the ABA, including lawyers and law students as well as legal assistants, legal librarians, and legal educators with associate membership privileges.

Some of the benefits of ABA membership include:

• Continuing education
• Networking events
• Job opportunities
• Legislative advocacy
• Opportunities for volunteer service
• Discounts on travel and professional services
• Information about the challenges faced by lawyers in certain minority groups, such as female lawyers, lawyers of color, or lawyers with disabilities

Other Types of Law Associations There are also organizations dedicated to specific practice areas within the legal field. For example, the American Intellectual Property Law Association provides continuing education, networking opportunities, and professional awards to lawyers who specialize in intellectual property law. The Association of Corporate Council has 26,000 members in 75 countries that join together to share information about the challenges associated with this area of the legal profession.

Some legal associations are only open to members of a certain ethnic group. The National Conference of Black Lawyers is a group that aims to offer support services to African-American lawyers, scholars, law students, and activists. The group has chapters in Michigan, New York, and Chicago. Membership in the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association is open to attorneys, judges, professors, and students of Asian Pacific descent who are committed to promoting diversity in the legal profession.

Making the Most of Your Membership If you're considering joining a law association, keep in mind the following tips to ensure that your membership is as useful as possible:

• Ask your colleagues what law associations and organizations they recommend. Some groups may have an active presence in your city, while others may be national organizations with just a few members in your area.
• If you're not sure a particular organization is right for you, contact the membership coordinator before you join. The coordinator is usually the person best equipped to answer questions about the group's activities and membership benefits.
• Think in terms of quality, not quantity. It is better to be an active member of one or two organizations than to over commit yourself and join every group you see.
• Membership dues for legal associations are typically paid on an annual basis. If you're concerned about the cost of membership in a professional association, remember that some employers will reimburse you for the cost or provide group memberships as an employee benefit. For example, large firms often participate in the ABA group membership plan to provide automatic memberships for every attorney they employ.

History of Legal Education

Today, it's impossible to find a lawyer who doesn't have a degree from a law school. However, the legal degree is actually a relatively new invention. Before the 19th century, most people entered the legal profession by completing an apprenticeship period of independent study under the supervision of a more experienced attorney. This method of learning how to become a lawyer was called reading law.

For someone who has spent three years in a modern law school, reading law might sound like an easy way to become a lawyer. Although apprentices didn't have student loans or need to complete the LSAT, they still had fairly strict requirements they needed to meet. By 1730, New York required the completion of a seven-year clerkship for a lawyer to be able to practice independently. By 1756, the requirements had grown to include earning a bachelor's degree and passing a test covering basic legal principles in the United States.

• Bachelor of Law The Juris Doctor (J.D.) is now the primary professional degree for attorneys in the United States, although this was not always the case. The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia awarded the first legal degree in the United States in 1793. This degree was a Bachelor of Law (LL.B.), a type of undergraduate degree originating in England. The last LL.B. in the U.S. was awarded by Yale in 1971, although most other common law countries still offer this type of degree today.
• Juris Doctor In the United States, the J.D. became popular as part of a movement during the mid-19th century to provide more rigorous professional training. Harvard was the first university to offer the J.D. degree, while the University of Chicago Law School was the first to offer this degree as a substitute for the LL.B.
• The J.D. is still primarily associated with law schools in the United States, although some other countries began to offer their own variants of this degree during the 1990s. J.D. programs are now available in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. These J.D. variants range from two to four years in length and some include the completion of a thesis or dissertation. Discrepancies in the requirements for the J.D. offered in other countries can be attributed to the fact that each country has its own unique legal system. What works well to prepare lawyers to practice in the United States is not necessarily an appropriate training method in other parts of the world.

Developing the J.D. Curriculum The type of cdegree awarded may have changed, but the teaching methods today's U.S. law school classes use are actually based on standards developed by Harvard Law School professors Christopher Columbus Langdell and James Barr Ames during the 1870s. Their approach was to educate through the Socratic Method by having a random student explain a case while his peers tried to expose logical flaws in the argument. In this way, students were forced to take an active role in their education instead of passively listening to lectures.

The length of study required to earn a degree in law was set at three years when the Association of American Law Schools passed a resolution in 1906. No specific legal curriculum was set at this time, but eventually schools decided that the first year students would complete studies in civil procedure, criminal law, constitutional law, torts, property law, contracts, and legal research and writing. During their second and third years of study, students are allowed to take elective courses in the legal areas that most interest them while gaining practical experience through internships, volunteer work in legal clinics, and participation in activities such as mock trial or moot court.