How to Become a Lawyer

How to Become a Lawyer

So you are thinking about traveling the road to becoming a lawyer. Surprisingly, it is a road often traveled and for many folks, they pretty much know which turns to make. This post is for those that do not know which direction to go. See I was one of those people who had no clue on what I needed to do in order to become an attorney and had to figure it out on my own.

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HOW TO BECOME A LAWYER

STEP ONE: GET YOUR BACHELOR’S DEGREE

Unfortunately, the road to becoming a lawyer requires you to get a secondary education. The plus side is you only need to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Unlike, some graduate programs can major in whatever you want. That means you do not have to major in political science or pre-law in order to head into law school. In fact, I encourage you to get your bachelor’s degree is something other than political science. Unless, of course, you are passionate about political science.

STEP TWO: TAKE THE LSAT

The next step to getting into law school is taking the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). As much as I hate this exam it is a huge requirement for getting into law school. The LSAT consists of five multiple choice sections and an unscored writing sample. The test measures candidates’ skills in analytical thinking and reasoning. Check out this blog post on why you should not be discouraged if you do not score high on your LSAT.

You should also start studying for the LSAT around your sophomore or junior year of college. This will give you wiggle room to obtain the score you need to get into the law school you want.

STEP THREE: RESEARCH & APPLY TO LAW SCHOOLS

In my opinion, steps two and three should be done simultaneously. While researching law programs you will be able to determine what LSAT score you need to make in order to get into your favorite law programs.

My best advice is to create a list of 10 – 20 law programs you will like to attend. Be sure to include the schools that you know you can get into. These days applying for law school is a lot easier because it is all done through the LSAC website.

#smartfrotip: Make yourself more appealing to law school admissions counsel by being apart of organizations. Getting into law school is about being a well-rounded individual.

STEP FOUR: LAW SCHOOL

Once you get into law school, take your first-year classes seriously. Statistics say that 60% of your first-year law classes are tested on the bar exam. Take the time and write well-written notes and outlines as you will need to pull these out once you get into your bar studies.

Going further, make sure continue to stay motivated and dedicated to passing law school and learn all course materials so that bar studying becomes more of a review than a learning.

STEP SIX: PASS THE BAR EXAMINATION

Depressingly, passing law school does not mean you are an attorney. Before you can actually sit for a bar exam most state requires you to pass a character and fitness application. This application is a detailed application that asks you all kinds of questions about your background, credit score, and recommendations. Texas requires you to list out all your pass address for the past 10 years and all your past jobs from a certain amount of time.

Once you passed the character and fitness process you are then able to sit for the state bar exam. Each state has it’s own guidelines and requirements for passing their state bar exam. For example, Texas bar examination is a three-day examination that consists of short essay questions, Multistate Bar Examination, and an essay portions. Check out my video on how to pass any state bar exam.

Original article and pictures take onesmartfro.com site