What classes should I take in high school to prepare for a law career?

Question

I want to be a lawyer and I was wondering what high courses I should take to prepare. Also, I was wondering what I should take and major in college.

Answer 1

It depends on what kind of lawyer you want to be - criminal or civil?

If Civil, then major in a lot of business and accounting. If you want to go with patent law (very well paid), then major in a science. For criminal law get a criminal justice degree.

For all types of law, get some background in debate and logical reasoning - the sooner the better. Also, if the school offers Latin then take it. Otherwise learn a Latin based language like French or Spanish.

Answer 2

The hardest social studies and English or other humanities classes you can. There isn't a lot that you can do in high school to prepare you for law school. Just know that you'll have to be a strong communicators--taking humanities courses will increase at least your writing skills. You might try to do a speaking class or drama to help with being in the public. Of you might try to join the debate team or the forensics team (but preferably the debate team).

Your college major can be anything you want--it is even possible to attend law school with an engineering degree. Just make sure you take some courses that have argumentative writing, and other classes that involve analytical and logical thinking. many law students take philosophy classes, but I doubt you will want to major in philosophy. You might not make it into law school or graduate school, so a philosophy degree can be kind of worthless.

Answer 3

Classes:
-AP US History because AP classes go more in depth on cases and their names and the final outcome. You have to know it for the AP Exams also.
-AP Government because you learn more about the system of the gov't and how it runs. Meanwhile you learn very important court cases that occurred recently or in the past.
-AP Literature/Writing because you start to write alot better with organization,context, and description. You also would do alot of speeches in class to help with your speaking.

Clubs:
-Debate/Mock Trial. Because you basically take the role of a lawyer fighting his side. It's like a great experience and knowledge because you take the role of a lawyer and fight your side over a specific issue.

College:
I would probably major in English then Law.

Answer 4

i will be starting as a 1l in august :-)
I have heard that logic class is somewhat useful and may help u some on the the lsat.
math classes (ie calculus series and beyond) improves your anyaltical/logic skills too
you can go into law school with any major from art and spanish to biology and the ever so popular english and political science and history

Answer 5

You could try to join Mock Trial.

it's kinda like being a lawyer.

Answer 6

Well, one course you won't need is English Composition.