Laying The Foundation For A Successful Legal Career

If you have always dreamed of become a lawyer, the moment you enter college you are already on the path. This is a very prestigious career path, with a tremendous amount of opportunity for success, growth, and progression.

The amount of success you can achieve is probably equal to the difficulty of getting there. If you are looking to cruise through school without really trying, this is not the area of study for you.

In general, you will need a minimum of four years of college, along with at least three year of law school immediately following your graduation. Then you will need to pass some of the most difficult tests in all of education.

The process of becoming a lawyer can be broken down into several steps that you will need to follow very carefully. First, get a bachelor’s degree from a reputable university.

The better the school that you attend, the more likely you are to get a good job at a good firm after you graduate. They will look at the name and reputation of your school, not just your success there.

Your particular choice of major does not matter much, at least not for purposes of getting into law school. However, your GPA in school is extremely important in determining whether you will get to move on from there.

Focus on your studies, and retake any classes that you need to, to achieve the optimal grades. Next, you will need to take the Law School Admissions Test, better known as the LSAT.

This is a test that is similar to exams such as the ACT or SAT, but this particular test is geared towards evaluating your potential to perform well in law school. This half-day test contains multiple choice questions as well as essay questions.

Your performance here is critically important, and you will need to purchase materials to help you prepare and study. You will probably want to take a prep course, and you will take a serious of practice tests to get ready.

Once you have completed this step, you can take a deep breath. However, do not put on the cruise control just yet.

You will still need to be accepted to a school, and the admissions process can be a little grueling. Apply to a number of institutions, and give yourself plenty of different opportunities.

You will most likely attend for three years once you have been accepted. Exams are almost always essay questions, and to do well you have to learn the formula for writing the proper essay.

It is not enough to know the information; you have to know the proper format for giving your professor exactly what they are looking for. The better you master this process, the more success you will have in your studies.

Next, you will need to take the bar exam to become certified. While you might believe that your education prepared you for the bar exam, you will still need to cram everything that you learned over the past three years into just a few weeks of study time.

Most graduates will take a bar review course to organize their test preparation, and to make sure they cover everything they need to know. After all the time and money you have invested in your legal education to this point, investing in a bar review course is a small price to pay for passing the bar on your first attempt.

Make sure that you take the test in the state in which you will want to be living and practicing your trade. If you need to move to a different state, you will need to retake the exam there.

Last but not least, you need to pass the Character and Fitness evaluation. Those who think lawyers have no ethics may be surprised that applicants to the bar in most states must submit to a Character and Fitness Investigation, usually conducted by the National Council of Bar Examiners.

This can be an intense and intrusive process into your life, but is very important. They will evaluate any criminal record, traffic tickets, credit reports, substance abuse issues, and even medical records.

If you survive all of these steps, you are ready to get a job, and get to work! While you may not start out in the job of your dreams, with hard work and dedication, you will be able to work your way up to the top.