How long does it usually take to become a lawyer?

Hi Brenda,

The typical path to becoming a lawyer in the United States is four years of undergraduate study and then three years of law school. After graduating law school, then you have to pass a bar exam to become qualified to practice law in a given state.

The beauty of this type of program is that you can study whatever you want in your undergraduate courses before studying law. So, if journalism interests you, then you can study that in college, or if electrical engineering interests you, then you can study that in college. It is very flexible and allows you to build up expertise in an area of your choice.

You can also take time to work after completing your undergraduate degree and before going to law school. That way, you can build even more expertise in an industry, learn about it and what legal needs there in that field before investing the time and effort into law school.

If you are curious about exactly what you can study in law school, then I suggest that you visit a website of a law school in your area and view the course catalog and descriptions. You can also review the required curriculum, which is typically going to involve some very specific courses in your first year (such as legal research and writing course, criminal law, criminal procedure, contracts, torts, property, and constitutional law) and then will become more flexible in your second and third years to allow you to develop some focus and concentration on what type of law you will want to practice.

The other thing you can do is to go to a job listing site, like Indeed or Zip Recruiter, and see what types of legal expertise is in demand. For example, right now, there are lots of jobs for internet privacy, cybersecurity, and law enforcement and compliance. Reviewing the job listings might give you an idea of what to study in undergraduate courses to begin to develop expertise in law school. For example, if you want to practice patent law, you will probably need an engineering degree of some sort.

I hope this provides you with some insight into how long it might take you to become a lawyer and how to pursue topics and subjects that interest you.

Cheers.

To become a lawyer it takes 4 years in college, 3 years in law school and then you prepare for 2-3 months for the bar exam before you get your license to practice law in the state of your choice. You cannot obtain a law degree for less than 3 years after college. However, some schools offer part-time programs where you could be working during year 2-3 of law school and studying law at the same time. It will take longer but at least you can be earning some money and gaining experience while you are in school instead of being in school for 7 years straight.