What is a quicker way to become a Lawyer?

To be an attorney in the United States you are required to attend law school after you have your undergraduate degree for at least three years. Then you must take the bar exam in the state in which you wish to practice.

I believe that one of the reasons that law school takes so long is that just like becoming a doctor, you are holding people's future in your hands by the decisions that you make as a lawyer. The decisions that you make will have an impact on a persons life, so it is not something that you want to do lightly. I believe that when you graduate with your undergraduate degree you are just beginning to understand the responsibility behind the career choice that you have made. And unfortunately your undergraduate degree in no way prepares you for law school. Law school is totally different from college/university. In law school you are going to have to apply yourself to learn concepts that you are not going to have any familiarity with. Things like torts, liability, intellectual property, laws of your country, your region, your county and all the procedural requirements that are put in place to allow the court system to function. In short, your undergraduate degree has laid the ground work by hopefully teaching you how to study and be focused and law school is there to teach you the basics of the law.

I think that this system is set up to help you succeed. Best of luck in your choices for your future.

The US system requires the full 3 years of law school and passing the state law exam in the state in which you intend to practice. However, if you wanted to expedite the years of study and take a chance, some education systems outside of the US are shorter. You could go to school for less time outside the US, take a one-year LLM course in the US, followed by the bar exam. I'm not sure that I would advocate that expedition as a faster way to move your career to the next level, although I do think that a combination of US and international education does enhance anyone's experience if you are interested in international practice. Also, I happen to think that time spent in school is time well spent if you truly leverage that time to explore different career opportunities. One of the disappointing failures in our US law school experience is the lack of creativity in career thinking - undergraduate and law school is a tremendous opportunity to use your time studying and working to explore the incredible diversity of career opportunities available in the legal community! What's your rush?

Yes 7 years is the usual route . I don't know where you are in your education, but that could potentially be shortened by finishing college early or by enrolling a 2-year law school program (there are a few). I don't know if I would recommend either.

To be honest, becoming a lawyer is very EXPENSIVE (my law loans are almost $200,000) and time-consuming. And only worth it if you really want to be a lawyer. It's a professional degree and really only good for that.

While you're in college, you can try getting a legal internship, try out a mock trial team/debate team if your school has it, and take legal classes your school offers. You also want to work on legal writing, being a lawyer is a lot of writing and research. These classes and activities can give you a glimpse of what the law is about.

After college, I would recommend going to work for a law firm as a legal assistant or paralegal first. You can get an idea what the practice of law is like, and do that for at least a few years. Become a very good paralegal, and you may want to just do that. You can possibly earn pretty decent money and not be saddled with a ton a debt from law school.

Plus, as a paralegal it is easier to move around and find a job. For a lawyer, it can be difficult often because you have to be licensed in a particular state to practice there. Taking a bar exam is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, so often that can make someone not want to move again.

Simply, yes. And as Carolyn outlined above, there are countless ways to make the 7 years of required education more interesting, more exciting and more valuable. I would like to encourage you also to explore whether there are other areas in the legal industry or the criminal justice system that also interest you. There are many individuals behind a successful legal team – in the private and public sectors. You may find these careers equally interesting, but with fewer years required for your professional credentials.