What to Study If You’re Planning a Career in Law

What matters is the development of certain core skills: critical thinking, analytical reading, persuasive writing, and the ability to understand complex systems. Whether you get those from analyzing court opinions or digging through economic data doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you’re building the kind of intellectual endurance you’ll need later when you’re drowning in case law at 2 a.m.

Before diving into law school applications, students should also look into program quality and legitimacy. The question of where you study law has become more important in recent years, especially as legal education faces growing scrutiny. One thing to pay close attention to is the ABA law school accreditation, which indicates whether a law school meets the standards set by the American Bar Association. This credential isn’t just a rubber stamp; it determines your eligibility to take the bar exam in most states. As legal education expands through online formats and new institutions, this distinction helps filter out programs that might look appealing on the surface but won’t set you up for long-term success.

Accreditation also connects to broader conversations happening in higher education. With student loan debt under national scrutiny and questions rising around the value of degrees, more students are taking a practical approach. They’re looking for clear outcomes, affordable programs, and educational paths that don’t lead to regret. Choosing a law school with proper ABA accreditation offers some reassurance that the investment is not only valid but also respected by employers, courts, and licensing boards alike.

Undergraduate Choices That Actually Prepare You

If you’re still in college or planning to start soon, choosing the right undergraduate focus can help build a stronger foundation. Again, there’s no formula, but certain paths help more than others. Political science remains popular, mostly because it offers exposure to the U.S. legal system and helps students understand government structures and policy-making. Philosophy is another strong choice, not because it teaches law directly, but because it teaches how to construct arguments, test assumptions, and spot logical flaws—exactly the kind of thinking that law school demands.

English and history majors are often well-prepared too, thanks to the heavy emphasis on reading and writing. Law school requires enormous volumes of reading, and exams often depend on your ability to write clearly under pressure. If you’ve already spent years writing papers that analyze complex texts and defending your interpretations, you’re going to feel slightly less overwhelmed when it’s time to brief a Supreme Court opinion.

Economics and STEM majors bring something valuable too: precision. Math and science train students to be detail-oriented and methodical, which pays off in legal areas like tax law, patent law, or anything involving regulation and compliance. Increasingly, tech companies want legal professionals who understand both code and contracts.

Skills That Matter More Than GPA

While grades are undeniably important—law school admissions committees do read transcripts—soft skills matter too. The ability to speak persuasively, to read the room, to understand people’s motivations, and to stay calm under pressure can make a dramatic difference once you’re in the field.

Take the courtroom, for instance. You might know every legal detail cold, but if you can’t present your case in a way that resonates with a jury, you’re not going to win. The same goes for negotiation. Clients hire lawyers not only for their knowledge, but for their ability to steer conflict, find solutions, and close deals. That takes emotional intelligence, communication skills, and strategic thinking—not just memorized statutes.

Clubs, internships, campus publications, and part-time work all help develop these skills. Working retail might not scream “legal training,” but dealing with angry customers teaches conflict resolution fast. Writing for the school paper teaches you how to meet deadlines, research under pressure, and take feedback—all things you’ll need in law.

Choosing a Direction After Law School

Once you reach law school, the questions get more specific. Do you want to be in court? Behind the scenes? Working in public interest law or representing corporations? The variety of legal careers often surprises people. You could work in immigration, intellectual property, sports law, environmental law, family law, education policy—the list goes on.

What’s shifted in recent years is how people are defining success. Fewer law students automatically chase the highest-paying firms. More are looking for balance, for work that aligns with their values, or for roles in government or nonprofit sectors. The legal profession is broadening, slowly adapting to expectations around mental health, work-life balance, and long-term sustainability.

If anything, this trend is creating space for more types of students to enter the field and succeed. The hyper-aggressive, sleep-deprived litigator model still exists, but it’s no longer the only path. Law is becoming more flexible, more interdisciplinary, and more human than it used to be.

A legal career begins long before law school and stretches into choices that touch nearly every part of society. From undergraduate classes to professional networks, every decision along the way shapes how you’ll approach the field. Studying law in today’s world means preparing not just to recite cases, but to interpret a rapidly shifting legal and social landscape with clarity, purpose, and—hopefully—a sense of humor.

The books will matter. The classes will challenge you. But the career you build will depend just as much on how well you read people, how you adapt to new challenges, and how seriously you take your role in a system that still affects everything from personal rights to corporate power. It’s not just about knowing the law. It’s about knowing how to use it.