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9 subjects you need to become a lawyer

These are some of the most important high school and college subjects for future lawyers:

High school subjects

Here are the most useful high school subjects for future lawyers:

1. English

Excelling in high school English language and literature classes can help aspiring lawyers develop their spoken and written communication skills as well as their comprehension abilities. As many law schools require applicants to submit an essay before admission, working on your English skills is crucial for improving the odds of you becoming a lawyer.

2. Public speaking

Any high school activity that involves public speaking, such as a debate club, can help you work on the verbal skills you need to be a lawyer. Aside from allowing you to practice correct and well-enunciated speech, a debate club can also help you practice analyzing the pros and cons of people with opposing viewpoints and give you the confidence to speak in front of audiences.

3. Social studies

Lawyers generally need to have extensive knowledge of any subject that can describe and influence society, such as economics, history, politics, government affairs and other similar ones. Taking a social studies class can help you understand concepts like how laws and regulations are made, how legal procedures and precedents work and other similar concepts that are vital for successfully practicing law.

4. Science

The scientific method involves experimentation, observation, as well as the recording and interpreting of any resulting data. All these steps are also widely used in the legal profession, making high school science classes an appropriate environment for students to get introduced to the scientific method. By learning about science, future lawyers can develop the skills they need to understand various pieces of evidence, use them to investigate cases and connect all the available information to come up with a reasonable conclusion.

5. Mathematics

Lawyers often have to analyze large amounts of complex numerical data, such as statistics and financial records. Therefore, mathematics is an important aspect of the job, as the skills you acquire when learning how to solve math problems are usually transferrable to several aspects of the law.

College subjects

Some of the most important college subjects for future lawyers are:

6. Statistics and data science

Studying data and statistics in college can be a continuation of your math education and provide you with key skills in analyzing and managing to draw conclusions regarding large amounts of data. Not only does studying statistics and data science help future lawyers read and understand data, but it also helps them detect flawed data.

7. American history and government

The American legal system relies on previously settled cases as precedents for current situations. Learning about the history of the country and its government can help you identify relevant precedents more easily in the future and can teach you how local, state and federal laws and institutions were created. Being familiar with past situations can also help aspiring lawyers eliminate various preconceptions regarding some aspects of the law.

8. Communication

As a continuation of high school English classes and public speaking activities, college communication-related classes, such as rhetoric, public speaking, theater and others can further develop your ability to be precise and persuasive in your speech, even when confronted with opposing arguments and in a public setting. Also, some law schools require face-to-face interviews, making verbal communication even more important for a future career as a lawyer.

9. Close reading and reasoning

Lawyers often need to quickly familiarize themselves with relatively large passages of previously unknown text, so classes that involve reading literature very important for developing these skills. Taking courses that involve reading and essay writing is also important for your success in law school, as many of the activities involve reading and then analyzing a text from various angles.