The traditional path to becoming a lawyer is obtaining a bachelors degree, and going to a good American Bar Association (ABA) law school. While this path into law remains the norm, there are non-traditional paths into the legal profession that do not require a bachelors degree. I followed one of these paths to becoming a lawyer. I have been licensed as an attorney in California since 2004 despite never obtaining a bachelors degree.
I became interested in the legal profession when I worked as a volunteer legislative coordinator for a non-profit organization. I then decided to join the profession. Long before becoming a lawyer I worked as a paralegal. Although working as a paralegal made me want to become a lawyer, I continually put off law school because I did not have and did not want to get a bachelors degree. Then in 1997 I learned something quite extraordinary – a bachelors degree is not required to go to law school.
I discovered that in addition to ABA law schools, California has a number of law schools that are accredited by the California Bar rather than the ABA. Many of these schools offer admission with only 60 semester or 90 quarter units of college credit. Some of these schools will even admit applicants with less than 60 or 90 units of college credit, but the California Bar requires these students to take and pass the First Year Law Student’s exam following their first year in school in order to continue to the second year. This path to practicing law is not yet widely accepted, but offers great potential to those without a bachelors degree. If you want to practice in a state other than California, check with that state to see if a similar option is available.
Even if your state does not offer admission to graduates of non-ABA schools, there is a second non-traditional path to becoming a lawyer that may be an option. While most ABA accredited law schools require a bachelors degree, ABA rules permit accredited law schools to admit students without bachelors degrees in what the rules term as “Extraordinary Circumstances”. What constitutes “Extraordinary Circumstances” appears to be left up to each law school. So while few, there are some ABA law schools who will admit students without a bachelors degree. The key to getting in without the degree is a good to great Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score and life experience that shows you are likely to be successful in law school. If you want to pursue this option you will need to start by contacting each law school you are considering to determine if they offer this option, and if so what they require. Knowing the rules before submitting an application could make the difference between being admitted or being rejected.
Before pursing one of these non-traditional paths into the legal profession there are two things that you must consider. First, following one of these paths may limit the types of jobs you will be able to obtain as a lawyer. You will be highly unlikely using one of these paths to land a job in a prestigious law firm. But these options will work for working for non-profits, working for a small firm, running your own practice, and for working in some government sectors. This path may also be valuable in pursuing non-traditional legal careers or non-legal careers where legal knowledge is beneficial.
Being admitted to practice law via one of these paths will also limit the states where you can practice. For example, I graduated from a California Bar Accredited law school. While I passed the California Bar, because I did not practice in California for five years before moving to New York State I am not eligible to take the New York Bar Exam and thus cannot practice law in New York.
So before pursuing one of these non-traditional paths to becoming a lawyer you should give serious consideration to what type of work you want to do, and to where you want to work. If you can achieve your goals by following a non-traditional path to practicing law, you can enjoy a successful career as a lawyer without ever having a bachelors degree.
