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Legal Career Overview
The Legal career field spans a wide variety of professions, each with its own unique set of duties and educational requirements. Some of the most popular careers in this field are the following:
Career Education
Education and training requirements for legal careers vary widely depending on the actual profession. Becoming a lawyer usually takes 7 years of full-time post-secondary study: four years of undergraduate study followed by three years of law school. Acceptance by most law schools depends on the quality of the applicant's undergraduate school, the applicant's undergraduate grades, results of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and in some cases, prior work experience. The minimum educational requirement to become a judge or magistrate is a bachelor's degree; however, the vast majority of judges are former lawyers and for many judicial positions the educational requirements are the same as for a lawyer.
Although some paralegals are trained on the job, most of them have either an associate degree in paralegal studies or a bachelor's degree together with a certificate in paralegal studies. Some even hold master's degrees. A college degree is not required to become a legal secretary; however, many law firms strongly prefer college graduates. A degree program should include business-related subjects and ideally one or more accredited legal training courses. No formal training requirements currently exist for mediators, although many of them are lawyers and former judges. Mediator training is available through independent mediation programs, although many colleges and universities are beginning to offer advanced degrees in dispute resolution and conflict management. Programs to train court reporters are widely available at community colleges, four-year universities and distance learning programs. Many of these programs are certified by the National Court Reporter's Association (NCRA).
Individuals interested in careers as crime scene investigators should plan on obtaining at least a bachelor's degree with a major in chemistry, biology, or forensic science. Most types of legal consultant will also need a bachelor's degree, although for jury consultants a master's degree or Ph.D. in a social science or behavioral science (e.g., sociology, political science, criminology, or psychology) is desirable.
Schools for Legal are listed in the column to the left.
This table shows summary data on occupations in the US. Clicking on any occupation name brings you to a page showing job prospects and salaries for that occupation in hundreds of metro areas across the country, with data updated through 2008.(Where data is denoted by an asterisk (*), summary info was not available.
The green bars in the table below indicate the relative salary levels and growth rates of each occupation, compared to the others. The levels are determined by sorting the occupations (by salary or growth rate, separately) and then dividing them into ten groups corresponding to the the ten possible green bar levels. So a single bar means the occupation is in the bottom 10% for that characteristic compared to others on this page.
Click each Occupation title for more details.
| Occupation | Jobs | Median Pay | % Growth 2006-2016 | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arbitrators and Mediators | 9,570 |  $50,660 | 10.6% |  |
| Court Reporters | 17,930 | $49,710 | 24.5% | |
| Lawyers | 553,690 | $110,590 | 11% | |
| Legal Secretaries | 257,810 | $39,860 | 11.7% | |
| Legal Support Workers | 39,310 | $50,250 | 5.1% | |
| Paralegals and Legal Assistants | 253,040 | $46,120 | 22.2% | |
These schools offer particularly quick info upon request, and we have written detailed profiles for each (click school names to see the profiles).
Request info from multiple schools, by clicking the Get Info links.
We have some additional detailed pages at the state level for Legal.
Numbers in parentheses are counts of relevant campus-based schools in the state; online schools may also be available.
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