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Law: More Than Just Trials and Cases

By Chantel Robinson '09; Revised by Aaron Stewart '09; Ellie Holland '19; Elyssa Williams '19

Whether you are the one recording cases or the one researching them, an English degree can help you learn critical thinking, reasoning, and writing skills that will be beneficial for every job in the legal field.

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If you have been looking through any of the other sections on this website, you may have received one pretty big hint: knowing information on law is extremely important. Whether you are a journalist, a freelance writer, or a PR specialist, understanding the law and your rights can help you become very successful; however, in order for people to find out about laws and their rights, there has to be someone to write everything down, right? For example, the American Judicial libraries are filled with many famous, crucial cases and rulings, such as Brown vs. the Board of Education. Each ruling and judgment is filed, archived, and documented for future reference. This system is very important for the lawyer who is trying to prepare their case and is in need of some examples to support their arguments.

There are many different careers within the legal field that you can have, such as a lawyer, a judge, a legal secretary, or a court reporter. Then, within the lawyer field, there are also different types you can become, including a trial lawyer (who researches details to prepare for trial), a criminal lawyer (who represents those accused of a crime), a civil lawyer (who help clients with bankruptcy, wills, contracts, etc.), or a house lawyer (who actually reside within a company to help them with their court disputes and legal questions) (Camenson 183).

Whichever job you wish to have, an English degree will be very beneficial for you— keep reading to find out how.

Click here to read interviews with lawyer Pat Tubbs or with attorneys Rhonda Best and Trisha Sindell

Skills

A lawyer “represents clients in criminal and civil litigations and other legal proceedings [and will] draw up legal documents and manage or advise clients on legal transactions. They may specialize in a single area or practice broadly in many areas of law” (Farr and Shatkin 295). So, if you are interested in law, you need to have a lot of legal experience—why do you think lawyers spend so much time in law school before they even get a chance to find a job? You cannot represent a client properly unless you know the complexities of our laws and procedures.

Again, an English degree can help you no matter which area of law you want to go into. English courses can you strengthen your writing, researching, critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical reading skills, all of which are recommended by the American Bar Association (Spriggs, "Law School"). Because of these skill developments, it’s no wonder that “for the fall 2014 entering class at the University of Kentucky College of Law, English majors had the highest LSAT scores of all students with an A&S major” (Spriggs).

Additionally, you need to be an effective researcher. Most of a lawyer’s time is spent looking up court cases that support their arguments. Unless you can effectively find the evidence that you need in a timely manner, you may find yourself spending long nights at the office drinking a gallon of coffee and pulling your hair out.

It is also important for anyone in law to possess good communication and rhetoric skills. People will not be confident in your abilities as a judge or lawyer if you can not talk clearly. As a lawyer, you will not be able to persuade any judge or jury to side with you if your opening and closing statements are filled with “ums” and “uhs.”

Though this may not be the first skill that comes to mind when you think of law, anyone in law needs to be very good at reading analytically. Specifically as a lawyer, you will need to research case files and produce evidence for your own case. This will require that you understand what you are reading and what happened during that case even if you did not witness the event firsthand. That massive amount of readings that you will complete during you four years of college can help with correctly answer questions on the LSAT and can help you identify fact patterns in law school because well have received plenty of practice analyzing texts (Spriggs). Dealing with multiple types of texts— from poems and short stories to essays and even novels— gives you the opportunity to hone your close reading skills. Essentially, it is important that you can read efficiently because you will be reading numerous court cases, police reports, and statements, along with any other material from research you conduct.

The American Bar Association (ABA) lists seven “Core Skills and Values” that students should acquire in preparation for the law:

Analytic / Problem Solving Skills
Critical Reading
Writing Skills
Oral Communication / Listening Abilities
General Research Skills
Task Organization / Management Skills
Public Service and Promotion of Justice

Most of these skills are refined with an English degree through countless readings of varying types of text, analytical essays, and in-class discussions. Because you are already developing the majority of these skills when you pursue an English degree, you are well prepared for learning the legal aspect in law school. These skills are really a base that can help in any other form of learning, as well as everyday life, because they are useful to use throughout your entire life and career ("Law School and the English Major").

Qualifications

If you are interested in studying law, you need to have a Bachelor’s degree and complete the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in order to be considered by any law school that is approved by the American Bar Association (Camenson 188). Advanced legal research is the primary course of study during three years of law school. As a result, you may find that the skills you learned during undergraduate studies will come in handy when you are expected to build a successful case. An English degree will be especially helpful because of the skills you honed in analytical reading, research, writing, and critical thinking.

After law school, all lawyers are required to earn a license to practice. Licensure requirements are different for every state, but all states require you to pass a written examination known as the Bar Examination (Camenson 187).

Law at Heidelberg

Heidelberg offers great courses to help you on your path to law school. Due to all of the research and writing skills necessary in a legal setting, English is always a good major/minor to consider. Our English courses will give you the research skills you need for any position you may want, and they will also help you develop ideas to help structure your case. Because the degree develops many of the recommended skills for law, an English major or minor is very useful. Taking classes such as Business and Professional Writing will be especially helpful because you will need to maintain your professionalism in your writing.

Political Science and Criminal Justice courses can also be really beneficial for those interested in law. Both fields are part of Heidelberg’s unique pre-law program and will help you immensely in your preparation for the LSAT’s.

Communication classes will also be beneficial because you will spend a lot of time trying to convince a judge and jury that your argument is more sound than the opposing council’s. Because you will need to make efficient arguments, you may want to take courses covering logic or rhetoric in order to help you understand the difference between a good and bad argument.

Other courses that may help you include government regulations, language arts, sociology and/or psychology, consumer relations, and even business administration (Farr and Shatkin 296).

To gain out of the classroom experience, you should consider joining the pre-law club, where you will learn about law alongside your peers and will meet people who have the same interests as you. You may also find joining Heidelberg’s Speech Team beneficial because you will gain experience in being persuasive and speaking to many people at once. Lastly, you may consider interning at a local law office to both gain practical experience and network with others in the field.

English Courses at Heidelberg for People Going Into Law

Intermediate Writing

Writing to Inform

Business and Professional Writing

Writing for Social Change

Writing for Non-Specialized Audiences

Technical Writing

Literature Courses

Sophomore Studies in English

Senior Capstone in English

Works Cited

Camenson, Blythe. Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2008.

McGraw-Hill Educators. The Big Book of Jobs. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2006.

Farr, Michael and Laurence Shatkin. 250 Best Paying Jobs. Indianapolis: JIST Publishing, Inc, 2007.

"Law School and the English Major or English Minor." Seton Hall University College of Arts and Sciences. Seton Hall University Department of English, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Spriggs, Guy. "English Degree Law School = Winning Combination." UK College of Art and Sciences. University of Kentucky Department of English, 5 Nov. 2015. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.