Take a four-year undergraduate study. Obtain a bachelor's degree from the college or university. The quality of your undergraduate scores partly determines your admission to law school. The standard of your school and your previous work experience are taken into account. You may have to go in for a personal interview.
Take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). This is a standardized exam that takes half a day at different centers around the world. Visit the Law School Admissions Council's (LSAC) website to acquire information on the dates and deadlines set for the test. You can retake the test if you feel that the scores do not mirror your true abilities. Retakes are limited to three times in any two-year period.
Send an application to the law schools of your choice. There are 191 law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). Send you certified transcripts to the Law School Data Assembly Service. The transcript presents your LSAT scores and college grades to your chosen law schools. You undertake three years of study once accepted into law school. The period extends to four years for part-time students.
Acquire a variety of skills in research, public speaking and legal writing. Law requires you to be knowledgeable in a number of disciplines. Take other courses in foreign languages, economics, political science, and philosophy to enrich your background knowledge. Consider what you want to specialize in when selecting your courses; for example, take a business course if you want to become a business lawyer. Engage in clinical programs, moot court exercises and clerkships in legal departments to obtain practical experience.
Sit for your bar examination in the state in which you intend to practice. If you decide to practice in another state, sit for the bar examination for that particular state. Other important tests include the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), which takes six hours; Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), which takes three hours; Multistate Performance Testing (MPT) and Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE).
Obtain your Juris Doctor degree (JD), and acquire a license to practice law from the Law Society after your admission to the bar. Send applications to your preferred law firms. You may choose to follow a career as a member of a law school faculty, as an administrator or in a political arena.