How long does someone become a lawyer?

[alleyne]

Hello, I'm currently in my business management degree and I have interest pursuing my law degree afterwards later in my life.

Does it take 3 yrs? Is that with the specialization or longer?

I'm deciding on either corporate or immigration law.

Thanks for any advice.

[max]

It takes 3 years, you don't really specialize in law school.

You would want to intern in a law office that specializes in corporate or immigration law though while in law school, it would look good to future employers.

[gowan]

It takes three years. If you go year round, it can be shorter. The first law degree prepares you to take the bar exam; therefore, law school, and the bar exam, are general surveys of the high points of the law. There is no specialization at this point, aside from what you personally might be interested in. You are exposed to Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law, Torts (don't ask), Civil (or court) Procedure, Corporations (and other business entities), Taxation, Uniform Commercial Code (with which you must develop a healthy intimate relationship), and Legal Ethics. And other topics. But the overall thrust is three years of a number of the important, basic legal areas. There's no formal effort at "specialization".

Your thought process will be changed. Training you to think like a lawyer is a main purpose of law school; learning the law is also important but it is not the only thing; anyone can learn the law, but only law school can teach you to think like a lawyer. At the end, you should be sufficiently trained to work in any legal field, whether it be immigration, corporate, or poverty law, -- all of them require the trained legal mind to carry them out. So it really does not matter what area of the law you get into; you have to be able to think like a lawyer to do any area well.

After the first degree, you can pursue an LLM (the most common one is in Taxation), which is the next level. After that is the SJD, which is the terminal law degree (there are very few SJD's). The vast majority of lawyers get that first degree, pass the bar exam, and commence practicing law. Some states allow you to attain a "specialization" certification which essentially means that you are "certified" in a particular area. However, that does not mean that you are permitted to "specialize" in (limit your practice to) that area. As a matter of fact, most States do not permit practicing lawyers to "specialize" such as doctors do. You have to maintain a "generalist" approach to the law, consistent with your three year degree and the bar exam.