Whats the difference between studying "law" at colleges versus "criminal law"?

[leonie36]

i want to be a criminal lawyer and the college im going to offers Law but i have seen other colleges that are way more specific.

[aingeni]

You can't pass the state bar exam without knowing both civil and criminal law. If you think you can pass the bar without taking classes in civil law you're welcome to try. Lots of luck with that.

more on law school

https://sites.google.com/site/paul7collegeinfo/home/okay-so-you-ve-graduated-from-college-now-what/going-on-to-professional-school

Scroll down to "Law School"

[marq]

In the USA some undergraduate colleges offer law majors, but these majors are essentially either liberal arts majors or para-legal training majors and are highly disfavored, but not disqualifying for law school admission. American Bar Association approved law schools require a bachelor's degree for enrollment. They usually require one year-long criminal law class for graduation and about six year-long non-criminal law classes for graduation. Evidence, Constitutional law, etc. apply both to civil and criminal law.

About fifteen year-long classes or the semester equivalent are required for graduation so there is plenty of time for students interested in criminal law to take electives in the field. Some law schools offer many more criminal law classes than others, but there is much less to learn academically in criminal law than in civil law. Most of criminal law is learned in clerkships in district attorneys' and public defenders' offices and many law schools offer the clerkships, which are highly
competive, for credit.

When I was in law school, I did not know that I wanted to practice criminal law and took very few criminal law electives. I learned most of criminal law, which was about half of my practice, on the job which is the case with most attorneys who specialize in criminal law.