The Undergraduate Education for a Corporate Law Career

While it might seem that the first credential you need to become a corporate lawyer is law school, your undergraduate degree can also be very important. The most obvious reason is that your undergraduate record and the caliber of the institution from which you earn it can determine where you go to law school. A less obvious advantage is the alumni network you gain from your college. Some people are much more loyal to their undergraduate alma mater than to any other affiliation they share with a prospective job candidate. This can help you connect with a potential employer on an interview, even help you get an interview in the first place. There are two ways to maximize the credential value of your undergraduate education: either go to a nationally ranked school and come out with solid (or better) grades or go to a lower-ranked school and come out with stellar grades.

While most law schools don't require any specific classes as a prerequisite to admission, some undergraduate courses can make the experience of law school and the practice of corporate law easier.

• Substantive knowledge. Some lawyers recommend that you take classes dealing with subjects that might come up in your life as a lawyer. Classes on business, accounting and economics can expose you to financial and business concepts and help you figure out which area of transactional or corporate law you're interested in. And even if you still don't know what kind of law you want to practice, these classes can give you a head start on some of the information you'll need to know for your practice.
• Broader intellectual development. Others suggest thinking of your broader intellectual development. Because law schools don't require any particular courses, prospective law school candidates can choose classes they're interested in. Since most lawyers will have little time for intellectual or artistic pursuits once they start practicing, college can be a great time to learn about anthropology or history or to take a class in drawing or sculpture.
• Reading and writing critically. The third approach is to develop your capacity for reading and writing analytically. These are skills that will be indispensable to the analysis and distillation of case law each law student has to do on a daily basis. And the ability to assimilate, assess and modify information will be crucial to your success as a lawyer.

When asked what a student might do to prepare for a career as a corporate attorney, the response of one junior associate at a large firm was both immediate and emphatic: "Take accounting, take accounting, take accounting." There is no one right answer to the question of what other classes an aspiring corporate lawyer should take as an undergraduate. The lawyers who recommend you take business and pre-law classes have the same sorts of jobs to those who recommend you take sculpture and history. Certainly, many successful lawyers enter law school with little to no prior study of business, finance or law. If you do think you want to pursue corporate law, however, it might be a good idea to figure out how interested you are in the world of business and corporations, since the majority of your waking life will be spent thinking about them.