What is a good path to become a lawyer? -

I want to become a corprate lawyer, and i want to know the best path to take. I am considering going to the Air Force Academy, but I m not sure i will be able to get my law degree. I am also considering going to a school in the UK because it is alot shorter but I don t know if I will be able to practice in america if i choose to. I am also considering taking a traditional path by getting a four year degree in america then proceeding to a law school. What would be the best option with the least amount of expense and time?

Since you are certain that you want to be a corporate lawyer, I would suggest that you begin by earning a bachelor s degree in either finace or accounting or both. Assuming you have great grades, an excellent LSAT score, and a eye-catching admissions essay, then you can apply to those law schools where a disproportionate percentage of the graduates are hired by large corporate law firms. Once there, you will spend, on average, 16 hours a day Monday through Friday and about 8-16 hours over the weekend performing tedious research and menial tasks for partners and associates. Your value to the firm will be judged first and foremost in the number of billable hours you contribute to the firm s bottom line. Later, if you aren t deemed a drone who must be hidden from clients at all costs, then your rapport with key clients will be vital to your chances of being offered a partnership. (The partners committee s evaluation of your ability to retain clients is also an implicit judgment about your ability to attract new business to the firm.) If you are offered a partnership, you will become a partner and perhaps one day become managing partner if you have excellent survival skills and oulast all your frenemies at the firm. If not, you will become unemployed or perhaps be offered an associates position because you have a prized set of skills, but this position, it is understood, will never lead to partnership at the firm. If I were in your shoes, I would either figure out that I wanted to be a businessman or a lawyer. If you want to be a businessman, then go a college with a respected business school, study hard, take public speaking and leadership courses, and then seek employment with a company that values you and where you be a valued contributor. If you want to be a lawyer, then go to a good liberal arts college and study history and take acting courses either formally or informally. Then go to a law school where there are excellent litigators on the staff and make it your goal to become a civil/criminal litigator. You won t get any job offers from the white shoe law firms, but you will enjoy beating them up in court. Lastly, I don t quite understand your interest in the Air Force Academy but you would want to concentrate on military intelligence and let your success in that area to be your calling card when you apply to law school or business school. (In that vein, you shouldn t overlook the FBI as a potential employer, who might pay for you to go to law school. After 20 years at the FBI, you could do an awful lot of consulting work for major corporations and for law firms who offer such services to their clients whether you have a law degree or not. Bear in mind that any decision you make today or tomorrow or ten years from now need not be your final decision for all eternity You should allow yourself the possibility of career change throughout your life rather than trying to determine it right now forever. Young people sometimes forget this and then they find themselves paralyzed and inflexible when a change of course is what is needed most. Good luck kid, because you ll need luck at every step of the way. We all do.