From Law School, to the Halls of Congress, and all the Way to the White House

While many of the pre-law students you advise and mentor harbor ambitions to work at Big Law, either championing for “the little guy” or defending Goliath, there’s also a good chance they are interested in running for political office.  As you may know, we regularly survey our students in order to make sure we give our them insight into what their peers are thinking, the admissions process in general and the legal profession.

Over the past few years, we’ve surveyed our LSAT students on this very topic – especially timely as many pre-law and law students are considering non-traditional legal careers because of the challenging job market.  Since we began regularly asking them this in 2008,  between about 35% and 55% said they were considering running for office – though male respondents were much more likely to want to run for office than their female counterparts were, and that number has gone up and down depending on the political climate.

From a historical perspective, it seems that aspiring politicians with a JD in both the U.S. and Canada have good shots at getting elected. Considering the following:

• A majority of U.S. presidents have been lawyers or went to law school (including President Obama; Vice President Joe Biden is a lawyer too.)
• Almost all prime ministers of Canada have been lawyers or went to law school – while current Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not a lawyer, he is the first non-lawyer to be PM in about 30 years.
• Over 40% of the members of the current U.S. Congress have law degrees, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Just as an FYI, just .6% of the U.S. population are actually lawyers.

One of the most interesting things our students told us the last time we asked this question in 2012 was the following: 30% said they think that there are already too many lawyers involved in politics; 16% said there were too few, while 54% said the number was about right.  For more complete results of our most survey and a historical perspective of our studies, click here.

But what is it about law school school that prepares you to be a good candidate for elected office and ultimately a successful politician? A few thoughts:

• In school, aspiring lawyers are trained how to evaluate complicated topics, often in minute detail, much like legislators or executives do in coming to a policy decision.
• Lawyers are also taught a high code of ethics that people in elected office aspire to – but obviously don’t always honor! .
• Just like courtroom lawyers or litigators, candidates looking for political office are competitive, seeing things through a “win/lose” prism.
• Those who want to enter politics see the same statistics that we were discussing – lawyers get elected to office more than any other kind of professional.
• Part-time legislators can often practice law on the side, therefore supplementing their incomes.
• There is a time-honored tradition of associating lawyers with successful politicians etched into voters’ minds.

And lawyers and aspiring lawyers in politics are backing this up. As Juan Carlos Polanco, the New York City director for the State Assembly Republican leader Brian Kolb and a commissioner at the New York City Board of Elections said in a U.S. News & World Report article,  “We’re well trained in a different way of thinking. We spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in the classroom researching and writing about the legal process and how the decisions made in the halls of Washington have impacted millions of people.”

So while you don’t have to be a lawyer to be elected to office, a person’s legal education and history may work to their benefit. One final thought about why lawyers may lean toward a career in politics – lawyers are not a shy bunch, and certainly politics is not for the timid!