Is law a good path for me?

Being a lawyer involves lots of writing, so that’s something to keep in mind. Some legal careers involve more “on your feet” public speaking in the courtroom, such as being a prosecutor or public defender, but all such careers involve a good deal of writing.

Also, consider whether you like thinking through logical arguments and trying to persuade people. There’s an art and a science to persuasion, but it more often involves educating an audience—either a judge or a jury—about technical legal issues applied to various factual situations. As an example, talking to a jury about patent law and related technology can be really hard, but skilled trial attorneys can make it look easy.

In litigation, you’re constantly arguing with smart people whose clients have very different positions than yours, so you need a thick skin to deal with that.

But perhaps one of the most overlooked traits of being a good lawyer is empathy, including being fair-minded, open to considering other positions on contentious issues, and not being dismissive. Placing yourself in the other side’s shoes forces you to understand their positions and arguments and helps you refine your own arguments and positions. Some people have a natural inclination toward this, but it’s also a skill you can develop.

Should I go to law school right after undergrad?

My wife is a lawyer who went straight through, and it worked out great for her. She knew she was going to go down that path earlier than I did. But for me, it was really helpful to get out in the world and have a real job first, a different career even. You don’t have to have it all figured out in the beginning. You can go out and try things first, see if you like them. If you’re unsure about law school, there’s no rush. And working first doesn’t hurt; in fact, it often helps with admissions to law schools and legal hiring.

If you’re on the fence about law school, didn’t get the LSAT (entrance exam) score you wanted, or didn’t get into a program you like—don’t dive in; law school will still be there next year. It can be hard to be patient when you’re starting out, but law school is a really big investment, financially and otherwise.  

Do you have any tips on paying for law school?

All but a few of the very top law schools offer merit-based scholarships. These scholarships depend heavily on your LSAT score and your undergraduate GPA. While law schools consider other things, such as work experience or community involvement, LSAT scores and GPA are by far the most important criteria for both admissions and scholarship amounts. And you can often leverage one school’s scholarship offer against another’s—there's a whole online ecosystem that talks about how to do this. There are also need-based scholarships at almost all schools.

What other advice do you have to share?

Internships are key. If you’re thinking about going into physics research, for example, get a research position and see if you like it. The same goes for other careers, like business or law. It’s not a great idea to go through law school only to realize that you hate being a lawyer.

Networking is also key. Reach out to people with careers that interest you and ask to buy them coffee. You’ll find that people tend to get nostalgic as they get older and love to help students. 

Law isn’t the most common career path for physics majors, but there are lots of physics and astronomy majors who went on to law school. Googling patent lawyers in your area may be a good start, and you'll probably find someone who majored in physics or electrical engineering who would be really happy to talk to you about their career.

Physics Majors and the LSAT

According to the Law School Admissions Council, 148 of the more than 70,000 people who applied to start law school in 2021 were undergraduate physics majors. The median high score of all applicants was 156; for the physics majors it was 163. Approximately 68% of all applicants were offered admission to law school; of the physics majors, 73% were accepted. 

Learn more from the 2022 American Institute of Physics report How Well Do Physics Bachelor’s Degree Recipients Perform on the MCAT and LSAT Exams? by going to aip.org and searching “LSAT.”