This How To Guide was originally published on November 26, 2013. The article has been significantly edited to include updated information for 2024.
Here’s a fun fact: Abraham Lincoln didn’t go to law school. He independently studied the law, registered with the Sangamon County Court in Illinois, and passed an oral examination by a panel of attorneys. He was then given his license to practice law. More recently, Kim Kardashian was able to take and pass the bar exam without attending one day of law school as well.
In four states, you can still take this non-law-school route to becoming a lawyer. Vermont, Washington, California, and Virginia all allow people to become lawyers by “reading the law,” which, simply put, means studying and apprenticing in the office of a practicing attorney or judge. Currently, New York requires at least one year of law school experience, plus an apprenticeship program, and five more states (Oregon, Georgia, North Dakota, Maine, and Indiana) are considering adding apprenticeship paths as well.
The Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) has been a leader in educating people about legal apprenticeships. Their Movement Lawyering page offers a big-picture glimpse into the legal apprenticeship movement with information, resources, advice, and first-hand accounts from both supervising attorneys and apprentices.
Using information found on SELC’s website, as well as interviews with legal apprentices and SELC’s co-founder Janelle Orsi, Shareable created the following how-to for becoming a lawyer without going to law school. Rules and requirements vary from state to state, so check your local law, but here are some practical tips, best practices, and virtual cheers of encouragement.
Why Do It
There are numerous benefits to taking the legal apprenticeship route to becoming a lawyer. They include: making becoming a lawyer more accessible to a wider demographic of people; gaining years of legal practice prior to becoming a lawyer; avoiding law school debt, which can run hundreds of thousands of dollars; learning at a pace and style that works for you; studying in the area where you want to practice law; and building a network of future clients, mentors, colleagues, and legal professionals.
Receiving a license to practice law without crushing debt also allows one to take on legal work that is centered on building and strengthening community rather than making lots of money to pay off loans. This is a truly radical aspect of the legal apprenticeship program.
As Chris Tittle, the former director of organizational resilience at SELC, writes, “Laws protect those who write and defend them. So, in a country where over 88 percent of lawyers are white, 70 percent are men, and 75 percent are over the age of 40, is it surprising that our legal system repeatedly fails to serve the interests of youth, women, communities of color, and other underrepresented groups?”
SELC’s Chris Tittle and legal apprentices Yassi Eskandari-Qajar and Christina Oatfield
The Nuts and Bolts
The requirements for legal apprenticeships vary by state. In California, for example, apprentices are required to work and study with a practicing attorney 18 hours per week for four years. Supervising attorneys must also give monthly exams and bi-annual progress reports. Apprentices also take a law students exam (dubbed “The Baby Bar”) after the first year. At the end of their apprenticeship, they’re eligible to take the full Bar Exam.
The fees associated with the apprenticeship route are a tiny fraction of law school tuition. Christina Oatfield, who apprenticed with SELC co-founder Jenny Kassan (and went on to work with the SELC for almost 8 years and currently provides legal services to Shareable), broke down the costs in California (updated to reflect 2024 costs):
- Initial registration fee: $158
- Fee paid to the California Bar every six months: $30*
- First-Year Law Students Exam: $600–$800 each time. (The pass rate is around 20% so many students take the exam more than once.)
- Bar exam at the end of the four years: $1,000 each time.
- Books and other study materials: $1,000+.
The total cost can be as low as a few thousand dollars. As Oatfield said in 2013, “Not bad compared to law school tuition.”
*Current fees could not be confirmed by the time we reprinted this story.
Find a Supervising Attorney
The first thing you need to do is to find an attorney or judge with whom you can apprentice. This may prove to be a challenge.
“This has been a stumbling block for some people who hope to participate in the Law Office Study Program,” said Oatfield, “as some attorneys are wary of taking on the responsibility of supervising an apprentice.” However, many attorneys who have worked through the program (like Oatfield herself) are more likely to take on apprentices once they hit their five-year mark.
In California, the supervising attorney needs to have been practicing law in the state for at least five years, and they need to spend at least five hours per week directly supervising you. Oatfield advised finding a supervising attorney who is practicing in areas of law that you want to learn about, and eventually practice in yourself.
Supervising an apprentice requires a long-term commitment of time and energy, as the attorney needs to administer and review exams, provide guidance, and offer feedback on essays. But there are benefits to doing so, including improved skill at explaining complex legal topics; the opportunity to revisit legal questions and topics; bringing new skills, as well as linguistic or cultural competencies, into practice via an apprentice; the potential to learn and grow in response to feedback from apprentices; and the joy and satisfaction that comes with collaborating on a meaningful project.
Orsi notes that people who already work in legal organizations and law offices are probably the best positioned to find supervising attorneys and start apprenticing. Oatfield, as well as Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, another former SELC legal apprentice, both volunteered for SELC before they decided to pursue legal apprenticeships.
“[W]e had already built relationships with the attorneys who are supervising us now, and developed some very basic familiarity with their areas of specialty,” Oatfield said. “I think a potential supervising attorney wants reassurance that the prospective apprentice is really committed to the study of law — and their particular area of expertise — because it can take many months, or even years, of apprenticeship before the apprentice has the potential to contribute back to the attorney’s practice.”
Once you’ve found an attorney, there are some simple forms that both of you must fill out. Check with your state to see what paperwork you’ll need.
Work While Apprenticing
Yes, it is possible to work another job while apprenticing. Or, better yet, find a paid position within the legal system. That way, you’re furthering your hands-on experience while learning the law. The additional exposure, said Eskandari-Qajar, also helps to contextualize one’s studies.
She experienced a “serious learning curve” as she was getting up-to-speed with legal terminology. This meant that she had to slow her pace and devote more outside time as she was building a foundational understanding of the law and legal terms.
“[N]ew apprentices should play it by ear and be prepared to give more time and energy toward the beginning…if they are like me and new to the field.” She continued, “I imagine that, when I am preparing for the first-year law students exam, I will have to really ramp up the time I give to the apprenticeship, and do so again prior to taking the bar exam. If you can strike an arrangement with your employer that is flexible around those times, that would be ideal.”
Orsi points out that apprenticing only requires 18 hours per week of work and/or study, and the idea is that the apprentice should not be required to study beyond that. But if the apprentice spends 18 hours doing legal work that doesn’t prepare them well for the bar exam, they should make extra time to study the bar exam topics.
The inspiration for LikeLincoln. Photo by Ron Cogswell (CC)
Practical Tips
For Eskandari-Qajar, one of the most important tips she offered is to make time. “Even if you have a job in the field of law, there will be things that aren’t covered by either the apprenticeship or work,” she said. “For those, you have to hit the books.”
Orsi advised that apprentices — especially those with weak writing skills — do a lot of writing, as two-thirds of the bar exam is essay writing. In law school, most exams involve essays, so students get a lot of practice.
“[A] key skill for passing the bar exam, and for practicing law,” Orsi said, “is the ability to write well and organize information clearly. Apprentices with strong writing skills will have a significant edge, and will be able to spend more time doing practical work, and less time writing practice exams.”
Studying and Test-Taking
The two solid days of intense test-taking make the bar exam extremely stressful; Orsi offered advice to those preparing for it:
“My theory is that it’s good to develop positive associations with test taking, if possible,” she said. “So each time I give a monthly exam to the apprentices, I try to do something fun or silly, before, during, or after. Last month, I brought a massage chair to the office on exam day.”
She said that she’s unsure if these things will “ultimately reduce the torture of the bar exam,” but figures there’s no harm in doing fun or silly things, so it’s worth a try.
When Orsi was studying for the bar exam, she had audio courses that she listened to while hiking and biking. She also wrote dozens of songs that outlined the 12 bar exam topics to the tune of 12 different karaoke tracks, including “I Will Survive” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” In the final weeks before the exam, she got up and sang the songs every day.
“I did everything possible to make it enjoyable,” she said. “I did not do what most people do, which is pay $3,000–$5,000 for an intensive bar exam prep course. However,” she continued, “I might actually recommend that apprentices do take such a course, because they may benefit from re-learning the material in a classroom context, and from receiving significant input on their practice exams.”
Challenges
For as many benefits as it offers, LikeLincoln advises that the apprenticeship route isn’t for everyone. Since the apprenticeship option is not offered nor recognized by all states, there are geographic concerns. Law school libraries also offer a host of resources that apprentices can’t access, and some big law firms may be more inclined to hire lawyers who have gone to law school.
One of the benefits of law school is being surrounded by other law students. Developing a peer circle is a good way to gauge your progress and find support during challenging and stressful times.
You’ll also need to determine if you’re the kind of person who would do better in law school than as a legal apprentice. LikeLincoln advises law school if you: need a structured curriculum and learn well by listening to lectures; enjoy the social aspects of school and the academic side of law school, with its highly intellectual arguments; want the prestige of a law degree; or want to work in a big law firm or teach in a law school.
The Big Picture
For self-starters who want to jump right into legal work, becoming a legal apprentice is an attractive alternative to law school. But as Eskandari-Qajar reminded us, this is a big commitment, not to be taken lightly.
“Even though you are not dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on this educational path, you are investing four years of your time to become a lawyer,” she said. “Remember to keep your eye on the prize, and don’t forget why you chose to take this path instead of taking other paths.”
