Many people presume that once someone gets a law degree, that's it and they will go into law. However, law degrees are rapidly becoming useful "stepping stones" towards other careers, because they allow the graduates to be their own lawyer and to better understand the laws and regulations under which they will run an organization. This has become particularly common in areas where a person will need to routinely interact with the law and the government, specifically education.
Responding to interest and demand, the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University is offering a Juris Doctor Law degree with a minor in Education Policy. This demand is triggered largely by the fact that increasingly those interested in steering education policy by running schools and serving on school boards need to have an intimate understanding of the law and legal process.
From dealing with federal grants to dictating the appropriate content of textbooks and school classes, an intimate knowledge of the legal system allows for principals, school board directors and even just concerned parents to give their children and students the best. Additionally, many lawyers now specialize in suing schools for failing to follow certain state and federal guidelines, and this major/minor combination allows for them to do so more easily.
This sort of double major or major/minor arrangement is becoming more and more common since it allows both lawyers and the legally inclined to specialize and get more out of their degree than the ability to practice law.
Lawyers interested in helping small businesses will be able to better do so when they minor in Business Administration. Patent lawyers are more effective when they expand their hard science background by taking a minor in another field. Lawyers who specialize in administrative procedure can more easily navigate the maze of modern bureaucracies by minoring in Government or Politics.
The Juris Doctor/Education Policy program offered by Maurer is clearly part of a greater trend in which law schools offer more than just an opportunity to serve as part of a law firm or in a public defender's office. With today's job market getting more and more competitive and exclusive, graduating Juris Doctor students are expected to arrive at their jobs almost perfectly pre-trained, with the background and information of their specialty already known.
The double major and major/minor options allow such students to better fit very demanding jobs and also give them a leg up over other candidates with no job experience, since they can state that they have a major or minor in the relevant field in addition to their law degree. It also prepares them for that field, and ensures that they have the knowledge they need to start working in their chosen field as soon as they graduate.
These programs also enable students to go further and make themselves more well rounded than they would otherwise. Modern lawyers are expected to do more than simply look at the law and then argue the facts. Between modern forensic science and modern medicine, even criminal lawyers need to intimately know a great deal of science and be able to explain it to a jury in clear, concise terms.
Enabling them to take classes in addition to their law degree, and within their specialty, enables them to better fit whatever career they wish to pursue, while arming them with knowledge that puts them above the competition and their opponents. These advantages certainly explain why Maurer and others are now offering these double major and major/minor programs, and why students are eagerly demanding them and making use of them.
About The Author:
JR Olson dropped out of law school to pursue a freelance writing gig. He wrote this article on behalf of www.sdlitigators.com.
