<p>I have a dilemma in the foreign lang. dept. After taking three years of Latin in High School, I decided to pursue either French or Spanish as a language in college. I see Latin as of no use to me anymore. At Columbia, they have both (of course). So for an aspiring law school guy like me, who also wants to be a lawyer, which should I take? Which one is easier to learn? Which one will be more helpful down the road? Finally, do they differ in departmental testing? Thanks guys...</p>
<p>The pragmatic answer is to just get the language requirement out of the way. Can you take the placement test and get out of most or all of latin? If you can, you won't have to worry about this. Even if you can get out of 1-1.5 yrs of the 2, you might want to suck it up and just take the end of the latin track.</p>
<p>To the extent that you're not planning on speaking Spanish to your clients as a poor public defender in Texas or CA or something, neither French nor Spanish will be helpful to a lawyer.</p>
<p>Which one would you rather know? It's not going to matter as a career move.</p>
<p>I am an attorney who specializes in real estate closings and other general practice matters. I practice in Morris County, NJ, in an upper income community. Many times, prospective clients have asked if we (my husband is also an attorney) speak Spanish and sometimes, Italian. So, it really depends on the type of law you want to practice.</p>