Majors for Law Degree

Graduate School Law School
1

Hello,

I am looking at becoming an HR lawyer. I have researched it for many years and am confident that it is something I would love to do. however, I am not quite sure what to major in during college!

Most places say Political Science is a great go-to for law school, however most jobs looking for an HR lawyer prefers a BS in something HR related, such as Public Administration.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks,
David

2

By HR lawyer do you mean someone who practices employment law? My firm has a large labor component (employer side) and I couldn’t tell you where one person went to college, let alone what they majored in. Major in something that will give you the best GPA you can get, that you enjoy, and that will give you job prospects if law doesn’t work out, and spend some of that college time interning in an employment firm or group. Real life is often very different than research.

3

Human rights work? That’s a public interest career path… Those jobs are tough to get and don’t pay particularly well, but they are “glamorous”. Best to just go to a top law school, meaning major in whatever you want as long as you get great grades, but perhaps some type of public policy/politics in your background would serve you well in interviewing for HR jobs.

4

If HR means Human Rights, then the correct response is: don’t go to law school. The risk of not getting it vastly exceeds any chance of doing so, especially given the cost. You’ll need HYS to do human rights (unless you mean something like Legal Aid, in which case T14 should do it) and the cost is prohibitive for the chances of actually obtaining such a job.

5

The OP is most likely referring to Human Resources Law. Hopefully he’ll come back to this thread soon and clarify.

6

I can tell you from personal experience that human resources law, employment law, or labor law, as it’s variously called, has nothing to do with your undergrad major or even your law school courses. Every business or government agency has human resource issues if they hire and fire people. You’ll learn it through on the job experience, mostly.