<p>I'm hoping if anyone had already gone through this and can give me their experience.</p>
<p>Ok, so I want to go to law school not to be a lawyer but to have political credentials. I have heard from alumni that having a law degree helps tremendously if you are trying to assert yourself in the field of politics. Just having that law degree gives you that edge.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Yep, most of the politicians hold a law degree ;]</p>
<p>I’m not sure if a law degree in itself gives you an edge, but what you get from that law degree may: a good job (knock on wood), networking opportunities, more letters after your name and another brand name school you attended, not to mention the knowledge. The same can be said for an MBA or MPA, though, and those are two year programs, not three.</p>
<p>If you have no interest whatsoever in being a lawyer, then your time is better spent trying to find a job on Capitol Hill for those three years. Can always go to law school later, but once you start you incur massive debt and usually have to finish.</p>
<p>fwiw:</p>
<p>in my state, degree from a high-falutin private college can be something to be overcome. A degree from a UC is all that is needed to attract local voters.</p>
<p>a law degree helps a politics career, but you should realize that there is a huge chance it will not work out as you imagined. the most likely outcome of law school is being a lawyer and you should at a minimum be comfortable with that.</p>
<p>an example of how a law degree can help is Bill Clinton:</p>
<p>[Bill</a> Clinton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Bill Clinton - Wikipedia”>Bill Clinton - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>“During Yale, Clinton took a job with the McGovern campaign and was assigned to lead McGovern’s effort in Texas. He spent considerable time in Dallas, Texas, at the McGovern campaign’s local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue where he had an office. There, Clinton worked with Ron Kirk, who was later elected mayor of Dallas twice, future governor of Texas Ann Richards, and then unknown television director (and future filmmaker) Steven Spielberg.”</p>
<p>i am sure the Yale law credential helped him secure that job.</p>
<p>I think you have some misconceptions about politics. You don’t go to the U.S politics HR department and hand them your resume for the open US congress position.</p>
<p>If you want to get into politics you just have to get involved. There is a cause and effect that a lot of people don’t seem to understand. Law degrees don’t help people get into politics. People who are interested in politics tend to be the people that get law degrees. If you don’t want to be a lawyer then you shouldn’t go to law school, the time and the debt isn’t worth it. </p>
<p>I don’t know how much experience you have but my suggestion for you is to do this…
<p>If did these things right you should have started to build a political network in your area and you should have learned how campaigns are run and you should have learned what issues are important to your area. (by political network I mean when you show up to events people recognize you and hopefully they’re your facebook friend)</p>
<p>4) Time for you to run for office
5) You should probably run for what I would describe as an entry level elected position: School Board, City Council, County Council, State Delegate. All of this depends on your Party and where you live. If you live in a major City a city council may be a bit much for a newb but if you live in a small town then go for.</p>
<p>After this I don’t know.<br>
Obama went from community organizer to State Senate to US Senate to President. Sarah Palin went from PTA to City Council to Mayor to Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to Governor to VP candidate.</p>
<p>You just need to get involved and start working. A law degree won’t help your “political credentials”. If you want something awesome on your resume to impress the voters I suggest you join the military for a few years. Then you could say you’re a veteran. All things being equal Veteran >>>> Lawyer anyday of the week and twice on Sunday.</p>
<p>Where’s the OP?</p>
<p>On “West Wing” Josh Lyman (president’s congressional liason and later campaign manager for Congressman Matthew Santos aka the new president) and Sam Seaborn (presidential speech writer, later congressional candidate for the OC, then assistant chief of staff (I thought he was elected in Orange County, CA. Did he quit the OC?)) both had law degrees but did not practice law in the White House. So, yeah, it must be true that a law degree is good for politics. But wait, Jeb Bartlett (the pres) was an economist, Toby Ziegler (campaigner & WH staffer), and Leo McGarry (chief of staff and VP candidate) were not attorneys, so I dunno.</p>
<p>To the above I would add that this: Even assuming that a law degree was a good route to politics in the past, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it will be a good route in the future.</p>
<p>There are two ways to get into politics:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Start small and work up. This means starting to join town committees, and eventually becoming established enough in the area to go for something bigger. </p></li>
<li><p>Get a lot of experience “outside” of elected politics. Do well professionally, make connections, participate in some good activities, and then go for something. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Either depends on what would be receptive to the district of the office you would be going for.</p>
<p>Also, many politicians END UP in law firms after their political career is over, with the goal to get really rich bringing in business with political contacts. However, in most states, one cannot join a law firm as a rain-maker partner (and get rich) unless one is an attorney.</p>
<p>I agree that a law degree will not necessarily open doors to a political career. You have to do that by working at the right jobs, volunteering for the right campaigns/causes and spending time with the right people. </p>
<p>That said, politicians, above all, are lawmakers. The main reason why so many politicians are attorneys is because, among other skills, they need to understand how the law works, draft legislation and be able to understand existing legislation, particularly at the local level where many politicians get their start.</p>
<p>btw if you do want to practice law before politics, district attorney’s office is the way to go. prosecutors get a fair amount of local prestige and credentials. for example, in MA, the state attorney general just ran unsuccessfully for the senate seat:</p>
<p>[Martha</a> Coakley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Coakley]Martha”>Martha Coakley - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>she started in a law firm and then went to the DAs office.</p>
<p>Martha Coakley lost to a guy that knew how to politic’</p>