Legal Professions

Types of Degrees Legal Professions Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many legal professions graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Doctor’s Degree	36,068
Master’s Degree	10,707
Graduate Certificate	2,525

What Legal Professions Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to legal professions were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Legal Professions Majors

Legal Professions majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

Skills for Legal Professions Majors

When studying legal professions, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

Abilities for Legal Professions Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a legal professions student include the following:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a Legal Professions Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with legal professions:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers	3.9%	$99,850
Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators	11.5%	$62,270
Court Reporters	3.6%	$57,150
Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates	5.6%	$133,920
Judicial Law Clerks	5.7%	$53,540
Law Professors	12.3%	$111,140
Lawyers	8.2%	$120,910
Legal Support Workers	3.7%	$58,930
Paralegals and Legal Assistants	14.6%	$50,940
Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers	4.3%	$47,130

Who Is Getting a Master’s Degree in Legal Professions?

This major is dominated by women with about 61% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of legal professions majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	346
Black or African American	892
Hispanic or Latino	813
White	2,440
International Students	4,760
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,456

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Legal Professions, too. About 44.5% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Legal Professions

Some degrees associated with legal professions may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to legal professions have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	0.8%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	10.2%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	8.1%
Some College Courses	6.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	12.2%
Bachelor’s Degree	11.3%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	4.0%
Master’s Degree	2.7%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	1.4%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	18.0%
Doctoral Degree	23.0%
Post-Doctoral Training	1.3%

Online Legal Professions Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	644	148
Certificate (2-4 Years)	40	4
Associate’s Degree	1,256	270
Bachelor’s Degree	274	50
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	906	168
Post-Master’s	96	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	138	4
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	462	18
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	4	0

Majors Related to Legal Professions

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to legal professions.

Major	Number of Grads
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	132,861

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By The wub under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.