How to Become a Lawyer: Degree, Steps & Salary (2026)

Key takeaway: Becoming a lawyer means earning a bachelor's degree, completing a three-year Juris Doctor at a law school your target state will accept, passing that state's bar examination, and clearing a character and fitness review before the state's highest court admits you to practice. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a national median annual wage of $159,670 for lawyers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS national median), a figure that sits above what a large share of new graduates actually start at.

Law is one of the most tightly regulated professions in the United States, and admission is controlled state by state rather than nationally. Every state’s highest court sets its own rules for who may sit for the bar, what score is passing, and who is fit to be admitted. The broad shape of the path is consistent across states, but the details are not, and the details are what actually determine whether you can practice where you want to.

Step-by-step: how to become a lawyer

Step 1: Earn a bachelor’s degree

Law schools require a completed bachelor’s degree for admission, and there is no prescribed major. Political science, history, English, philosophy, economics, and business are common, but law schools admit engineers, nurses, and musicians. What they weigh is your undergraduate GPA and your LSAT score, heavily.

A legal studies degree is a reasonable choice if the subject genuinely interests you, and the online bachelor’s in legal studies covers legal research, writing, and the structure of the American legal system. Be clear on one point, though: a legal studies bachelor’s does not shorten law school, does not exempt you from any requirement, and confers no advantage in admissions beyond what any strong undergraduate record would. It also does not, on its own, let you practice law.

Step 2: Take the LSAT

The Law School Admission Test is required or accepted by essentially every ABA-accredited law school. Many schools now also accept the GRE, but the LSAT remains the standard and is what most admissions data is built around. It tests logical reasoning, reading comprehension, and analytical writing. Scores, combined with GPA, drive both admission and merit-based tuition discounting, so preparation time here has outsized consequences.

Register through the Law School Admission Council, which also operates the Credential Assembly Service that most schools require for transcripts and letters of recommendation.

Step 3: Complete a Juris Doctor

The JD is a three-year full-time degree, or roughly four years part-time. The first year covers the foundational subjects: contracts, torts, civil procedure, criminal law, property, constitutional law, and legal research and writing. The remaining years add electives, clinics, externships, journals, and moot court.

Accreditation is the critical variable. Nearly all states require graduation from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association to sit for the bar. A small number of states accept graduates of state-accredited or unaccredited law schools for their own bar examination, but a degree from such a school will typically not let you sit for the bar in other states. California is the most prominent example of a state with its own accreditation track.

Fully online JD programs are still limited. The ABA restricts the amount of distance education in a JD program, though it has granted variances to a small number of hybrid programs. If you are considering a program marketed as online, confirm its ABA status and confirm that graduates are eligible to sit for the bar in the state where you intend to practice, before you enroll.

Step 4: Pass the bar examination

After graduation you sit for the bar examination in the state where you want to be admitted. Most jurisdictions now administer the NextGen bar exam or the Uniform Bar Examination, which produces a portable score that participating jurisdictions accept, subject to each jurisdiction’s own minimum passing score and transfer window. Some states, including California, administer their own examination.

Many jurisdictions also require the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), a separate ethics exam typically taken during law school, with each state setting its own passing score. Some states additionally require a state-specific law component or course.

Bar preparation is a full-time undertaking of roughly two to three months between graduation and the exam, and results typically take two to four months to release. Pass rates vary substantially by jurisdiction and by school.

Step 5: Clear character and fitness

Every jurisdiction conducts a character and fitness investigation before admission. This is a genuine gate, not a formality. It reviews criminal history, academic discipline, financial responsibility including defaulted obligations, employment history, candor on prior applications, and substance abuse issues. Failure to disclose is treated far more seriously than most underlying conduct.

Start this early. Applications are long, require documentation going back years, and delays here are a common reason admission slips past the intended date.

Step 6: Get admitted and take the oath

Once you have passed the bar, cleared character and fitness, and met any remaining requirements, the state’s highest court admits you and you take an oath of admission. Some jurisdictions require newly admitted lawyers to complete a transition or mentoring program. From that point you are licensed in that state only. Practicing in another state requires a separate admission, whether by examination, by UBE score transfer, or by motion based on years in practice, depending on that state’s rules.

Step 7: Maintain the license

Nearly all states require continuing legal education on an annual or biennial cycle, usually including ethics credits, plus annual registration and dues. Failing to complete CLE or pay dues can suspend your license.

What degree do you need to be a lawyer?

You need two: a bachelor’s degree in any field, then a Juris Doctor. There is no path to bar admission in most states that skips the JD.

The exceptions are narrow and worth knowing about rather than planning around. A handful of states, including California, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington, allow admission through a law office study or apprenticeship program in place of law school. These programs are demanding, take years, have very low bar pass rates, and produce a license that is usually not portable to other states.

For undergraduate preparation, the online bachelor’s in legal studies is one option among many, and the legal studies programs guide explains what the degree does and does not do. A master’s in legal studies is designed for non-lawyers working in regulated industries and does not lead to bar admission, so do not treat it as a step toward becoming a lawyer.

If the practical legal work appeals to you more than the years of schooling, compare the paralegal path, which reaches substantive legal work in a fraction of the time.

How much do lawyers make?

Lawyers earn a national median annual wage of $159,670 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS national median).

Read that figure carefully. It is a median across all practicing lawyers at all career stages, and lawyer compensation is unusually bimodal: large-firm associate salaries cluster far above it while public defender, legal aid, small-firm, and government positions cluster well below. Judicial law clerks show a national median of $64,920 and administrative law judges, adjudicators, and hearing officers show $153,990 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS national median), which gives some sense of the spread inside the legal profession. Paralegals and legal assistants, for comparison, show $62,890.

Because a JD carries substantial cost and three years of forgone income, the specific market and practice area you enter matters more to your outcome than the occupational median does.

How long does it take to become a lawyer?

Summing the required stages:

• Bachelor’s degree: four years.
• LSAT preparation and law school applications: typically several months, often overlapping the final undergraduate year.
• Juris Doctor: three years full-time, or about four part-time.
• Bar preparation: roughly two to three months of dedicated study after graduation.
• Bar results and character and fitness clearance: commonly two to six months, sometimes longer if the character and fitness review raises questions.

The standard total is about seven years of schooling plus six months to a year for the examination and admission process, so eight years from starting college is a realistic plan. Part-time law school, a gap between undergraduate and law school, or a failed bar attempt each extend it. These are ranges, not guarantees.

Frequently asked questions

What degree do you need to be a lawyer?

A bachelor’s degree in any subject, followed by a Juris Doctor from a law school your target state will accept, which in nearly all states means an ABA-accredited school. No undergraduate major is required or preferred, and no undergraduate degree shortens law school.

How long does it take to become a lawyer?

About eight years from the start of college: four years for a bachelor’s, three years for a full-time JD, then roughly two to three months of bar preparation plus several more months for results and the character and fitness review. Part-time law school adds about a year.

How much do lawyers make?

Lawyers earn a national median annual wage of $159,670 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS national median). Actual pay is highly polarized, with large-firm positions well above the median and public interest, government, and small-firm positions well below it.

Do you need a degree to be a lawyer?

Yes in almost every case. A JD is required for bar admission in nearly all jurisdictions. A small number of states, including California, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington, permit admission through a supervised law office study program instead, but these paths are long, have very low bar passage rates, and produce a license that generally does not transfer to other states.

Can you become a lawyer with an online JD?

Only in limited circumstances. The ABA restricts distance education within a JD program, and only a small number of hybrid programs have received variances. Some state-accredited online law schools exist, but their graduates are typically limited to sitting for that state’s bar. Confirm both accreditation and bar eligibility in your intended state before enrolling in any program marketed as online.

Is the bar exam the same in every state?

No. Most jurisdictions now use the NextGen bar exam or the Uniform Bar Examination, which allows scores to transfer between participating jurisdictions, but each state sets its own passing score, its own transfer window, and its own additional requirements. Some states, notably California, administer their own examination entirely.

Related pages

• Online Legal Studies Degrees Guide
• Online Bachelor’s in Legal Studies
• What Can You Do With a Legal Studies Degree?
• Is a Legal Studies Degree Worth It?
• How to Become a Paralegal

Wage figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national medians. Bar admission, examination format, accreditation acceptance, and character and fitness standards are set by each state’s highest court; confirm requirements with the bar admission authority in the state where you intend to practice.

Data verified: August 12, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.

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