Once you are admitted into a school that ranks high on your list, please withdraw your applications from any schools that you now know you will not be attending. Obviously, this can be of great help to others.
Many law schools have joint degree programs such as JD/MA, JD/MBA, JD/MPA, JD/PhD, etc. To apply for a joint degree program, you usually must file separate applications to the law school and the graduate school. My own feeling is that if you have the time, the money, and the inclination, a joint degree is worth exploring, partly for the job opportunities it may create, but more for the sake of the additional knowledge. For instance, if your ambition is to go into the public sector, there's a lot to learn about government from a good master's program in public administration. Or, you may have a great love of an unrelated field (English literature, for instance); at some schools, it's possible to earn a Master's in English and a law degree in four years.
Law schools are not particularly interested in which undergraduate major you chose. They will, however, look to see that you have had a few courses each year that require some sort of analytical writing. If the sequence of courses you pursued is especially demanding, that is something I will convey in the Dean's Letter.
Law schools tend to offer the same "core" courses: Contracts, Torts, Property, Administrative Law, Evidence, Corporations, Estates, Domestic Relations, Negotiable Instruments, Taxation, Ethics, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Law and Accounting, and Sales and Secured Transactions. Most law schools also offer a large number of electives during the second and third years, from which students may freely pick and choose. Schools also offer a wide variety of "clinical" programs, which give you hands-on experience with real clients, and which I highly recommend.
Law school study is designed to provide you with a general legal background. Although you may decide to focus on one aspect of the law by taking more than the average number of courses in that field, you will not "major" in a particular area in law school, nor do most employers expect you to have any special expertise in one particular area.
Should you decide not to follow through with your law school applications, please let the schools and me know immediately.
If you have an arrest record, please see me before starting the application process. Do not interpret the preceding sentence to mean that you should forget about law school if you have an arrest record. That's not the case at all. We should talk, though.
Finally, I strongly believe that, with very few exceptions, the best course is not to attend law school in the year immediately following college. I have a lot of reasons for my opinion, but it may help you to know that law school admissions officers feel the same way. Not only will you not harm your chances of admission by taking time off; in many cases, you will enhance them. Of course, the decision when to apply is entirely yours, and I will do my best to help you regardless of when you apply.
