Journalism &law

In the U.S. a law degree is a graduate degree.

She would have a four-year undergraduate B.S. (sciences) of B.A (arts and humanities) degree followed by a two year law degree (J.D.).

She might have a journalism B.A. in four years, then go to law school.

In order to run for the senate in a particular state, she would need to have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years at the time of election to the Senate, and a resident of the state in which she is elected.

In order to practice law in a particular state, she needs to pass a bar exam.

Medievalist said:

In order to run for the senate in a particular state, she would need to have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years at the time of election to the Senate, and a resident of the state in which she is elected.

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And be at least 30 years old.

caw

Law school is a three year program full-time or four years part-time. It's a graduate school program. Most law schools grade by a final exam in each class. In your first year, you do a legal methods course, which usually is not for much credit, in which you do some writing. In addition, some laws schools require a more extensive paper or writing in the school's law review.

To be admitted as an attorney, not only do you have to pass the bar exam, but you have to be of good character. Although it is possible to have a felony or misdemeanor on your record, it needs to be before law school, and makes your application a lot harder to be accepted.

Someone going to law school with plans for going into politics afterwards would try to obtain a judicial clerkship after graduation. This is sort of an internship.

Undergraduate majors don't terribly matter for law school admission. Although some colleges offer a pre-law major, English is probably just as desirable.

If the university offers a masters or doctorate in journalism, it might be possible to develop a dual major in graduate school of both degrees, but I've never heard of it. To be honest, journalism and law are not two programs that I see being terribly connected. I'm sure there are some attorneys with journalism undergraduate degrees, but it's going to be very much a minority.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

jclarkdawe said:

To be honest, journalism and law are not two programs that I see being terribly connected. I'm sure there are some attorneys with journalism undergraduate degrees, but it's going to be very much a minority.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

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I agree with everything Jim said, except this. My BA is in journalism and I went on to law school, and several people in my journalism class did. It certainly wouldn't be unusual in terms of story-telling.

Google Journalism Major, and look at what different schools require.

Medievalist said:

Google Journalism Major, and look at what different schools require.

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That's your best option as it does vary by schools.

In general though, any program will includes classes in basic newswriting, journalism ethics, journalism and the law, as part of the core. Add in some more advanced writing classes, and elective classes in specialized subjects such as environmental journalism or classes on covering local government affairs, and you get an idea.

All J programs also require the basic core classes for that university, such as English, history, etc.

Some journalism schools offer sections in public relations or advertising. There's print journalism and broadcast journalism, which are almost always taught separately. As they said at my journalism school, "If you're good looking you study broadcasting, if you're smart, you study journalism.

If she studies print journalism, she'd take reporting courses, a few on new media, journalism law, journalism history, editorial classes, maybe some on research for journalism. Of course, if it were a B.A. she'd have to take a lot of non-journalism classes – English, foreign languages, a science course or two, economics, political science, history, an art or music class. It's a busy world.


I had a professor in journalism school who had a PhD in journalism and a law degree. He's now Senior Assistant Attorney General at the Oregon Department of Justice.

My wife has her BA in Drama. Her Law degree was a three year graduate course. She focused her legal studies on INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. In addition to taking the Bar - if you're focusing on Patents - you must also pass the 'Patent Bar' - and have a BA in Science or Engineering specialties.

There were a number of legal courses in her third year that focused on the media.

I was originally a Journalism major/Criminal Justice Administration (focus on Law) minor when I started college. My professors used to hate me when I would argue Fair Trial in my Journalism classes and Free Press in my Criminal Law classes and use the other professor's argument against them.

Still wonder if I should have gone to law school when I had the chance. Ah well, another lifetime ago . . .

I don't know if you still need the info, but I was undergrad journalism, and still remember a good chunk of my coursework (and it was a good program). Feel free to PM.

Also, yes I had to take a journalism and the law class. It was mostly constitutional law, freedom of speech that sort of stuff. There's a few big cases in the journalism field (Pentagon Papers is a huge one) that your MC would have to learn about.

As for internships, any newspaper would work. I actually did mine with a blog, which was a big mistake, because it taught me nothing. A smaller paper would give her a larger variety of work, while she'd probably be doing copy-editing at a larger one.