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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Exlawdean][quote=Anonymous]What undergraduate majors fare best - not necessarily in admissions, but in actual coursework?[/quote]

[i]The American Association of Law Schools has studied this question in some depth. Feel free to dive in. The answers are a bit surprising. Accounting performs quite well. So does physics.[/i]  [/quote]
This does not surprise me. I think that accounting is also a good major if you are doing any tax law (obviously), but also business transactional work, commercial transactions, real estate, forming entities, drafting purchasing agreements, operating agreements, partnership agreements, negotiating mergers and acquisitions, etc.

It is also a good major for running a law practice, which is a BUSINESS, and this is not taught at all in law school.  I came from a humanities background, both undergrad and grad, which is great for the thinking/researching/analyzing/writing aspect of law, but provided no background for running a law practice OR helping business clients with their business needs.

Remember, all, large businesses can afford high hourly rates. To get those high hourly rates, you should demonstrate that you know what you're doing. A political science major doesn't provide this type of background. Finance, accounting, maybe business provide a better background if you plan to go into any type of corporate transactional work or business litigation. Taking business law classes in law school only provides so much background.

And if you want to own or participate in running a law firm, you should have business sense. As an associate, why are you expected to bill so many hours? Because equity partners want to make money and also have to account for the firm overhead. How do you as an associate become a part of that? Bill hours efficiently and try to be likeable and indispensable. ALSO, it's often not just about doing good work and being smart....Can you bring in new business? Someone has to, and they probably are doing less and less of the actual legal work. Can you be a "rainmaker"? If so, you will be able to get away from having to account for so many billable hours.

Also, think about what practice areas are expanding? What services do your clients need? [/quote]

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