Can an Accounting Degree Prepare Me for Law School?
With an accounting degree under your belt, you are prepared with the analytical skills and tools you need to find success in your careers. Traditional accounting roles includes anything from a financial auditor to a forensic accountant, but students with accounting degrees can also find success in the world of law.
Your accounting skills will be best suited for Financial Law, but you will also be able to compete in the financial sector of the following areas of law:
- Contract Law
- Tort Law
- Real Property Law
- Tax Law
How To Prepare For the LSAT
The skills that you gain will not guarantee an advantage on the LSAT, but it does give you an advantage depending on the type of law you are interested in.
If you want to maximize your skills to gain an advantage on the LSAT you should take elective courses that focus on:
- Logical Reasoning
- Reading & Comprehension
- Advanced Writing
Financial Law & Accounting
Financial law is the backbone of banking, built upon three crucial pillars:
- Market Practice: These are standard guidelines that are reinforced by regular practice.
- While market practices aren't legally binding, they have practical effects and inform contracts, codes of practice, and legal opinions. You will become familiar with market practices with your accounting degree.
- Case Law: Is law based on precedents, decisions from previous cases, rather than constitutions, statues, or regulations.
- Case law attempts to align with market practice to create efficient results. You will draw on your accounting knowledge and experience to apply market practice to case study.
- Regulation: The set of policies based on the two main features of finance: systemic risk and information asymmetry.
- Financial regulation aims to create stability by increasing market confidence, decreasing financial crime, and offering consumer protection. You will have a strong understanding of finance.
The Bottom Line
If you are interested in getting an advanced education where you can exercise analytical financial skills in law and policy, law school might be the right next step for you.
Notes
Brunet Marks, A. and Moss, S.A. (2016), What Predicts Law Student Success? A Longitudinal Study Correlating Law Student Applicant Data and Law School Outcomes. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 13: 205-265. https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12114
Charles T. Zlatkovich; TRAINING FOR AN ACCOUNTING CAREER. The Accounting Review 1 April 1958; 33 (2): 193–197. https://doi.org/10.2308/TAR-7061261
Chimienti, Christopher M., "An Analysis on Whether an Accounting Background Lays the Foundation for a Successful Transition into Law School" (2020). Honors Capstones. 134. https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/studentengagement-honorscapstones/134
Fordyce, J., Jepsen, L. & McCormick, K. Predicting First-year Law School Performance: The Influences of Race, Gender, and Undergraduate Major. Eastern Econ J 43, 64–77 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/eej.2015.34