Law

Law School and Pre-Law Advising

MIT alumni have attended law schools all over the United States including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, University of Chicago, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, and many more! Some alumni decide to enroll in law school immediately after MIT while others decide to take a break or work before beginning law school. The best time for you to go to law school is when you feel ready.

Schedule a meeting with Tianna Ransom, MIT’s Pre-Law Advisor, to explore your law school options and to get support with your applications. Students and alumni within two years of graduation can schedule meetings through Handshake. Sign up for the monthly Pre-Law newsletter, which includes relevant events, updates, and announcements by updating your uConnect profile and preferences to include the Law career interest. Have questions? Contact us.

Join the MIT Pre-Law Society to connect with other students interested in law school. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) has everything you need from exploring law programs of interest, taking the LSAT, and applying to law school. AccessLex provides financial and academic resources that help prospective and current law students get into law school.

Career Paths and Job Titles

There are a number of employment options for you to explore if you’re interested in a law career. Some options include private practice, business, judicial clerkship, government and military, public interest, and education. Go to nalp.org to see employment and salary outcomes for careers in these areas of the law.

Companies that MIT alumni work at include Wolf Greenfield, Morgan Lewis, and Ropes & Gray. Some MIT alumni enter these companies after completing a JD. Others either start at a company after MIT and earn their law degrees while working, or work for a few years and then enroll in law school full time.

These graduates’ job titles include:

• Patent Attorney or Patent Agent
• Associate Attorney
• Technical Advisor
• Law Clerk
• Professor of Practice
• Partner or Founder
• Director

Courses

What course is best for someone interested in a career in law? The course you are most interested in! Pick the course that you are most excited about, even if it’s a STEM course. There is a growing need for people to work in the intersection of law and technology, so lawyers with a STEM background are at an advantage in these fields. Some of these areas include intellectual property, privacy, cybersecurity, biotech and life sciences, corporations and startups, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and cleantech and energy.

MIT alumni who have gone onto a career in law have majored in:

• Materials Science & Engineering
• Chemistry
• Mathematics
• Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
• Aero Astro
• Physics
• And others!