I want to be a criminal lawyer. What should I be doing right now. Like reading. I am in the seventh grade.?
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Kid you are way too intense for a Sunday. Reading books ,mags and newspapers outside of those assigned in class is fun and will build your comprehension skills. Do not restrict yourself to stuff on the web and TV. Other than getting good grades just be a kid for Pete sake. Dabble in it all. Arts, music, sports, social events and yes even video games. Work on developing an open mind and seeing things from anothers point of view . Watch the BBC news on PBS. It does not mean you agree.
Read local newspaperes about issues in your community /what is your local government up to?
Read autobiographies of leaders you admire and may not. Start with someone like Abraham Lincoln or Colin Powell's book on leadership.
In high school join a debate club or maybe even young republicans or democrats just for the experience. Again you do not have to let them define you.
Whatever you do, do not get caught up in the trap of projecting an image at your age focus on character and substance not image.
Some kids want all the trends some kids want everyone to know they are dark and gothy ,do not even go there!!
you should be jacking off and worry about that when ur in higgh school.rigth now u have to concentrate in seventh grade.
Right now you should be playing with your friends and hanging around the mall and playing video games. You have more than enough time to worry about a career, have a childhood first.
Make sure you get your basics down, but if you can get into a public speaking class, that would help
The book "Black's Law" will give you an inside view of a criminal defense attorney at work, plus it's interesting and enjoyable to read. Good Luck! I am an attorney in criminal law. Be sure to gear your major towards legal and politcal science choices.
wow, I didn't know what I wanted to be until 3 weeks ago and I am 19 in 6 months. ha, good for you. prepare for high school. maybe go to a private high school that is well respected to get into a good college. after 4 years of high school and 4 years of college you will have to apply to law school and get really good grades in college to get into law school as well as take the LSATs. I'm going to give you the only good advice my Dad ever gave me, and that's to keep your options open. http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majo...
ask ur parents
I am not an attorney, so this is best answered by someone who is doing that kind of work.
But generally I would advise you to go and talk to a criminal attorney and ask about sitting in on cases in court. You can waste a lot of time thinking you might want to do some kind of work and then find out much later that you are not suited to it or don't really like it.
These general courses are good when thinking about a career in law: psychology, especially abnormal behavior; business, since you will most likely be in business for yourself; English, since you will have to be able to read and write a lot; and philosophy, so that your mind will be flexible, logical and thorough.
Good Luck!
Law has very little to do with the "ideal" world of school. Though law demands intense scholarship, a great memory, top-level social and business skills, Law concerns the reality of people's actions, their problems, their victimization, their psychosis, and their cruelties. Law deals with reality, and it's not something you can change or understand by learning and books. To succeed in the "school" world, and even later in the college and law-school dimension, you have to remain in the innocent, idealized, "pretend" world of learning.
If you are preparing for college and law school, concentrate on your grades, and consider ALL the subjects that will be taught for a law degree, that you might never use in the criminal field. You will still have to master them, so a good background in government, history, english, and business are very important just for law school----especially business, because so much law relates to the business world.
Criminals which you will deal with later are out in the real world, and there will be a terrific clash when you have to enter their world and understand it, because you can never be part of their world.
for example, if you want to be a soldier, you must be willing to kill people--you can't sympathise with your enemy.
if you want to be a doctor, you must be willing to decide if people live or die, day in and day out. You have to deal with death and age daily, when other people can pretend they don't exist.
What MIGHT make you very effective as a lawyer are dramatic skills, because much of trial work is simply performance. It wouldn't hurt to take acting or drama classes, and get into any type of school plays, musicals, that you possibly can. Law is a public profession, and you must do many actions in front of an audience, and a judge, even if you're not in a trial. All the projection, speaking, personality skills you have will be needed.
It wouldn't hurt to volunteer for charities so you can meet and observe people who are different than you are----to see their lives and realities, and to know how different you may be from them.
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