Become a florida family law attorney?
Monday, January 12th, 2009 at
10:53 am
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what are the best steps to become a florida family law attorney and about how long does it take? Also, any idea on the cost?
what are the best steps to become a florida family law attorney and about how long does it take? Also, any idea on the cost?
Tagged with: family law attorney • Florida Attorney • Florida Family Law • Florida Law
Filed under: Attorney FAQ
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Becoming a family law attorney or any other type of attorney for that matter requires a person to 1) get an undergraduate degree, 2) go to law school and 3) then take and pass the Florida bar exam. Most likely it will take 7 years from beginning to end, provided you pass your state’s bar exam on the first try and could cost anyway from $0 to several hundred thousand dollars.
It takes people generally 4 years to get a Baccalaureate degree (BA or BS). Depending on whether you go to community college first or 4-year public university or a private college your costs could run anyway from a few thousand per year to $30,000+ per year plus living expense (rent, food, heat, etc). Obviously, scholarships or grants may reduce your total expenses.
Law school takes about three years if you decided to go full time. Part-time programs are offered by some but not all law school. Generally a part-time program will take about 4 years. Law school tuition can be around $30,000 a year at private law schools. Public ones run about half as much. Like undergrad, your actual costs may be reduced from scholarships or grants. Otherwise, you’ll have to take large student loans to pay for tuition and living expenses.
Then you have to take and pass the Florida bar exam and you will be licensed to practice any kind of law, including family law. You can also practice family law in any other state provided that you pass the bar exam in each respective state.
Aside from the general requirements to practice law there is no additional educational or licensing requirement if you want to specialize in family law. You may decide to take family law course while in law school or work at your school’s clinic helping the local residents of the community with their family law issues but not taking specialized courses or work experiences will not preclude you from practice as a family law attorney.
You need college and law school. If you do it at the normal pace, that is 4 years for your Bachelors and another 3 years for law school.
Good college courses that will help you be a great family law advocate include tax and accounting, because so much of what you will do involves splitting the estates in divorce.
Develop good writing and speech skills.
In law school, I would take every trial procedure course available – once you stomp a few opponents in litigation, your reputation will often allow you to negotiate your cases into an acceptable settlement. Also take any arbitration and mediation courses you can get – an ongoing trend in family law cases.
Take another tax course and a Florida real estate law course.
And, of course, Family Law and the core law courses.
Good luck to you – which law schools are you looking at? Stetson? FS? UFL?