Legal Studies Schools & Colleges
Training at a legal school can enable you to set new opportunities in motion for your future.
Think about it: You can attain highly valued skills that are relevant for jobs in which you get to play a role in promoting a fair and civil society. That means your legal studies education could lead to a career with honor, purpose, and stability. In fact, many legal schools offer career-focused programs in worthwhile areas like legal assisting, law enforcement, criminal investigations, and more.
So get started on a truly fascinating path. Discover a legal studies school that aligns with your goals right now by performing a quick search with your zip code!
3 Valuable Benefits of Pursuing Legal Studies or a Similar Path
Legal Studies Programs
Legal Studies Schools
Sponsored Listings
UEI College
- Bakersfield
- Chula Vista
- Fresno
- Garden Grove
- Gardena
- Huntington Park
- Oceanside
- Ontario
- West Covina
- Criminal Justice
Keiser University
- Clearwater
- Daytona Beach
- Fort Lauderdale
- Fort Myers
- Jacksonville
- Lakeland
- Melbourne
- Miami
- Naples
- New Port Richey
- Orlando
- Pembroke Pines
- Port St. Lucie
- Sarasota
- Tallahassee
- Tampa
- West Palm Beach
- Crime Scene Technology
- Criminal Justice
- Criminal Justice - Law Enforcement Concentration
- Financial Crime Investigation
-
Forensic Investigations:
- Investigations Concentration
- Science Concentration
- Homeland Security
- Law Enforcement Operations
- Legal Studies
- Paralegal Studies
Southern New Hampshire University
- Online
-
Criminal Justice:
- Corrections
- Criminology Crime Analysis
- Cybercrime
- Homeland Security & Counterterrorism
- Human Services and Advocacy
- Police Administration & Operations
- Security Management
- Substance Abuse
- History - Military History
- Psychology - Forensic Psychology
Columbia Southern University
- Online
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Criminal Justice Administration
- Arson Investigation
- Forensics
- Fire Administration - Fire Investigation
- Forensic Investigation
- Information Systems and Cyber Security - Homeland Security
ECPI University
- Raleigh
- Manassas (Northern VA)
- Newport News
- Richmond
- Virginia Beach
- Online
- Crime and Intelligence Analysis
- Criminal Justice
- Homeland Security
Keiser University's Online Division
- Online to Florida Residents Only
- Criminal Justice
- Homeland Security
- Legal Studies
- Paralegal Studies
The University of Arizona Global Campus
- Online
- Homeland Security and Emergency Management
- Social and Criminal Justice
Grand Canyon University
- Online
- Homeland Security and Emergency Management
- Psychology with an Emphasis in Forensic Psychology
Saint Leo University
- Online in Florida
-
Criminal Justice:
- Criminalistics Specialization
- Homeland Security Specialization
3 Valuable Benefits of Pursuing Legal Studies or a Similar Path
America's legal system is a critical piece of the foundation that supports our freedoms and way of life. It often plays a major role in bringing about social change. And it is the guardian of justice and our most cherished rights. That's why having a career in this field can be so meaningful and rewarding.
But the type of education that many legal and criminal justice schools provide can also lead to a host of other benefits. Here are three of the most practical advantages associated with choosing this path:
1. A Helpful Diversity of Fulfilling Career Possibilities
Today, many kinds of professionals need a good understanding of how the U.S. legal system works. And having that knowledge, along with some practical legal skills, can be a big selling point to potential employers across a wide range of sectors. As a result, it can generate a lot of flexibility for you when assessing your career options.
But even within the various legal sectors themselves, you'll find a lot of occupational variety. Whether you make the choice to help other people clear up their legal problems or contribute to keeping your community safe, multiple options exist. And they often provide a sense of pride, achievement, and purpose for those who choose them.
For example, aside from roles like lawyers and judges, consider these popular vocational areas:
- Legal assisting and support: Includes paralegals, legal assistants, and legal office administration specialists who help lawyers and clients draft documents, conduct important research, maintain records, and prepare for meetings and court proceedings
- Court reporting: Involves attending and accurately transcribing legal proceedings such as hearings, depositions, and trials
- Mediation and arbitration: Involves helping people resolve their conflicts through alternative dispute resolution processes that don't involve court trials or litigation
- Criminal investigations: Includes forensic crime scene investigators, forensic pathologists, and digital forensic analysts who help collect and examine physical or electronic evidence using special procedures and technology
- Law enforcement: Involves duties like protecting property, keeping people safe, maintaining order, and investigating illegal activity as a police officer, security guard, correctional officer, emergency response manager, or similar professional
- Private investigation: Involves working for private clients or employers to uncover and gather information and useful evidence related to anything from personal transgressions to legal or financial fraud by conducting surveillance and using other investigative methods
- Homeland security: Includes professionals like border patrol officers, federal law enforcement agents, transportation security officers, intelligence analysts, cyber-security specialists, and many others
- Corrections management: Involves overseeing people who are incarcerated for breaking the law while ensuring that they are treated ethically and within their rights and also have the support to pursue their goals for rehabilitation
2. Career Stability and Opportunity Growth
The effective administration of law and justice is essential to maintaining a free and fair society. Plus, our communities have no shortage of issues that must be dealt with through our legal and law enforcement institutions. Such issues are simply ongoing aspects of society that require educated and well-trained professionals to help address. Year over year, the demand continues to be stable, if not growing. Just take a look at these facts:
- In 2017 alone, over 83 million cases were handled by state-level trial courts across America, including civil, criminal, juvenile, domestic-relations, traffic, and violations cases.
- Over 1.5 million cases were filed in the U.S. federal court system during the fiscal year from September 2017 to September 2018.
- From 2008 to 2018, the number of lawyers in America rose by 15.2 percent. And lawyers, paralegals, and other legal professionals aren't just involved in court trials or litigation. In fact, a huge percentage of them specialize in more day-to-day issues related to areas like business and employment law, contracts, property transfers, taxes, estate planning, and intellectual property.
- About 55 percent of people in the U.S. never prepare a will or estate plan, so the market for potential clients in that area of law still has a lot of room to grow.
- In 2016 alone, America was home to more than 30.4 million businesses. And tens of thousands of new employer businesses are established nearly each year in the U.S. Most of them require good legal advice and ongoing legal services, especially as they grow, enter new markets, or seek to acquire or merge with other businesses.
- Over 8.4 million crimes involving property or violence occurred in the U.S. in 2018.
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), paralegals and legal assistants are expected to experience employment gains of one percent between 2023 and 2033. Other growing occupations include private investigators with projected job increases of five percent, arbitrators and mediators have a six percent estimated job growth, and court reporters with anticipated growth of two percent over the same period.
3. Good Earning Potential
Legal training helps a lot of people build careers that generate good yearly incomes. For example, check out the pay of the following occupations. (The salaries are from the OOH. The first amount represents the median annual wage in 2023, and the second amount represents what the highest earners made that year in the U.S.):
- Paralegals and legal assistants: $60,970 / over $98,830
- Court reporters: $63,940 / over $126,440
- Mediators and arbitrators: $71,540 / over $152,730
- Private investigators: $49,540 / over $96,600
- Police officers: $72,280 / over $117,100
- Probation officers: $61,800 / over $105,220
Discover Where to Go Next
Take an easy action right now that can help you figure out which direction to go in. Use your zip code to search for a nearby legal school where your future can begin taking shape!