I didn’t start at Geneseo planning to be an English major or a lawyer. In fact, I planned on being an orthodontist. But I liked reading, writing and analyzing. Scratch that, I loved it. So I took English course after English course, did well and was happy. Dreams of orthodontia slipped away, and on the last day you were required to declare a major I boldly claimed English as my own. I had no plan, and I was okay with that. I was too busy enjoying myself crafting arguments about the portrayal of spinster women in American Romantic literature.
As it turns out, the critical analysis skills I learned and refined as an English major are exactly the same skills I used in law school and as an attorney. In a lot of ways, being a lawyer is exactly like being an English major — you read a text, interpret it, and argue in support of your interpretation. Also, research and writing are two of the most coveted talents in the legal profession, and as an English major you learn how to do both extremely well. The ability to research, write and analyze well make you highly employable as an attorney and, in fact, in the middle of the recession when job prospects were the worst they had ever been for attorneys, I was offered a job right out of law school as an appellate clerk, a (dare I say prestigious) position where I analyzed, researched and wrote on legal issues to help a panel of judges reach decisions on matters before the court.
After being in private practice for a bit, I currently do “nontraditional” legal work and am with an organization that educates and assists town officials on municipal law and lobbies on behalf of local government at the state level. I absolutely love it and, without a doubt, the tools that I learned as an English major have helped me in my legal career and are skills that I use every day.