Law school - prerequesite for state politics?

October 5, 2008 10:19 AM

My dear friend wishes to be governor someday of his state. He is certain law school is the "best path" to attain this goal. Those who have gone to law school (and those who have an opinion) is this necessarily true?

My friend sincerely aspires to become governor of his small state within his life time. He is incredibly smart, capable, and very people-oriented, but what worries me is that he is certain that going to law school in his local community is the best way to 1) learn about the law and 2) get "plugged in" to the network that would likely be able to help him in the future.

I am concerned because I have heard the stories of those people who go to law school only to come out of it pidgin-holed within a specialty they are not passionate about. What advice should I give him? Is he right?

posted by anonymous to law & government (18 comments total)

I wouldn't go to law school to be governor. Instead, I would be born into a family of wealth and power. Go to law school if you want to be a lawyer.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:26 AM on October 5 [4 favorites]

IANAL, but it seems to me like going to the best law school possible would give him better connections. "Possible" taking into account finances, rankings, and the like. It would be better to have those "higher" connections that will have money in the future than to have gone to a local law school. Especially if he changes his mind, or doesn't find success in the political realm.
posted by Picklegnome at 10:33 AM on October 5

I have no idea whether law school would be the best route or not but it seems like a bit of info gathering could give you/your friend a good idea - how many governors in say, the past 50 years or so are law school grads? Might be a good indicator....
posted by blaneyphoto at 10:46 AM on October 5

Two of my cousins are state politicians and neither is a lawyer. One is a banker from a family of wealth and power and in the next couple of decades he'll likely be governor or in DC. The other is a farmer who grew up in poverty and while he's smart, incredibly charismatic, and comes with an incredible back story, he lacks the social capital to get beyond the state legislature.

That social capital isn't earned in law school, it's handed over in prep school. Now, if he was to change his goal to having his child be governor then law school wouldn't be a bad idea. A great MBA program would probably be better.
posted by bunnytricks at 10:50 AM on October 5

Instead of law school, why doesn't he spend three years hanging around the country club? He'll probably get better contacts there than in law school.

But really, maybe he should be examining what he wants to do in the 30 years before he becomes governor.
posted by lockestockbarrel at 10:58 AM on October 5

Law school is already flooded with sycophants. The market is saturated. I go to law school with a guy that fits your friend's profile to a T and has already been heavily involved with political campaigns and tons of schmoozing and glad-handing. The long and short of it is this guy gets little to nothing out his investment in law school and would have met and socialized with exactly the same people by staying in the DC political scene - at a net savings of about $150K.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:07 AM on October 5

>>>>>staying in the DC political scene<>
Being in the "DC political scene won't really help him that much if he wants to run for gov, unless your "small state" is Maryland. Law school or no law school, once your friend begins his career, he would be well-advised to settle down and develop a local network.
posted by lunasol at 12:12 PM on October 5

Can't really answer this question without knowing which small state it is.

In some places (Alabama is a good example) a law school (and that school's alumni network) can open a lot of doors. In others, not so much.

Anyone pretending to know the answer to this question without knowing what state he's in has really no idea what they're talking about.

This is also a question that could be asked to a state politician... maybe in a context that allows for some networking as well.

Here's a hint: quit thinking about the Governor's mansion as the goal -- start thinking about it as a means to some end, be it advancing his ideals or fixing some specific problem... this will also make it easier to get elected and, in the absence of getting elected, provide a more attainable and worthwhile goal. Otherwise he's just going to look like a slimy political ladder climber. This will turn off people who are in politics for the "right" reasons and it will not engender good-will among other ladder-climbers because, really, who wants more competition?
posted by toomuchpete at 12:31 PM on October 5

Your friend's long-term plan is a real long shot. It's one of the worst reasons I've ever heard for going to law school.

That said, it can make an enormous difference for political career planning what law school he goes to. More prestigious is not necessarily better. Some states have a state law school with major connections to the local legal and political scenes. Attending one of these and networking while in law school will give him lots of contacts and quite possibly a good leg up on getting elected to the state legislature within a few years after graduation. Showing up with an ivy league law degree in one of these states would be a great way to tag himself as an outsider. Other states have too many law schools for there to be a clear right choice, or have so many interstate immigrants that local ties matter less, and schmoozing with potential donor networks in law school can have more comparative value.

He'll probably want to go to a smaller law school, all other things being equal, because he's going to want every one of his classmates to remember him well and like him; it's a lot easier to establish those ties at a small school. Wherever he goes, I feel sorry for his future classmates.
posted by grimmelm at 12:37 PM on October 5

As others have said, without knowing the state, this is hard to help. The path to governor of North Dakota is pretty different than the state of California.

But here is all I know about advancing a career in politics:

While at college in the midwest I had a friend who was interested in politics. He got an MA in civics and got his start by volunteering in the records office at city hall his sophomore year of college. He used his contacts there to part-time jobs in city hall, and then had full-time position immediately after graduation. Quickly after that he was on city council and the last I heard is now working in the state house.

But if your friend is not an incorrigible schmoozer and glad hand, they should work on that first. The rest will come.

A degree in civics always made more sense than a law degree to me.
posted by Ookseer at 1:31 PM on October 5

I have been told that the best thing for people to do if they plan to run for any office as small as the school board and as large as the legislature is to amass a shoe box full of business cards.
posted by parmanparman at 3:27 PM on October 5 [1 favorite]

You seem to confuse his intent to use law school to become Gov with your view that he will be pidgin holed. He is a saying he WANTS to be pidgin holed. He has a singular goal of being Gov one day. Law school is as good a place as any to start sucking up. Your advice to him based on your lack of knowledge on the subject evidenced by your asking fools like me on the internet is worth little to him. I say encourage him to pursue his dream.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:40 PM on October 5

It's a silly goal, of course, and the idea that going to law school or any particular law school really makes you more likely to become governor if you are just some guy rather than someone really special isn't terribly believable.

That said, many governors and politicians are lawyers, so it's not necessarily the wrong path. Also, going to school in state, if the state has a strong and connected program, can be beneficial to a person's political future. Two examples.

Bobby Jindal, Republican governor of Louisiana. He went to an Ivy undergrad, though I forget which, and then was a Rhodes Scholar. He came back to Tulane for law school rather than go to Yale, where he was admitted, because he knew he needed that to be a credible candidate in LA. Especially true, one would think, because his being of Indian descent probably made him sort of an outsider.

Patrick Rose, a member of the State House in Texas and a rising star in the Democratic party there. Went to Princeton for undergrad but came to the University of Texas for law school and actually ran and won his house seat while a law student.

Generally, I think the idea of being in the state for school is more important in the South and other more rural areas that tend to dislike or distrust outsiders.
posted by ecab at 5:58 PM on October 5

Current governors that have law degrees:
Janet Napolitano, Arizona
Mike Beebe, Arkansas
Bill Ritter, Colorado
Charlie Crist, Florida
Rod Blagojevich, Illinois
Mitch Daniels, Indiana
Steve Beshear, Kentucky
Martin O'Malley, Maryland
Deval Patrick, Massachusetts
Jennifer Granholm, Michigan
Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota
Haley Barbour, Mississippi
Jim Gibbons, Nevada
John Lynch, New Hampshire
David Paterson, New York
Mike Easley, North Carolina
Brad Henry, Oklahoma
Ted Kulongsoki, Oregon
Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania
Tim Kaine, Virginia
Christine Gregoire, Washington
Jim Doyle, Wisconsin
David Freudenthal, Wyoming
posted by milkrate at 6:11 PM on October 5

Okay. I was interested in this, so I did some Wikipedia sleuthing... Here is a list of all current governors and their degrees. I used the highest degree received:

"AL","Bob Riley","Business"
"AK","Sarah Palin","Communications"
"AZ","Janet Napolitano","Law"
"AR","Mike Beebe","Political Science"
"CA","Arnold Schwarzenegger","Business"
"CO","Bill Ritter","Law"
"CT","Jodi Rell","None"
"DE","Ruth Ann Minner","General Studies*"
"FL","Charlie Crist","Law"
"GA","Sonny Perdue","Veterinary Medicine"
"HI","Linda Lingle","Journalism"
"ID","Butch Otter","Political Science"
"IL","Rod Blagojevich","Law"
"IN","Mitch Daniels","Law"
"IA","Chet Culver","Education"
"KS","Kathleen Sebelius","Public Administration"
"KY","Steve Beshear","Law"
"LA","Bobby Jindal","Political Science"
"ME","John Baldacci","History"
"MD","Martin O'Malley","Law"
"MA","Deval Patrick","Law"
"MI","Jennifer Granholm","Law"
"MN","Tim Pawlenty","Law"
"MS","Haley Barbour","Law"
"MO","Matt Blunt","History"
"MT","Brian Schweitzer","Soil Science"
"NB","Dave Heineman","Economics"
"NV","Jim Gibbons","Law"
"NH","John Lynch","Law"
"NJ","John Corzine","Business"
"NM","Bill Richardson","International Affairs"
"NY","David Paterson","Law"
"NC","Mike Easley","Law"
"ND","John Hoeven","Business"
"OH","Ted Strickland","Psychology"
"OK","Brad Henry","Law"
"OR","Ted Kulongoski","Law"
"PA","Ed Rendell","Law"
"RI","Donald Carcieri","International Relations"
"SC","Mark Sanford","Business"
"SD","Mike Rounds","Political Science"
"TN","Phil Bredesen","Physics"
"TX","Rick Perry","Animal Science"
"UT","Jon Huntsman, Jr.","Business"
"VT","Jim Douglas","Russian Studies"
"VA","Tim Kaine","Law"
"WA","Christine Gregoire","Law"
"WV","Joe Manchin","Information Management (Business)"
"WI","Jim Doyle","Law"
"WY","Dave Freudenthal","Law"

If I mangled any state abbreviations, forgive me. I have totals as:

Law: 21
Business: 6
Political Science: 4
Communications: 2
History: 2
International: 2

The rest had only one. Interestingly, there are two with either no degree or only went to a community college (general studies by Ruth Ann Minner). Russian Studies is an interesting one too.

I would say that while Law does seem to be the predominant step towards the Governor's mansion, it's certainly not the only way. In fact, it seems that exceptional people can rise to that post from nearly any profession. No computer science majors though, which makes me think I should get working on my own network :-).
posted by zhivota at 7:32 PM on October 5

Sorry, Mike Beebe is Law as well. Makes the total 22 for Law, 3 for Poli Sci.
posted by zhivota at 8:55 PM on October 5

Ecab, Bobby Jindal didn't go to law school and never attended Tulane for any degree.
posted by saslett at 5:14 PM on October 6

I'm glad you had the enthusiasm to do that research zhivota. I'd like to see (as I suggested initially) a more long term summary of degrees in order to draw a more useful conclusion to this inquiry. I think data on the degrees of Governors from the past 50 years or so would provide a much better picture than just the current folks - although I do applaud your effort for collecting that info... is more than I would do. I'm actually now eager to find out the results!
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:35 PM on October 6