There are many people who go to law school but don’t practice law. A law degree can train you to think critically and can open up doors that you may never have imagined. While the traditional route for a law degree is to go on to practice law, there are many other opportunities that can be pursued with a law degree. A law degree can prepare you for many careers in the legal field, such as legal research, legal writing, legal advocacy, legal consulting, legal technology, and legal journalism. Additionally, a law degree provides valuable knowledge and skills that can be applied to a wide range of non-legal fields, such as business, finance, public policy, and public administration. A law degree can provide you with the knowledge and skills to be successful in any field and open up a variety of potential career paths.
Sometimes it is fun to find out who has a law degree but who is not practicing law. In this case, we are going to look at some famous people who went to law school and graduated but aren’t really utilizing their law degree.
Here is a short list of some celebrities who went to law school.
Gerard Butler
Gerald Butler spent two years at an Edinburgh legal company working as a trainee attorney. He was one week away from passing the bar when he was let go. Butler admits that the degree has been helpful in his own run-ins with the authorities, even though he didn’t quite pass. Interestingly enough, he was the president of the law society at the University of Glasgow and graduated with honors in 1992.
Jerry Springer
Jerry Springer worked as a campaign assistant for Robert Kennedy in 1968 after graduating from Northwestern with a law degree. After Kennedy was killed, Springer joined a Cincinnati legal firm. Are you curious how that transitioned into a career in scandal journalism? He did, however, get active in local politics and a minor celebrity, which led to him being given a radio show in the 1980s. The situation then grew worse.
Barack Obama
In addition to his doctoral studies in law, Barack Obama also worked as a civil rights lawyer and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years until 2004. Obama first made global headlines after becoming the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, which inspired him to write his autobiography, Dreams from My Father. Obama’s background as a community organiser, law professor, and civil rights lawyer seems to be the ideal preparation for politics. Being a community organiser involves engaging individuals about how their community could be improved and enacting change, which may include organising those who previously didn’t think change was possible.
Kim Kardashian
American socialite, media star, and businesswoman Kimberly Noel Kardashian. Her fame increased with the release of the sex tape Kim Kardashian, Superstar in 2007, which was made with her then-boyfriend Ray J and was first made famous as Paris Hilton’s stylist and friend. Kim passed the “baby bar,” and instead of enrolling in a formal law programme, she plans to finish her current apprenticeship and obtain a law degree.
She aspires to practise law one day, just like her late father. She has been a powerful advocate for prison reform, helping to free many prisoners from unjust sentences. This reality celebrity, who thrives on being misunderstood, managed to do so while managing multiple businesses, including one that sells shapewear and another that sells cosmetics, four children, and a filming schedule.
Rebel Wilson
Rebel Wilson, an Australian actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer with the name of Melanie Elizabeth Wilson. Following his graduation from the Australian Theater for Young People in 2003, Wilson began playing Toula in the SBS comedy series Pizza. After that, she made an appearance on The Wedge, a sketch comedy show. Rebel Wilson had ambitions for a career in law or politics before earning roles in blockbusters like the Pitch Perfect series and Isn’t It Romantic. Before she became a well-known movie starlet, Wilson received a B.A. from the University of New South Wales. a Bachelor of Laws as well as a certificate in theatre and performing arts. Rebel believes that when battling malaria in Africa years ago, she experienced a hallucination in which she believed she had won an Oscar, which made her think acting was what she was meant to do rather than practising law.
Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians)
English native Gemma Chan is an actress. Chan was born and raised in London, attended the Newstead Wood School for Girls, and then enrolled at Worcester College in Oxford to study law before deciding to pursue an acting career. Her most recent performance in the MCU’s “Eaternals” was well-received. The Crazy Rich Asians actress earned a law degree from Oxford University. She was shocked to learn that her difficult schoolwork had facilitated her transition to acting. According to her, understanding the law was essential for memorization. She was good at picking up prescriptions rapidly because she had to recall about 2,000 cases. Although the law is quite analytical, it aids her in understanding her contract and communication.
John Cleese (Monty Python)
One of the most hilarious individuals in comedy history holds a law degree from none other than Cambridge. However, he didn’t make the jurors laugh out loud because Cleese never actually trained. Cleese co-founded Monty Python with writing partner Graham Chapman after they became friends at school.
The university Cleese chose to attend seems to have had a bigger influence on his career than anything else (though he believes in another life, he might also become an excellent barrister). However, it appears that his legal education had an impact on other decisions. Cleese, for instance, is a fervent supporter of Amnesty International. He co-founded the Secret Policeman’s Ball, a series of benefit performances that raised money for this organisation that defends human rights, in 1976.
Steve Young
The majority of us will never be able to win the Super Bowl and earn a law degree in the same calendar year. Steve Young, a San Francisco 49er, was able to cross both items off his list in 1994. Young retired from career number one in 1999, but he hasn’t yet put his J.D. to use. In fact, in this 2011 advertisement for BYU, he makes fun of lawyers.
There you have it, turns out you can take a few different approaches with a law degree.