Steps to become a Lawyer/Attorney in Texas

Follow the step by step process or choose what situation that best describes you:

1. Get my Texas Undergraduate Pre-Law Education
2. Take the LSAT (Law School Admission Test)
3. Go to Law School in Texas
4. Become an Attorney and Take the Texas State Bar Exam
5. What Comes After the Texas Bar?

A Law Career in Texas

The American Bar Association reports that there were 89,361 resident and active attorneys practicing in Texas in 2017. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor notes that in May 2017, two metropolitan areas in Texas were among the highest-paying metropolitan areas in the country for lawyers to work. They were the Houston-The Woodlands – Sugar Land area, where lawyers averaged a mean annual salary of $174,870; and the Dallas-Plano-Irving area, where lawyers averaged a mean yearly salary of $154,490. The average lawyer in Texas at that time was making $145,800 per year. Practice areas in a state as large as Texas are numerous and include 24 areas of certification (see Step 4 below) in addition to Native American law, alternative dispute resolution, public utilities, motor vehicles and intellectual property law. If your goal is to become a member of the Texas bar and practice in one of these or another specialty area, keep reading.
 Step 1

Undergraduate Pre-Law Education in Texas

The Texas Board of Law Examiners does not mandate what your undergraduate education must consist of, but because they do require that you graduate from an American Bar Association-approved law school, it follows that you must obtain at least a bachelor’s degree prior to applying to law school.

Accreditation

In order to assure your acceptance into an ABA-accredited law school after graduation, make sure that the undergraduate institution you attend is accredited by a national or regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Requirements and Standards

Requirements and standards for undergraduate education are not mandated by the ABA. They do, however, make some recommendations on the types of training, studies and experiences that will be most helpful to you later on.

ABA-approved law schools will be looking for prospective students who have good comprehension skills, analytical abilities, reasoning skills, and the ability to think deductively, inductively and by analogies. Coursework that could help you hone these skills include English, political science, philosophy, fine arts, foreign languages, world cultures, and human behavior.

Degree Options

Again, the ABA does not state specific majors from which pre-law students should choose. Extrapolating from the above information, however, one can deduce that good majors for pre-law students include philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology, and history.

Pre- Law Advisor

Your undergraduate institution may keep a pre-law advisor on staff. If so, make sure to consult with this valuable resource, who can help guide you in the proper courses, majors and minors you should take to best prepare you for law school.

Step 2

Texas LSAT (Law School Admission Test)

The Texas Board of Law Examiners requires that you graduate from an ABA-approved law school in order to become a bar member. The first step in this process is to pass the LSAT, or Law School Admission Test, as this test is necessary to be admitted into any ABA-approved law school. This standardized test lasts approximately a half day and is offered four times yearly worldwide.

You should be well prepared to take the LSAT if you chose courses wisely while in undergraduate school. However, practice cannot hurt, so the LSAT website provides free study materials, like sample or past LSAT test questions and answers, to assist you in preparing for the exam.  Other options for preparation include applying to take a LSAT Prep Course or seminar (at a cost) found within Texas such as:

LSAT Exam Prep Courses in Texas:

• LSAT Preparation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock
• LSAT Classes and Tutoring, Austin LSAT Prep, Austin
• LSAT Preparation Course, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi and online
• LSAT Preparation, Texas State University, San Marcos

Exam content

The LSAT is administered each year in November, January, March, June and July. It consists of five timed 35-minute sections of multiple-choice questions. Two of these sections are on logical reasoning, one is on reading comprehension, and one is on analytical reasoning. The final of the five sections is the experimental section that is not counted towards your score. However, you will not know which section is the experimental section when taking the test, so pretend that every section counts. The writing section is another addition to the LSAT. While this section is not scored, the ABA-approved law schools to which you apply will see it, so make sure to spend time writing a good essay with proper grammar and spelling.

The LSAT will last three and a half hours, and you will be given a fifteen-minute break between the third and fourth sections of the test. Wrong answers will not count against you, so answer every question, even if you are unsure of the answer. Your score will fall within the range of 120 to 180.

Application process

Apply online at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) website to sit for the LSAT. Examination centers in Texas from which you may choose include:

• Abilene Christian University, Abilene
• Sul Ross State University, Alpine
• University of Texas – Arlington, Arlington
• Austin Community College, Austin
• Huston – Tillotson University, Austin
• University of Texas at Austin, Austin
• Lamar University, Beaumont
• West Texas A&M University, Canyon
• Texas A&M University, College Station
• Texas A&M University – Commerce
• Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
• Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development, Dallas
• Southern Methodist University, Dallas
• University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg
• University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso
• Texas A&M University School of Law, Fort Worth
• Southwestern University, Georgetown
• On-Target Training Courses, LLC, Glen Rose
• Jarvis Christian College, Hawkins
• South Texas College of Law, Houston
• University of Houston, Houston
• University of Houston – Clear Lake, Houston
• University of Houston – Downtown, Houston
• Sam Houston State University, Huntsville
• University of Dallas, Irving
• Southwestern Adventist University, Keene
• Texas A&M University – Kingsville
• Texas A&M International University, Laredo
• Texas Tech University, Lubbock
• Collin Higher Education Center at Collin College, McKinney
• Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches
• Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View
• Saint Mary’s University, San Antonio
• University of Texas at San Antonio
• Texas State University, San Marcos
• Baylor University, Waco
• Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls

Fees

When you register online to take the LSAT, you will pay a fee of $190. Instructions on how to do so will be given to you when you register online.

Receiving Your Score

You will receive your LSAT score about three weeks after the day of the exam, via email.  It is based upon the number of questions that you answered correctly. Therefore, your LSAT score can only go up when you answer a question. Your LSAT score will become a part of your permanent record, and your most recent LSAT score report will include the past 12 times you took the LSAT. This score report is sent to the admissions offices of the law schools to which you apply. Law schools tend to review your LSAT score report for consistency among scores, so the fewer times you take the LSAT, the better your chances of gaining admission to the ABA-approved law school of your choice.

Average LSAT Scores for Law School Admissions in Texas

According to Law School Numbers, the average LSAT scores in 2017 of students accepted at some of the most popular law schools in Texas were:

• University of Texas School of Law, Austin: 167
• Southern Methodist University: 161
• University of Houston Law Center: 159
• Baylor University: 160
• Texas A&M University School of Law: 156
• Texas Tech University School of Law, Lubbock: 154
• South Texas College of Law, Houston: 150
• Texas Southern University-Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Houston: 143
• St. Mary’s University: 151