Reading law was the primary method used incommon law countries, particularly theUnited States, for people to prepare for and enter thelegal profession before the advent oflaw schools. InCommonwealth countries, becoming anarticled clerk was a similar practice.
It consisted of an extendedinternship orapprenticeship under thetutelage ormentoring of an experiencedlawyer. The practice largely died out in the early 20th century. A few U.S. states, namely California, Maine, New York, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, still permit people to become lawyers by reading law instead of attending some or all of law school, although the practice is uncommon.[1]
In this sense, "reading law" specifically refers to a means of entering the profession, although in England it is still customary to say that a university undergraduate is "reading" a course, which may be law or any other.
Incolonial America, as inBritain in that day, law schools did not exist at all untilLitchfield Law School was founded in 1773. Within a few years following theAmerican Revolution, some universities such as theCollege of William and Mary and theUniversity of Pennsylvania established a "Chair in Law".[2] However, the holder of this position would be the sole purveyor of legal education for the institution, and would give lectures designed to supplement, rather than replace, an apprenticeship.[3] Even as a handful of law schools were established, they remained uncommon in the United States until the late nineteenth century. Most people who entered the legal profession did so through anapprenticeship which incorporated a period of study under the supervision of an experienced attorney. This usually encompassed the reading of the works considered at the time to be the most authoritative on the law, such asEdward Coke'sInstitutes of the Lawes of England,William Blackstone'sCommentaries on the Laws of England, and similar texts.[4]
The scholastic independence of the law student is evident from the following advice ofAbraham Lincoln to a young man in 1855:
If you are absolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself the thing is more than half done already. It is a small matter whether you read with any one or not. I did not read with any one. Get the books and read and study them in their every feature, and that is the main thing. It is no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read atNew Salem, which never had three hundred people in it. The books and your capacity for understanding them are just the same in all places. [...] Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.[5]
Historically,country lawyers or county-seat lawyers were more likely to have read law. Reading law to become an attorney would be the norm, until the 1890s, when theAmerican Bar Association, formed in 1878, began pressing states to limit admission to the Bar to those persons who had satisfactorily completed several years of post-graduate institutional instruction.[6]
On July 8, 1941,James F. Byrnes became the last Justice appointed to theSupreme Court of the United States who had never attended college or law school, and he was the penultimate appointee who had been admitted to practice by reading law. Byrnes was followed byRobert H. Jackson, who was commissioned just three days later, on July 11, 1941, and had also been admitted to the practice of law by reading, although he had attendedAlbany Law School for less than one year, taking a two-year program in a single year to save money.
In 2013, 60 people qualified to sit for the bar exam by reading law as opposed to 83,926 via law schools, and of those 60, 17 passed on their first attempt.[1]
As of 2024, four US states still permit reading law as the sole means of legal education. InCalifornia,[1]Vermont[1] andWashington,[7] an applicant who has not attended law school may take thebar exam after reading law under a judge or practicing attorney for a period of four years. In the fourth state,Virginia,[8] the period of reading law is only three years. Other rules vary as well. For example, Virginia does not allow the reader to be gainfully employed by the tutoring lawyer, while Washington requires just that. In California the requirements of the state bar association for reading law are set forth in Rule 4.29, Study in a law office or judge's chambers.[9]
Two other states allow reading law in combination with some law school.New York allows applicants to read law provided they have already completed at least one year of law school study.[10]Maine requires applicants to have completed at least two-thirds of aJuris Doctor degree.[11] A 2023 bill before theMaine Legislature attempted to remove the requirement for two years of law school study, but the bill was indefinitely tabled.[12]
| State | Required law school | Required time reading law | Total time | Bar passage rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | none | 4 years[13] | 4 years | 41.7% (2023)[14] |
| Maine | 2 years | 1 year[15] | 3 years | |
| New York | 1 year | 3 years[16] | 4 years | 17% (2024)[17] |
| Vermont | none | 4 years[18] | 4 years | |
| Virginia | none | 3 years[19] | 3 years | 20.21% (2001–2022)[20] |
| Washington | none | 4 years[21] | 4 years | 20% (2024)[22] |
From 2018 to 2025,Kim Kardashian read law in California through a San Francisco law firm.[23][24] In November 2025, she announced she failed her first attempt at the bar exam.[25]
Seven of the first eight U.S. Supreme Court chief justices engaged in their legal education primarily by reading law. Except for the second chief justiceJohn Rutledge, who had formal legal education at theMiddle Temple in London, no chief justice had any university-based legal training untilMelville Fuller in 1888, who attendedHarvard Law School for six months. All chief justices since the appointment ofEdward Douglass White in 1910 have held law degrees.
Few early Supreme Court justices attended law school although the practice of attending law school became more common after around 1900. Supreme Court justices who read law after 1900 include:
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