Law Students: Why You Must Master Both Critical & Creative Thinking

Law Students: Why You Must Master Both Critical & Creative Thinking

law students

As an attorney, many of your clients in the future will hold you in the highest regard—intellectual superhero status even—after all, you have extensive education and the knowledge to win against ‘the bad guys’ in court. Whether you decide to litigate in civil court or perhaps become a criminal attorney and even act as the defense in some high-profile cases, the tools you use over the years stemming from law school will be the same.

Mastering critical thinking is key because it allows you to follow through on an idea successfully—and this can cross many different realms and applications, aside from the law. As a law student, however, mastering critical thinking means that you must know how to look at a problem from an analytical viewpoint and then solve it. There must be a strategy toward achieving your goal, and at times extensive thought must go into this process—along with effort in achieving the execution of your plan.

Creative thinking is helpful in so many ways in law school, as well as a career. It will complement your critical thinking skills in also helping you to be very good at thinking on your feet, along with bolstering your legal writing—even if you are just working on negotiations or drawing up a contract. This will also sharpen your mind, allow the juices to flow, and in many cases allow you to generate great ideas—whether you are going to trial or just trying to think up a charismatic ad campaign for your own firm.

Law students will benefit from practicing these skills during their four years of studies as there will be many lively discussions to be participated in during class—and there you will have to learn to think outside the box, and quickly so, as will your classmates—or you may run the risk of being more than a little embarrassed. You will be expected to complete copious amounts of reading and writing, and demonstrative your critical skills as well as creativity often. These are areas, although considered ‘soft skills’ that should be finely honed—and especially for the writing arena. While you may have always been a natural as a writer, it takes extensive practice to turn out good copy—and it can take some talent to avoid the temptation to write in legalese too.

Our mission at CDTA College of Law is to educate, train, and develop extraordinary legal advocates. Your legal education will be comprised of bar-tested academic subjects, skills training, and values reinforcement. Upon completion of your four-year course of study you will be fully qualified to take and pass the California Bar examination. Call us today at (760) 342-0900 or find out more online here.

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