Banner Viadrina

Why Law?

HG_Ehrenhof_Fruehling2009img_0823 ©Heide Fest

Career Opportunities

A law degree is a worthwhile thing for almost anyone to do. You will lay a strong foundation for your future professional career and for your life in general. A wide range of very different professions will be open to you, some of which are among the most prestigious in state and society. Most graduates move on to very well-paying jobs. A trained lawyer is basically never "unemployed", and most of them remain very satisfied with their work even after decades of practice. The "daily struggle for justice" evidently keeps you young.

Reasoning and argument

Much of law is a matter of presenting and arguing a case relating to a legal provision, law or principle. This kind of reasoning can pursue the most diverse of aims: mediating in a dispute, "getting the best possible deal" for a client, clearing a person of an alleged crime, or asserting and defending claims and demands. In legal activity you have to work with given tools to reach your objective; this requires disciplined thinking, a capacity for abstract thought, proficiency in language, analytical abilities and assertiveness. The great thing about it is that virtually everyone has these skills, and one purpose of legal studies is to train and shape them.

Getting real

Legal studies bring you close to reality. Legal activities are as varied as society. You will not be working in a laboratory, but on human conflict situations. If you know the law and can think and argue using the rules, you will have a better understanding of many things in the world. You will gain clarity about connections you have somehow noticed in everyday life without thinking about them. After studying law you will go through life with a different view on the world. This applies both to your perception of "minor" conflicts between ordinary people and to disputes at the government level or even between nations.

Exerting an influence

Nothing functions without rules – certainly not a state or a society. Only if people generally adhere to sensible rules can individual freedom, non-violence and prosperity be achieved. As a qualified lawyer you can get involved at the level that makes this possible. And you can choose the role you want to play in this yourself; for example whether you see yourself more as an "arbiter" and "angel of peace" – or as a cunning "protector of interests", using your intellectual skills to assert the interests of the people you represent.