Presidents Who Were Lawyers

Today is Presidents’ Day in the United States. If you didn’t know, the holiday was expanded under President Nixon to honor all past U.S. Presidents.

While we celebrate all of our past Presidents, we’d like to take a closer look at those who practiced law before taking the highest office in the nation. Below, we’ve created a list of Presidents who worked as lawyers before their presidency.

Here, you’ll find 26 Presidents of the United States who were attorneys before becoming Commander in Chief.

John Adams

Adams was the second president of the United States. A farmer, lawyer, writer, and political philosopher, he played a major role in American history.

Education:

• Harvard University, 1751–1755

Bar Admission Year:
1758

Thomas Jefferson

He was a lawyer, statesman, professor, writer, and the third president of the United States, during which time he wrote the Declaration of Independence with John Adams. He also played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress.

Education:

• College of William & Mary, 1760–1762

Bar Admission Year:
1767

James Madison

He was one of the Founding Fathers and the fourth president of the United States. A student of law and classical political theory, Madison was the leading author of the Bill of Rights.

Education:

• College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), 1769–1771

Bar Admission Year:
Not admitted to the bar

James Monroe

He was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, Founding Father, and the fifth president of the United States during the War of 1812.

Education:

• College of William & Mary, 1774–1776 (left to join the Revolutionary War)

Bar Admission Year:
1783

John Q. Adams

He was an American statesman, journalist, diplomat, lawyer, and sixth president of the United States.

Education:

• Harvard University (Master’s), 1786–1787

Bar Admission Year:
1790

Martin Van Buren

He was the eighth President of the United States and became the youngest president at 54. He studied law in New York and was admitted to the New York bar in 1802.

Education:

• No formal university; studied law under attorneys

Bar Admission Year:
1803

John Tyler

He was the tenth President of the United States when President William Henry Harrison died in April 1841. He was the first Vice President to succeed in the Presidency after the death of his predecessor. He was a lawyer by trade and became Governor of Tennessee after his election in 1844.

Education:

• College of William & Mary, 1802–1807

Bar Admission Year:
1809

James Polk

He was a lawyer, surveyor, and railroad worker He was the eleventh President of the United States.

Education:

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1816–1818

Bar Admission Year:
1820

Millard Fillmore

He was a lawyer, political leader, minister of finance, diplomat, and statesman. He was educated in public schools, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1813.

Education:

• No university; read law

Bar Admission Year:
1823

Franklin Pierce

He was a lawyer, judge, and governor of the American state of New Hampshire. He was the fourteenth President of the United States.

Education:

• Bowdoin College, 1820–1824

Bar Admission Year:
1827

James Buchanan

He was a statesman, lawyer, soldier, author, and diplomat who helped found the United States and signed the Declaration of Independence.

Education:

• Dickinson College, 1807–1809

Bar Admission Year:
1812

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States during the Civil War, and his administration was a time of success and failure. He was a former statesman, lawyer, journalist, and soldier.

Education:

• No university; self-taught and read law

Bar Admission Year:
1836

Rutherford B. Hayes

He was a statesman, lawyer, congressman, minister, and the nineteenth President of the United States from 1877-1881.

Education:

• Kenyon College, 1838–1842
• Harvard Law School, 1843–1845

Bar Admission Year:
1845

Chester Arthur

He was a statesman, lawyer, and professor, who had also been an admiral of the United States Navy and a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Education:

• Union College, 1845–1848
• State and National Law School (briefly), early 1850s

Bar Admission Year:
1854

Grover Cleveland

He was a statesman, lawyer, and businessman. He studied law in St. Louis, Missouri, and began law practice in 1866.

Education:

• No university; read law

Bar Admission Year:
1859

Benjamin Harrison

He was a statesman, lawyer, soldier, and U.S. Representative for the state of Indiana. As U.S. President in 1891-93, Harrison achieved the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the creation of the National Cordage Company.

Education:

• Miami University (Ohio), 1852–1853

Bar Admission Year:
1854

William McKinley

His important role was to establish relations between the two nations on a more cordial basis. He was a statesman, lawyer, a Union veteran of the Civil War and the twenty-fifth President of the United States.

Education:

• Allegheny College (briefly), 1860
• Albany Law School (did not graduate), 1865–1866

Bar Admission Year:
1867

William Taft

William was the 27th president of the United States. He was a lawyer, judge, statesman, and a member of the commission that framed the constitution of Ohio. He graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1880.

Education:

• Yale University, 1874–1878
• Cincinnati Law School, 1878–1880

Bar Admission Year:
1880

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. He was a statesman, lawyer, and diplomat, of the preeminent stature of his era. He was the first United States President to hold foreign office as a diplomat.

Education:

• Princeton University, 1875–1879
• University of Virginia Law School, 1879–1880 (did not complete)
• Johns Hopkins University (PhD), 1883–1886

Bar Admission Year:
Not admitted to the bar

Calvin Coolidge

Calvin was a statesman, lawyer, soldier, college president, and the thirtieth President of the United States.

Education:

• Amherst College, 1891–1895
• Studied law via apprenticeship afterward

Bar Admission Year:
1897

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt was elected in 1932 during the Great Depression. He was a statesman, a lawyer, and served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. He is best known for leading the nation through the New Deal and World War II.

Education:

• Harvard University, 1900–1903
• Columbia Law School, 1904–1907 (did not graduate)

Bar Admission Year:
Not admitted to the bar

He was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, a statesman, a lawyer, and a diplomat.

Education:

• Whittier College, 1930–1934
• Duke University School of Law, 1934–1937

Bar Admission Year:
1937

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford was the thirty-eighth president of the United States. He was a statesman, lawyer, and Christian who dedicated his life to God and the country. He is the only person in U.S. history to become vice president and president without being elected.

Education:

• University of Michigan, 1931–1935
• Yale Law School, 1938–1941

Bar Admission Year:
1941

Bill Clinton

Also known as William Jefferson Clinton, he was the forty-second president of the United States. He was a statesman, lawyer, governor of Arkansas, U.S. president, and Rhodes Scholar. His presidency focused on expanding education and improving opportunities for the poor and minorities.

Education:

• Georgetown University, 1964–1968
• Yale Law School, 1970–1973

Bar Admission Year:
1973

Barack Obama

Obama was the forty-fourth president of the United States and the nation’s first Black president. He was a statesman, lawyer, advocate for law and order, and politician.

Education:

• Columbia University, 1981–1983
• Harvard Law School, 1988–1991

Bar Admission Year:
1991

Joe Biden

Also known as Joseph Biden Jr., he was the forty-sixth president of the United States. He is a statesman, lawyer, and former U.S. senator who focused on public service, justice, and bipartisan leadership.

Education:

• University of Delaware, 1961–1965
• Syracuse University College of Law, 1965–1968

Bar Admission Year:
1969