Presidents Who Were Lawyers

Today is Presidents’ Day in the United States. If you didn’t know, President Nixon started Presidents’ Day to honor all past presidents of the U.S.

While we are celebrating all of our past Presidents, we’d like to take a look specifically at the Presidents who were lawyers. Below we have created a list of presidents who worked as lawyers before they took the highest office.

Here, you can find 27 of the United States who was the first lawyer to become President.

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.

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.

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.

James Monroe

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

John Q. Adams

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

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.

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.

James Polk

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

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.

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.

James Buchanan

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

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.

Rutherford B. Hayes

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

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.

Grover Cleveland

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Calvin Coolidge

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

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.

Richard Nixon

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

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.

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.

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.

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.