Lawyers and Presidents

This year, Presidents Day falls on Monday, February 20, one month after the 2017 inauguration. It is the day that we recognize the 44 presidents who have led the United States and remember their contributions to history. But before they became president, many of these men made their start in public service by practicing law.

If you look at our past presidents, a law degree and the presidency seem to go hand in hand. They all come from different backgrounds but notably, 25 of the 45 presidents were lawyers, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, just to name a few.

As these men left their own unique mark on history, we’d like to share a few interesting facts about some of our previous lawyer-presidents.

Five Interesting Facts about Our Lawyer-Presidents:

1. Out of the 25 lawyer-presidents, Barack Obama and Rutherford B. Hayes are the only ones to graduate from Harvard Law School.
    
2. Abraham Lincoln was involved in roughly 300 wrestling matches and only lost once. He was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame with the honor of “Outstanding American.”
    
3. After his presidency, William Taft became the Chief Justice of the United States, making him the only person in history to serve as the head of two branches of government.
    
4. Gerald Ford worked as a model during college and was featured on the cover of Cosmopolitan in 1942. He also worked as a forest ranger at Yellowstone National Park, directing traffic and feeding bears.
    
5. Grover Cleveland was the first Democrat elected after the Civil War in 1885, and was the only president to be elected for two nonconsecutive terms.

So, will a law degree make you President of the United States?  You never know!