Lawyer presidents

25 of the 44 presidents have been lawyers; the WSJ law blog has a list. Only one other besides Barack Obama has been a graduate of Harvard Law. It would take a trivia expert (or perhaps a Harvard grad) to identify that one: Rutherford B. Hayes.

P.S. See also, in comments, John Peralta’s list indicating that lawyer-nominees have lately been more common on the Democratic side than the Republican.

3 Comments

  • Eugene Volokh blogged on my related observation of how Dems tend to choose attorneys to run for President. From that 9/18/08 Volokh Conspiracy post:

    ********************

    The Party of the Lawyer Candidates vs. The Party of the Non-Lawyer Candidates:

    John Peralta counts Democratic and Republican Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates since 1980, and sees how many lawyers there were:

    [Democratic] Attorneys (10 out of 12 total – 83%)
    Obama
    Biden
    Kerry
    Edwards
    Lieberman
    Clinton
    Dukakis
    Bentsen
    Mondale
    Ferarro
    [Possibly Gore, who never graduated — if he’s included, the percentage is 92%]
    Carter was the only non-lawyer, non-law school attendee.

    [Republican] Attorneys (2 out of 9 total – 22%)
    Dole
    Quayle

    Non-lawyers – McCain, Palin, Bush 43, Cheney, Kemp, Bush 41 and Reagan

    ****************

  • apparently the white house web site identifies John Adams as a Harvard educated lawyer. for what that is worth.

  • John Adams went to Harvard College, but not Harvard Law School (which was founded long after he became a lawyer).