When you think of an attorney you know, you might think of someone who is verbally strong. They can talk their way into and out of many situations and they often win arguments as a result of their verbal skills and ability to read people. Most of us then probably don’t think of attorneys as people who need math and use it regularly in their careers. Wrong! Surprising as it may be, there are several ways in which lawyers use math on a regular basis.
Despite that law schools don’t teach math, per say, as part of their curriculum and the LSTAT ( the test that must be passed to legally practice law) doesn’t include a math section math competence is very useful for practicing law. Part of this is because practicing math helps improve analytical skills, with financial and statistics skills also being very helpful. Having a certain level of math competence with numbers can help attorneys in their own practice, but it can also help them relate to clients who may have businesses that are heavily saturated with math, say, a financial firm. Let’s explore some of the types of math that are used day in and day out by those who practice, study and defend law.
Analytical Skills
Formulas, proofs and numbers are all general things practiced in math, but, rather than just being a part of just the discipline of math, they are all things that also train us to be logical, good critical thinkers. Being able to reason and find logic in situations is especially important for attorneys who work on more emotionally charged cases and when it comes time to negotiate in courtrooms. Having strong analytical skills also comes in hand for attorneys during litigation when they need to examine witnesses and make sure stories are consistent or not. Using logic in these cases is often helpful when presenting to and trying to persuade juries and judges.
Lastly, analyzing and critically thinking is also useful when reviewing documents and contracts. Making sure an agreement is in the best interest of a client is necessary. Unsavory, slippery language can sometimes create confusion for parties to a contract and an attorney with a strong analytical mind should be able to work through these problems before a contract is signed.
Disciplines
While analytical skills are often taught by math, but a relatively indirect use of it, some practices areas of law require that attorneys understand legitimate math principals and can practice them. Sometimes lawyers can hire a finance and accounting professional to assist them with cases, but basic proficiency in math is necessary for attorneys who take some types of cases on. Here are some of the examples of common legal issues which require attorneys who are skilled in math:
Criminal law – statistics is huge in review evidence. Criminal attorneys defer to expert witnesses as much as possible, but evidence is often equally important and it’s important to understand evidence that replies on probability and other math concepts.
Tax law – government and the way it works is complicated and taxes are no exception. Accountants are often brought in to aid in transactions that have to do with tax law but attorneys who represent clients and cases need to understand the documents and reports they submit.
Family law – this is including divorce and child support law. The division of assets and allocating support payments are major parts of settling divorce cases. Valuating the net worth of property and calculating the worth of each person involved that requires attorneys to be really cozy with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Malpractice law – many of these types of cases end up in litigation. Calculating the damages plaintiffs suffer is often a numbers game to put together a convincing argument for judges, defendants and sometimes juries.
Business Management
For attorneys who own a law practice of their own or are in a partnership, strong financial and accounting practices are important for running the business smoothly. Attorneys who have their own practice need solid ways of recording all bill time and expenses and they need an adequate payment processor. Having an administrator, accountant or bookkeeper can be helpful, but being good in finance and accounting math helps lawyers keep better tabs on their business.
In the end, it’s necessary for all attorneys to have a reasonable grasp in most areas of math. At the least, attorneys have a constant stream of ideas pitched to them and they need to be able to logically figure out how to react to each. More intense, are certain areas of law that require more specific math skills based on the content reviewed and defended. Know anyone that’s an attorney? Ask them how they use math in their work!
