No, you don’t need to know what type of law you want to practice before you start law school. On my first day of law school, one of my professors asked each of us what we thought we wanted to do, and almost half the class said they wanted to go into environmental law. Now that we have graduated, I don’t think a single one of my classmates is practicing environmental law.

In your first year or two, you will take contracts, property, torts, criminal law, criminal procedure, civil procedure, constitutional law and remedies, along with legal writing and legal research. Then you choose "electives", but you will find that most people use many of these to take things that are on the state bar exam. For example, in California, where I was in law school, the Bar covers things like family law, wills and trusts, etc., and most of us took those classes, even though they were considered electives.

I went to a part-time evening program, so many of my classmates had prior careers which led them to study a particular type of law; the accountants often went for tax law, the scientists went for patent law, the actors went for entertainment law, and the police officers went for criminal law, not surprisingly. However, there were far more people (and this is even more true of the full-time program) who took whatever interested them.

I’ve met many lawyers practicing in areas in which they never took any classes in law school. My securities law professor told us that when she was hired to do that type of law, she had to pick it all up on her own, and I’ve heard others say the same thing. For many people, the learning only starts with law school, and continues after they graduate. That certainly is true of the people I know who are sole practitioners, who often take on a broad range of cases.

I wish I could tell you about a website which describes areas of the law, but I don’t know of anything like that. You might check out your local Bar Association. Some of them have referral services and may give information on them.

as far as the first year of law school…
you do not pick your own schedule… there are set first year classes and everyone who starts with you will be in each of your classes with you for the duration of your first year.
and NO you do not need t o know anything about the law or what kind of lawyer you want to be before you go to law school. yo upretty much decide as you. often people graduate law chool and STILL dont know what kind of lawyer they want to be– which obviously answers your question about majors–there arent any. after your first year, you just pick classes that you’re interested in or might be on the bar.

good luck

You will have to take required courses your first year. Then you will have the option to choose certain other required courses along with a few courses of your choosing. It is not necessary to know what you want to do when you get out. Most people end up changing their minds anyway. Once you get started you will begin to get a feel for what area you want to focus your practice on. In law school you will mostly likely choose your classes based on the bar in the state you will be testing in. Law is a general degree, you specialize afterwards, so don’t stress out about it. Start school and get your feet wet before you start planning your future.