The Incompetent Mathematician: Does It Matter In Law?
Regardless of career, maths is generally considered one of the scariest things out there. Ironically, at least some skill with maths is something that we all have in common, as our education in the subject doesn’t end until we leave school.
Whether through fatigue or lack of skill, though, around 75% of adults do not continue to study maths beyond the point that it becomes optional, meaning that a weakness in the subject is as much of a British trait as our struggles with languages. Opportunities to learn mathematics aren’t rare, though. YouTube and college-style websites provide plenty of videos on the subject, while private maths lessons can be found online from US$2 per hour.
The way many of these courses are structured means that teachers can be hired to help with a single exam or assignment, even though more structured and ongoing solutions are available. Of course, for lots of us, there’s a certain trepidation that needs to be overcome first. An article on the BBC website tackled the latter subject directly, by insisting that our collective fear of maths is more about not wanting to put any effort into solving problems than actually being bad at the subject. This quirk was coined ‘mathephobia’ about seventy years ago. Yet, a phobia of numbers is a very real thing. Worse, it’s often a problem that we install in our brains ourselves. Put another way, the belief that maths is a difficult subject can make our experience with adding and subtracting seem much worse than it needs to be.
An Appreciation Of Logic
So, what about the relevance of maths to law careers? First of all, forget about Pythagoras’ Theorem and Pi. The reason a skill in maths is recommended for legal careers goes well beyond a need to add numbers together accurately. Scientists at Oxford University discovered that people who drop maths at the earliest opportunity have lower levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid in their heads, something which plays a part in maintaining brain plasticity.
This concept, plasticity, is what allows our grey matter to continue learning and adapting throughout our lives, and has roles to play in problem-solving, reasoning, and memory. Inevitably, people with strong brains are better at making important decisions and working with limited information. It might help to view the legal process as something a bit more algebraic, where data is fed into a system to find the most appropriate solution. It all depends on which branch of law takes your fancy, though. Tax lawyers may find a background in mathematics advantageous while family lawyers are unlikely to need such a thorough understanding of the subject to excel in their field. An appreciation of logic is arguably the mathematician’s greatest transferable skill.
Overall, education in mathematics in its most literal sense isn’t necessary for legal careers, beyond the standard university application requirements. However, as a means of forming a picture of the world, the purest science of all is always an asset.
