Back before he was President, Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer. His legal career was quite successful: for 25 years he practiced law in Illinois. And he had not even attended a law school! Abraham Lincoln took his education into his own hands, as hi live in a rural area and there were neither law schools nor established lawyers to study from at the time. His interest in law was sparked by John Todd Stuart, an attorney from Springfield: in 1834, Stuart lent Lincoln several books on law and encouraged him to study. Some three years later, Abraham Lincoln got his admission to the bar and became John Todd Stuart’s junior partner.