President: Major Jobs Before the Presidency
1. George Washington: surveyor, planter, general of the Army of the United Colonies planter
2. John Adams: schoolteacher, lawyer, diplomat, vice president under Washington
3. Thomas Jefferson: writer, inventor, lawyer, architect, governor of Virginia, secretary of state under Washington, vice president under Adams, gentleman farmer
4. James Madison: lawyer, political theorist, U.S. congressman, secretary of state under Jefferson
5. James Monroe: soldier, lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of Virginia
6. John Quincy Adams: lawyer, diplomat, professor, U.S. senator, secretary of state under Monroe
7. Andrew Jackson: soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, governor of Florida, gentleman farmer
8. Martin Van Buren: lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of New York, vice president under Jackson
9. William Henry Harrison: soldier, diplomat, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Ohio
10. John Tyler lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Harrison
11. James Knox Polk: lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee
12. Zachary Taylor: planter, soldier
13. Millard Fillmore: lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Taylor
14. Franklin Pierce: lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from New Hampshire, gentleman farmer
15. James Buchanan: lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state
16. Abraham Lincoln: postmaster, lawyer, U.S. congressman from Illinois
17. Andrew Johnson: tailor, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee, U.S. senator from Tennessee, vice president under Lincoln
18. Ulysses S. Grant: U.S. Army general
19. Rutherford Hayes: lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio
20. James Abram Garfield: schoolteacher, soldier, U.S. representative from Ohio
21. Chester Alan Arthur: schoolteacher, lawyer, tariff collector, vice president under Garfield
22/24. Grover Cleveland: sheriff, lawyer, mayor, governor of New York reelected president
23. Benjamin Harrison: lawyer, soldier, journalist, U.S. senator from Indiana
25. William McKinley: soldier, lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio
26. Theodore Roosevelt: rancher, soldier, governor of New York, vice president under McKinley
27. William Howard Taft: lawyer, judge, dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School, U.S. secretary of war (and after the presidency: chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court)
28. Woodrow Wilson: lawyer, professor, president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey
29. Warren G. Harding: newspaper editor, U.S. senator from Ohio
30. Calvin Coolidge: lawyer, governor of Massachusetts, vice president under Harding
31. Herbert Hoover: engineer, U.S. secretary of commerce
32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: lawyer, governor of New York
33. Harry S. Truman: farmer, soldier, haberdasher, judge, U.S. senator, vice president under Roosevelt
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower: supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, U.S. Army chief of staff
35. John F. Kennedy: journalist, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Massachusetts
36. Lyndon Johnson: schoolteacher, soldier, congressman, U.S. senator from Texas, vice president under Kennedy
37. Richard Milhous Nixon: lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Eisenhower
38. Gerald Ford: lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Nixon
39. Jimmy Carter: peanut farmer, governor of Georgia writer
40. Ronald Reagan: actor, corporate spokesman, governor of California
41. George Herbert Walker Bush: oil executive, U.S. congressman, U.S. ambassador to the UN, Director of CIA, vice president under Reagan
42. Bill Clinton: lawyer, governor of Arkansas
43. George Walker Bush: oil executive, sport team owner, governor of Texas
44. Barack Obama: community organizer, lawyer, constitutional law professor, Illinois state senator, U.S. senator
As you may have gleaned from the list, those presidents who were also lawyers were:
1. John Adams
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. James Monroe
5. John Quincy Adams
6. Martin Van Buren
7. John Tyler
8. James K. Polk
9. Millard Fillmore
10. Franklin Pierce*
11. James Buchanan
12. Abraham Lincoln
13. Rutherford B. Hayes*
14. Chester Alan Arthur*
15. Grover Cleveland
16. Benjamin Harrison
17. William McKinley
18. William Howard Taft
19. Woodrow Wilson
20. Calvin Coolidge
21. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
22. Richard Nixon
23. Gerald Ford
24. Bill Clinton
25. Barack Obama
(*Also a General)