Sorry ahead of time as I did not see a specific thing for advise so putting it in here as I am in college.
For some time I have been trying to figure out what to do for my career being an undergraduate and have been sticking to being a lawyer for a while. I love reading and writing so I thought I can help other people by doing just that. When looking at law though there was several of them I would never want to do such as injury, criminal, paralegal, or anything related, but I would want to do IP law or Environmental if I can.
I decided to start majoring in History as this seemed to be the best choice not for my career path, but for me as I have an interest in History. As a side note being a Professor is something that seems fun but I would need a masters for that. Yet the problem with majoring in History if you want to be an IP lawyer is that this is seen as wrong based on the research I have done where employers automatically look more into those with an engineering degree.
Being an IP lawyer seems to be really fun where you get to meet with bright thinkers like musicians, writers, and others to help them with their own ideas that they have.
Do some research into the undergrad degrees that current IP or environmental lawyers got - that might steer you into the right course of study. I can see an engineering degree being of value for an IP lawyer if you are dealing with those kinds of cases but, as you pointed out, IP encompasses all kinds of property.
One piece of advice I have heard from more than one practicing laywer: major in anything except pre-law: you can get burnt out by the time law school rolls around. Just keep your college GPA as high as you can and study your brains out for the LSAT when the time comes.
Patent attorneys generally have an engineering g degree or similar background. IP attorneys who focus on trademark or copyright law don’t need technical backgrounds.
I know very few lawyers who think practicing law is fun.
Paralegal is not an area of law. A paralegal is a quasi professional without a law degree who helps lawyers. Some of them have paralegal training. For some people it’s a career. For others of us, it was a way to get a good sense of what law practice was really like for a couple of years between college and law school.
Leaving aside the specific case of patent law, can major in anything you want and go to law school.