At the current stage of development, the education faces a social demand for the shaping of a highly qualified competitive specialist wanted in the global world and the global labor market. Nowoday, in the world community, competencies related to the perception and information processing such as logical and critical thinking (cognitive competencies) are the most popular ones. Such competencies shaping is one of the educational tasks, in particular legal education. The research deals with theoretical, methodical, scientific and practical principles of logical and critical thinking shaping as main educational competencies required for a modern specialist. As a result of the research the theoretical bases and means cognitive competences shaping have been covered, the ways of logical and critical thinking shaping of future lawyers have been suggested. The author has recommended the introduction of special training courses for future lawyers into the educational process considering the specifics of the competencies given above