The Law Field
According to the black’s Law Dictionary (Bryan, 23) a lawyer is an individual learned in law for example an attorney, solicitor or counsel. Law can be defined as set of conduct rules set to govern the behaviors of people, companies, the government being at the center and the state among other many entities. It usually corrects the wrongs, maintenance of political stability and social authority and the deliverance of justice.
The typical career path stars from the education as the requirements of becoming a lawyer vary from country to country. In most countries, teaching law is by a school of law in which is a faculty of a university’s general undergraduate college. Students can pursue masters or a degree in Bachelor of law.
Most lawyers begin in salary positions. The attorneys who are newly hired in most cases starts as associates and have to work with lawyers who are perceived to be more experienced for example the judges. After many years in the field, some of them are admitted to partnership in their firms, meaning that they partially own the firm, or go into practice by themselves. Some layers who are experienced are elected or nominated to judgeship, while others become full time law school faculty or administrators; most of these lawyers have advanced degrees in other fields. Some use legal training administration or management positions in many departments of large corporations. Transferring from one corporation to another is away of gaining administrative experience and the rise in ranks of management, (Andrew & Jonathan, 254).
Technology has had great effects in the law field. Many lawyers in small firms are using personal computers. The practitioner’s periodicals abound with ads for the software, video, cellular phones and many other office technologies. The computers are known being used for storage and the reception of texts in the legal profession. In addition many researches are no longer being carried manually with digest and other printed books but many researches are being carried out online. The world of internet has opened up wider world of sharing and collaboration with other disciplines. Technology has introduced e-communication in law occupation, (Bryan, 23).
The median earning of lawyers in 2002 was $90,290. Half of the occupation had $61,060 and $ 136, 810. The 10% that was the lowest paid had bellow $ 44,490. More than 10% had $145,600. The earnings in the industries that employed many lawyers were as follows; the management of companies and enterprises had $131,970, federal government having $98,790, the legal services earned $93,970, those in local government earned $69,710 and these in the state government had $67,910. The median pay of lawyers after graduation varied by work place; all graduates had salary of $60,000, private practice $90,000 business $60,000 judicial clerks $40,000 (Farnsworth, 56).
Lawyers should have great deal of responsibility, capability of winning respect and confidence of the clients, public and the associates. The abilities they use include perseverance, creativity, and reasoning. These lawyers specialized in trial work need to be able to quickly think and speak in with authority. Furthermore, they should be familiar with court room rules and strategies (Martin Et al, 178).
An approximate of 26% of the population of lawyers is self employed either in law firms or solo practices. Many salaried lawyers are held in government, law firms, and corporation or in non-profit organization. Government employed lawyers work at local level. Lawyers work for many different agencies in federal government but are concentrated in justice, defense and treasury departments. These who are salaried and working outside government work in house counsel by banks, public utilities, real estate companies, insurance companies among other business and non-profit organizations. Some work as part-timers in independent practices. Few of them work in law schools but excluded in employment estimate (Farnsworth, 56).
Employment diversity is increasing due to the growth of the population and business as more transactions; criminal and civil cases will increase. Also the increases will be due to increases in demand for legal services in areas like; intellectual property, healthcare, bankruptcy, antitrust law, corporate and security litigation, and the environmental law. Growth in lawyer demand will increase as increased use of legal service by people considered as middle income. On the other hand it will be constrained in business as they use large accounting firms and paralegals for some functions, (Fiona & Gorman, 78). Most jobs will be in salaried lawyers mostly in urban areas having government agencies. This growth will make growth in self-employed sector to be slow due to difficulty in establishing profitable new practices in face of stiff completion from big firms. There will be a growth in the law complexity that encourages specialization along with cost of maintaining updated research materials. Also this growth will make graduates from highly regarded law schools with superior academic results to be favored. The number of women and minority is too little in this occupation as men are favored; (Jaime pp 3) though in the recent past the number of women in the membership has increased.
In searching for a job in law field one should use law school career centers if non in the School then one should check with the University job placement. There sis also an option of using the network. The right job as attorney comes after knowing the right person in the field. The application to government job is the best as there are many federals that search for attorneys and can be the right place to get first job as it may come with needed experience. One should use sites like usajobs.gov to search for federal jobs, (Thorne pp 3)
The typical job posting for lawyers is a blog on lawjobs.com that is called the careerist. It usually aims at dissecting developments in the profession, provide advice and vital information and provide a platform for airing their views, (Jaime pp 1).
The working environment of lawyers is such that, they do work in offices, law libraries and even courtrooms. They meet client’s home, place of business, in hospitals and even in prisons. They might travel to some meetings, gathering evidence and then appear in courts, legislative bodies and any other authorities. They particularly face heavy pressures when cases are being tried; preparation for court includes latest laws and judicial decisions. The salaried attorneys have structured schedules to work on. These in private or work for large companies might work irregular times including weekends, whilst research conducting, client conferring, or prepare briefs during non-office times. Attorneys in most cases work many hours, as for example, those working full time, around 33% work 50 or more hours in a week, (Fiona & Gorman, 54)
The formal needs to be an attorney includes a four year college degree, three years of law school and the passage of a written bar exam; on the other hand, some requirements vary depending on; state, admission competition, among other places. It takes seven years of full time study for one to become a lawyer of high school. All schools of law approved by American Bar Association need applicants to take LSAT, certified transcripts. The advanced degree in law may be needed for these desiring to specialize, undertake research or be teachers, (Beatty & Samuelson, 143).
To practice law in any state’s court, one has to be licensed or admitted to its bar. For admission to the bar one has to pass bar exam and pass separate written ethics exams. These admitted to one state’s bar qualify to be admitted to the next state’s bar is they meet standards of good morals and specified period of legal experience. In the state I want to work, layers have to pass bar of that state. For bar exam qualification, applicants must earn college degree from a law school that is credited ABA which proves the library and faculty meets the standards. Though no nationwide bar exams, 48 states need the 6 hour multistate Bar exam as part of their overall bar exam qualification, (Beatty & Samuelson, 187).
The ministries of justice in many countries supervise the admission and licensing of lawyers. In other jurisdictions, such powers are granted to professional associations that in the US are called mandatory integrated bar associations while in the UK are called Inns of Court, or law societies. The largest professional association of attorneys is called the State Bar of California. The voluntary professional association that is the largest is American Bar Association. The State Bar of California is California's official bar association that was a predecessor of voluntary state bar association called California bar Association. The effort leader for the establishment of an integrated bar happens to be judge Jeremiah who at first proposed this concept at CBA’s Santa Barbara convention that took place in 1917 September in which the CBA was provided with a vital copy of Quebec statute just as a model but it was not taken serious, (Martin et al, 178).
The level of business is expected to grow and as a result the businesses will start using the accounting firms and the paralegals in the performance of some duties that are played by laws. Also the increase in business population will mean more legal transactions, the civil dispute and the criminal cases. In addition the wider legal clinics that are available and affordable will further the increase of legal services use by the individual who are mostly regarded as middle income. There is an increase in the services that needs legal services as for example the increase in healthcare, intellectual properties security litigation among others, (Beatty & Samuelson, 143).
There are many things to be done per day; there are clients to talk with, many paper works among other thousands and thousands of activities to be done under limited time. Apart from these they have to ensure work for billable times, and the fulfillment of legal employer’s expectations. This kind of hard work makes lawyer to work for longer hours leaving very little time for families and relaxation.
In conclusion, the law field is still expanding thought the world. The restrictions which are imposed by many states and professional associations has helped to eliminate quakes from the field and ensure only competent personnel are engaged in law activities. In this field, still gender and minority balance has not yet been achieved due to dominance of male and large firms. Though the field has good enumerations but if not well balanced with social life and relaxation one may never feel satisfied
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