Job Profile: Lawyer

The Job

• Lawyers, also called attorneys, act as both advocates and advisors in the legal system. As advocates, they represent a party in a criminal or civil trial by presenting evidence and arguing to support their clients in court. As advisors, lawyers counsel their clients concerning their legal rights and obligations, and suggest particular courses of action in business and personal matters.

• Attorneys research the intent of laws and judicial decisions and apply the law to their clients' circumstances.

• Lawyers may specialize in a number of different areas, including bankruptcy, intellectual property, probate, international or environmental law.

Skills

• Proficiency in writing, speaking with ease and authority, reading, researching, analyzing and logical thinking is a must.

• Perseverance, creativity and reasoning ability are also essential for lawyers, as they must often analyze complex cases and handle new and unique legal problems.

• Familiarity with courtroom rules and strategies.

Education

• A four-year college degree, three years in law school and successful completion of a written bar examination are required.

• After graduation, lawyers need to stay informed about legal and nonlegal developments affecting their practices. Currently, 39 States and jurisdictions mandate Continuing Legal Education (CLE).

Outlook

• If you're interested in pursuing a career as a lawyer, you'll probably encounter stiff competition through 2008. The number of law school graduates is expected to surpass the economy's capacity to absorb them.

• The continuing demand for lawyers will mostly come from population growth and the general level of business activities, as well as an increase in legal actions in healthcare, intellectual property, international law, environmental law and sexual harassment.

• Employment growth will continue to be concentrated in salaried jobs as businesses and all levels of government employ a growing number of staff attorneys and employment in the legal services industry grows in larger law firms.

• The number of self-employed lawyers is expected to increase slowly, because establishing a profitable new practice to compete against larger, established law firms is difficult.

Related Careers

• Legal training is also useful for careers as an arbitrator or mediator, journalist, patent agent, title examiner, legislative assistant, lobbyist, FBI special agent, political office holder and corporate executive.

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Factoids:

• Lawyers held about 681,000 jobs in 1998, about 70 percent in private practice.
• In 1998, the greatest number of lawyers holding positions in government worked at the local level.
• Lawyers often work long hours. About half regularly work 50 hours or more per week.

Source: Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics