A career in law is not only stimulating for the brain, but financially rewarding too. When you tell people you have a career in law, people are often impressed and will ask many questions (which can sometimes be a little annoying). There are many different careers in law, so you’ll need to decide which one suits you best before training. Depending on which kind of career you want, you may need different qualification requirements, skills, and experience.
Read on for some advice when getting started in this industry:
Understand the Industry You’re Getting Into
You’re getting into an extremely vast industry, with many different things you can choose to do. You need to check out your legal career options and see which role is best suited to you. Getting into this industry, regardless of your role, is a long process so you need to make sure it’s really for you. Look on forums and speak to people in the industry for advice if you aren’t sure.
There are various types of specialization as you begin to plan on a career as a lawyer, which one of these do you associate with most?:
- Criminal law attorneys are also known as prosecutors and defense attorneys.
- Defense attorneys
- Government counsels
- Corporate counsels
- Legal aid lawyers
- Environmental lawyers
- Tax lawyers
- Intellectual property lawyers
- Family lawyers
- Securities lawyers
- Litigation lawyers
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Know What You’ll Be Expected to Do
The legal industry is always looking for skilled professionals to work for them. You’ll be expected to do different things depending on the role you want to work in. You’ll need to research each position, the skills needed, salary, and work environment to be prepared.
Once you have narrowed down on (on a few) law specialization area, it is time to research well on each of these and find out which one would suit your personality, aptitude and liking.
The internet is one of the best retarget to search and know, however best to conduct informational interviews with some lawyers in the field of your choice. You might get the best understanding of the nature of job and expectations from an experienced professional. It is well worth the time to seek some mentors and do a thorough research before joining the law school or courses.
Go to Law School
Once you’ve decided which sector you want to specialise in, you can go to law school and train in that area. You may need to do a law school admissions test, and you’ll be required to do a lot of work while you’re there.
Be aware of the application deadlines for law schools and prepare well in advance on the requirements.
You’ll find some good tips here: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Into-Law-School
Get an Internship
Internships are required on some courses, but in others they can just help to give you a boost. Internships will give you on the job experience and learn what it’s really like in a legal environment. Call up larger companies first to see if they have any available before contacting smaller companies. You have more chance of getting an internship at a larger company.
Internships offer the best experience opportunity to get valuable skills. Be aware that the internships positions fill up fast, you must think and plan ahead.
Develop Your Skills
All the while you’re training you’ll need to work on developing your skills. It’ll take more than just knowing everything about the industry to get your foot in the door. You’ll need to work on your organisational, communication, and people skills along with various others. You may also need to read through things like this consumer law journal. Be confident in your abilities and your skills should develop naturally.
Get as Much Experience and Knowledge as Possible
Try to work in different law environment and set up practice environments to help you. The more experience and knowledge you have, the better chance you have of landing a dream job after training.
A career in law can be a lucrative one, providing you’re good at your job. You will be required to go through a lot of training, but it’ll be worth it once you’re qualified.