Career Opportunities in Legal Field for Law Students

“A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a brief.“~ Franz Kafka, a Jewish author

Lawyers and judges might be at the top of the brass but there are many core and non-core legal career options that are fulfilling, challenging, and quite rewarding. Mediators, paralegals, law consultants, and secretaries are some of the people who deal with lawsuits all the time.

Here are some of the reasons why we think law students are moving towards a bright career:

A Range of Legal Career Options to Choose From

Unlike what people seem to think, law studies open up several career paths for students. They can broadly be classified as:

Core Careers in Law

• Lawyers are also known as attorneys, advocates, counsellors, solicitors or barristers. A lawyer is the one who represents his client and works to protect his interest – through negotiation or litigation.
• Legal Assistants are also referred to as legal secretaries or paralegals. A legal secretary is an administrative assistant to a lawyer. Besides standard secretarial duties such as drafting correspondence and maintaining files, they are also responsible for notifying clients about the upcoming court dates. Paralegals bear more responsibility than legal secretaries and serve as the right-hand men of the attorneys. They may draft pleadings, do legal research, assist clients, and may even appear in court to represent the attorney at times.

Inside-the-Courtroom or Inside-the-Courthouse Jobs

• From entry-level to chief clerical positions, Court Clerks or Prothonotaries sit outside the courtrooms to keep track of the reams of paperwork involved in litigations.
• Court Interpreters help the non-English speaking litigants to put forward their statements in court.
• Courtroom Deputies are law enforcement personnel who maintain order and court. They can often be seen accompanying criminal defendants.
• Judges are public sector employees. They may be appointed or elected to interpret the law and oversee trials. A judge is right at the top of the legal hierarchy. At some places, ‘Magistrates’ are also appointed as lower judicial officers to handle minor cases and disputes.
• Law Clerks are the right-hand people of the judges. Law school graduates, new to law careers, often apply for these jobs. They do research, draft condensed reports, and manage the files for the judges.
• Mediators, Arbitrators, or Conciliators try alternative ways to resolve a dispute before a civil lawsuit is filed. They aim to help both the parties reach a compromise or settlement.

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Besides these, there are many other legal career opportunities one can choose from. Administrative and support careers (such as recruiters and administrators), IT and tech careers (such as e-discovery professionals who dig out information and its exchange done online, data entry people, and litigation support professionals), court reporting jobs, and legal consultancy jobs (which include jobs like forensic scientists, computer forensics professionals, accidental re-constructionists, and legal videographers).
Many law graduates choose to pursue education careers. They may work as deans, professors, or career counsellors for law schools or provide academic support services to students. Many of them are providing law assignment help online to law students worldwide.

Salary and Career Prospects

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics survey suggests that the job prospect for lawyers is expected to grow at the rate of about 8% from 2016 to 2026. The jobs for mediators and arbitrators have been projected to grow at a rate of 10% – faster than the average of for all occupations. The fastest-growing legal job is of paralegals and legal assistants, especially for those who have formal training in the field and strong computer and database management skills.

Court reporters with specialised training, such as helping deaf people or mastering techniques like real-time captioning and communication access real-time translation (CART) may find the best jobs in the field.
In Australia, an attorney or lawyer earns about AU$69,000 per Annum. The pay rises steadily as the legal professionals gain experience over the years.

Intellectually Challenging

Many law students seek assignment help in Sydney from law experts because legal systems are quite complex and challenging. You need to know how to research complicated legal issues, go through the massive body of case studies related to them, analyse the case and statutory laws associated with it, and have impeccable oral and written communication skills. These are the skills that they will need life-long in legal careers.

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The legal professions compel you to evolve and continually throw new challenges to you. You must be willing to assume new responsibilities, be a problem-solver, and always be updated about the ever-evolving legal landscape. Overall, legal careers can be fulfilling and rewarding at the same time.