Experiencing Legal Profession before Taking It Up

There are many ways you can become introduced to the rigors of the legal profession without necessarily making a career commitment. The best way to develop your own expectations is to take the advice in this article and temper it with actual experience, if you do not already have any. You can develop your own realistic expectations by gaining experience in the law or entering the legal profession through extracurricular activities, courses, internships, temporary work, volunteer activities, and prior employment.

Curriculum Courses


If you are interested in preparing for a legal professional career, you can develop the skills and qualifications early on in order to be a success. If you are already a high school graduate and investigating alternative careers, additional or former education in legal fields is a real plus. Knowing a little bit about everything will be helpful in your career in law, and an education cannot be overlooked.

Aspiring legal professionals should take any vocational or high school courses offered in the field of law. This will show potential employers an early interest to work in a career in law. Specialization or additional courses in the academic fields of English, literature, journalism, foreign languages, and even persuasion in some schools, will help you as an aspiring legal professional to obtain a solid foundation of skills. If you speak a foreign language you may have an advantage over other job applicants at firms or organizations that have a multilingual client base. Further, computer skills courses such as keyboard-ing, typing. Word, and WordPerfect, along with spreadsheet software such as Lotus and Excel will often help you get your foot in the door at a new firm or organization.

Debate Classes

By learning litigation tactics in debate class, you will be able to anticipate the needs of attorneys and learn how to research an issue and argue it. Debate principles and procedures apply to oral advocacy, research investigation, and writing briefs. For example, useful debate talents include analyzing evidence; impacting arguments by stating why, how or when; defining words; expressing values only if relevant to claim evaluation; focusing on resolution, instead of generic ideas; formulating, comparing, and rebutting arguments; and the obligation to clash with another's views. Debaters learn basic principles inherent in litigation, including discouraged legal tactics that encompass intimidation; incivility; making politically incorrect arguments; saying your opponent agreed to, dropped, or conceded something he or she did not; making new arguments or improperly extending them in rebuttals; and making arguments you said you would not. Debaters manage legal-like stress and anxiety that attorneys and other legal professionals face. This experience can increase your job performance as a legal professional in a support role to an attorney, and mentally prepare you for the rigors of a legal profession.

Public Speaking and Drama Classes

Meeting with attorneys, judges, and other law professionals may be intimidating; public speaking and drama can help you learn proper presentation and decorum, even if you are terrified. You should learn to hide your emotion and present a professional demeanor at all times, even if this means an Emmy nomination for your performance. In public speaking class, you will learn how to formulate logical and coherent presentations. In drama class, you will learn how to appeal to audiences, using proper inflection and demeanor.

Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular activities can teach legal strategy, negotiation, public speaking, and persuasion, along with political processes. Student government orients people to the legislative branch. The more power vested in a student government association, the more the participants will learn. Some members of student government associations learn how to draft resolutions and bills. Members, who do so, learn basic principles of drafting pleadings and interpreting laws. In student government, members negotiate and develop supporting factions in the student's interest, in much the same way that legal professionals serve and protect the interests of their clients. Legal analysis can sometimes rest on legislative intent, so, knowing how this process works can help legal professionals conduct better research and present legislative intent behind statutes.

Internships

Internships are opportunities to work for a firm or organization in order to acquire experience. Many interns receive little or no pay, but they may receive educational credit from their schools, if allowed. If you have no experience or qualifications and cannot find employment, you could offer to intern for a firm or organization in order to acquire the experience you need and assess the merits of a related career. If you are acquiring an education at a university, high school, or vocational school, you should contact your school to learn whether it offers credits for internships in lieu of other educational requirements.

Legislative internships provide students with an understanding of political and legislative processes. Every internship offers different responsibilities and opportunities for growth and training. Legislative interns may learn about legal, market, and constituency research and how to use the results of such research. They witness firsthand a legislator’s personal and professional concerns and how the legislative process operates. Washington, D.C. is the ideal location for a legislative internship. Alternatively, a state internship would expose legal professionals to local politics and provide them with valuable community contacts. An experience as an intern will provide you with invaluable exposure to politics and the law. A legislative internship is directly relevant to a career as a political consultant. Other internships may be available in marketing or management. Most commonly, internships are readily available for legal assistants, aspiring political consultants, and legal marketing professionals.

Temporary Work

If you are not sure if you want a career in law, and you need a paycheck, you should explore temporary legal staffing. According to Ameii L. Walker, a long-term temporary employee, "The temporary employment industry is the largest single employer of people in the work force." She likes being a temporary employee for the following reasons.
 

• She can choose which assignments to accept. Her temporary agency takes care of her when the assignment is not what she expected.
• She can work short-term or long-term assignments and choose to work close to home.
• She is not tied down to one desk, but if she likes the company and they want to hire her, she can accept full-time employment.

Walker says that a lack of benefits and leaving new friends are the biggest pitfalls of temporary work. Her recommendation is that temporary employees take advantage of any and all training classes offered.

Volunteer Activities

Every state has its own agencies and organizations that need volunteers in the legal community. States generally have programs that accept volunteers to help with domestic violence intervention programs and services, witness protection, district attorney office functions, public defender office functions, indigent defense organizations, mediation, politics and campaigning, legislative assistance, and even tribal courts. More can be learned about national volunteer opportunities that may relate to a legal career at the following web sites.

As a volunteer, you should act with the same level of professionalism and reliability you would as if receiving a salary. This will motivate others to train you and help you learn what you need to know from the experience. The volunteer organizations should expect this of you and treat you accordingly.