Your First Law Job Does Not Necessarily Mean Your Last One Most people change careers at least three times during their lives. Within each career, most people change jobs several times as well. Economic conditions are constantly changing. Technologies and the demands of the workplace are constantly evolving. Adaptability is the key to survival in the midst of constant change. Keep that perspective in mind as you decide what kind... (14 views)
Researching Law Offices on the World Wide Web The Internet provides easy, cost-free access to many helpful resources. Be warned, however, that the Internet is perhaps the least reliable of all media. Many Web sites contain out-of-date information. Some are "under construction" and therefore incomplete. Nevertheless, Web sites often provide helpful leads that shorten your research significantly. Here are several... (7 views)
Overcome Your Legal Mindset: There’s Life Beyond The Law Firm Can I do anything else except practice law? This is an often asked question. The simple answer is, yes you can, but first you must overcome the legal mindset. Many people develop this frame of mind in law school. Some develop it even before they get there. It is how they deal with the stresses of law school. In their quest to overcome the tribulations of law school,... (514 views)
What To Do When You Are Disenchanted With Being A Lawyer? There are over three-quarters of a million lawyers, give or take, in this country. More are on the way. The law school mills continue running at full capacity. They produce graduates in numbers incomprehensible a generation ago. Practicing law affects differently those who do it. Many love it and that is great. Everyone should be able to work at what they truly love to do. (1041 views)
Know Whether You Really Want To Switch: After All You Always Wanted To Be A Lawyer While intensely concentrating on getting through the law program, many law students effectively put blinders on themselves. They focus day-to-day, rather than on the future. This myopic, near-trance is what most call the legal mindset. Since they have joined law school of their own choice, knowing full well its notoriety for being tough, unforgiving and demanding, one can... (38 views)
Selling Yourself At A Non-Legal Jobs – Do’s And Don’ts Once you have taken the decision, and obviously it is the right one, that you are not going to stay routed in the erroneous belief that law school students must end up as lawyers, convince yourself that you are better equipped than most others for non-legal jobs. (126 views)
How To Make Transition From Legal Jobs To Business Jobs Seamless And Stress-free? There is a dissimilarity between changing a job and making a career transition. A job change means just changing your job, but doing the same thing, albeit at a different location and amongst different people. However, when you leave a job for another that involves doing something totally unlike what you were doing earlier; you are making a career transition. Job changes... (347 views)
What Type of New Non-Legal Career Environment Will Make You Happy? Shifting to a new career environment calls for a lot of courage conviction. Stepping out into hitherto unchartered terrain is not for the faint of heart and many would call it foolhardy. But now that you have taken the decision, ask yourself these questions to understand what your interests are and what sort of new career environment will make you happy. (15 views)
Your Introductory Letter Should Elucidate Why You Want To Switch To Non–Legal Jobs: Here’s How? Whilst resume are important, most interviewers consider the introductory letters more important. It doesn't take long and the letter tells you more about the person than the resume. Letters are personal. Resumes are cookbooks. The cover letter tells how badly the applicant wants the job by how much effort they put into the letter. If they work hard to get the job, they... (55 views)
Tailoring Your Resume To Push Yourself Strongly For Non-Legal Jobs The vast majority of resumes look the same. Why? They look the same because the vast majority of job seekers do not put enough of their own thought or effort into writing them. They use a form resume out of a book as a template. Then, all that is left to do is slap together one page of seemingly unrelated data that ends up reading like an obituary notice, make a lot of... (312 views)
The Non-Legal Business World Is Unchartered: Develop Contacts To Network The Maze You are sending out introduction letters with accompanying resumes. However, you are unsure whether you have covered all the opportunities. Maybe you did not notice an emerging company. Maybe another division within the target leading edge company needs someone. Do you wait to read about it in the next industry publication? There is a better way to find out what might be... (5 views)
Law Firms with Different Entry Policies & Your Reaction Two different career situations present themselves if you find two law firms with very generous admission policies, one of which compensates its partners on the basis of subjective performance evaluations and the other on the basis of seniority. In some respects the question can be simplified to "What does it mean to be a partner?"Is partnership designed to attract and... (57 views)
Looking For a Legal Career in All Different Places This article is intended to help you find happiness in a legal career. But simply figuring out what type of law you want to practice and how to do well in law school will not guarantee you happiness as a lawyer. Finding the right work environment-an organization with the right structure, size, and personality - may be much more important. Will you have a supportive boss or... (23 views)
Popular Legal Myths Santa Claus delivers presents to good children every year on Christmas Eve. Smoking is sexy. We can reduce the federal budget deficit, increase military spending, and lower taxes. (334 views)
Observations About The Litigation Process Litigation includes every practice area, and specialty practice areas, such as Bankruptcy, Real Estate and numerous other categories, share some common elements. That is why many of the observations made about the litigation paralegal can and do apply to all paralegals. The issue of time is ubiquitous in the law. A paralegal who neglects issues of time in any practice area... (69 views)
Career in the Law Consider an unusual career in law. Television networks enhance a glamorous stereotype of the legal profession in such programs as Law and Order, Family Law, and The Practice. However, television networks-and movie production companies as well - take this perception to extremes in such sitcoms as Ally McBeal and Ed, and such movies as The Firm. These same productions stress... (4 views)
Alternatives Available In Legal Profession Given the dissatisfaction rampant in the legal profession and the problems inherent in creating a part-time schedule, many lawyers now face tremendously difficult decisions: (212 views)
Transferable Lawyering Skills This article is a form of exercise that focuses on two kinds of skills: transferable and legal skills. It will provide you with a sense of the degree to which you feel competent in your skills and the degree to which you enjoy utilizing various skills. (2130 views)
How Administrative Agencies Function In Sync with the Legal System Most federal and state administrative agencies have regional field offices that provide information to the public, receive complaints, conduct investigations, and carry out other functions assigned them. The regional offices of the Food and Drug Administration, for example, have investigation units, which conduct inspections of manufacturing and processing plants; research... (56 views)
Administrative Agency Activities and the Legal System The rise of administrative bodies probably has been the most significant legal trend of the last century and perhaps more values today are affected by their decisions than by those of all the courts. . . . They also have begun to have important consequences on personal rights. . . . They have become a veritable fourth branch of the Government, which has deranged our... (166 views)
The Dynamics of Starting Law Practice It is difficult to start law practice, but there has never been a really good time, and there never will be. It is hard to get started. A number of books have been written which claim that it's easy to start a practice. Read them with a large measure of skepticism. (21 views)
Lawyers Work not Just for Pay Lawyers work for many and complex reasons. Pay (whether as a salary or as a share of profits) is an important factor but not the only consideration. The relative importance of compensation and other factors in job contentment vary with the individual and his circumstance. (69 views)
Law Firms & Changing Structural Needs The needs of a law firm for structure and organization change at various periods of its existence and depend upon its size, clients, location, and the interpersonal relationship of the "movers and shakers" of the firm. (15 views)
Insurance Defense Firms & Fees Insurance defense firms represent a group of attorneys who are closely controlled by their clients. A survey was made of claims officers of major U.S. casualty insurance companies. It indicated that the amount of fees charged was an important factor in the selection of outside counsel, but that records on past cases and timeliness of responses to inquiries were more... (837 views)
Private Law Firms – An Overview The phrase "private practice" is generally understood to apply to those lawyers who undertake legal representation for a variety of clients. Clients may have a continuing relationship with the law office, or they may call on a private practice firm but once with reference to a particular matter. This discussion applies primarily to the true private practice law offices... (1193 views)
Legal Subspecialties in Family Law Because family law encompasses such a wide range of substantive law topics, many practitioners and academics have been able to carve out special niches for themselves within this field. In this article, seven lawyers who have chosen various subspecialties talk about their work. (523 views)
Is Being a Family Lawyer the Right Choice for You? Are you right in choosing family law as a career for yourself? The answer depends on many things: your legal and "people" skills, your personality, and your personal and professional goals. (8375 views)
Trends and Changes Observed in a Legal Career It might be argued that the field of family law has undergone more dramatic changes in the past thirty years than any other area of law. "This field, because it is dependent on people, is constantly dynamic and changes daily," says Carol Rogers Milliard, a practitioner in Rocky River, OH. (18 views)
Characteristics of a Legal Career The typical family lawyer practices as a solo or in a firm of three or fewer attorneys. There are "boutique" firms in metropolitan areas or Sun Belt cities which specialize in divorce and attract wealthy or famous clients, but most family lawyers practice in a suburban or small town firm. (49 views)
Advantages and Disadvantages of Family Law Over the last thirty years, the field of family law has experienced a tremendous expansion of substantive law topics. While in the past being a family lawyer may have meant primarily handling divorce and custody cases, today's family law practitioner may choose from a wide variety of subspecialties, including adoption, genetics and reproduction, children's rights, elder... (18836 views)