Thinking of Taking Up a Job in the Corporate Legal Department – What Differences Should You Expect? Not all brilliant law school graduates get to land an attorney position with a big law firm. Some have to look for an appropriate opening in the corporate private sector. There are plenty of jobs to choose from in this sector for lawyers, as it is the second largest employment source for lawyers. However, working as an attorney in the private corporate sector is quite... (706 views)
The Current Market for Corporate Attorneys Evan Anderson is Managing Director of BCG Attorney Search’s San Francisco office and the Director of BCG’s Diversity Recruiting Practice. He assists a variety of candidates in several practice areas on the West coast, but he places particular significance on candidates representing ethnic, gender, and LGBT diversity. (1293 views)
Benefits of Choosing a Legal Career As per a recent analysis, there has been an increase in the number of students who have chosen to pursue a career in law. A career in the legal field is considered to be highly beneficial and is indeed a high yielding profession. However, it takes a lot of hard work and determination to be successful in this challenging field. This promising and exciting field has several... (422 views)
A Legal Career is Still Good for a Bright Future Employment of lawyers is expected to grow 11 percent during the 2006-16 decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. The growth in the population and in the level of business activity is expected to create more legal transactions, civil disputes, and criminal cases. Job growth among lawyers will result from increasing demand for legal services in such areas as... (1302 views)
Attorneys and Their Practice Areas ‘Attorneys’ and ‘Lawyers’ - these two terms are very often used as synonyms and seem interchangeable. Though both these terms are related to law, there is a slight difference between them. A lawyer is a person who is trained in law. He may or may not be practicing law. Any person who has graduated from law school can be called a lawyer. However, his capacity to... (62 views)
"Beyond Practicing Law with a Law Degree: New Career Options for JDs" Most grads fresh out of professional school jump straight into the employment pool and look for jobs that directly relate to their degree. Lawyers are no different. However, with openings at lucrative law firms in short supply, many JD-holders find themselves at loose ends. We asked experienced attorneys and companies that employ attorneys how a law school graduate can... (2100 views)
What is the Future of Law Firm Recruiting? What does the future look like for law firm recruiting? What will the job picture look like for recent law school graduates, experienced attorneys, legal administrators, and support personnel in the coming years? No one knows for sure, but I'll make a few predictions of my own, based on my years of experience in law firm recruiting. (663 views)
Career Transitional Strategies The first step in starting a career transition is to look within yourself. Many people make the mistake of looking only to the job market. They look through the classified ads or call head-hunters. They look for what "they can get." They don't spend any time thinking about what they really want-or how to figure out a way to position themselves so they can get it. (85 views)
Present Status of the Legal Job Market Today's legal job market is far different from that which existed just a few years ago. In the 1980s, high-paying legal jobs were plentiful. Students graduating from a good law school with decent grades usually had several job offers to choose from. Second-year students were also swamped by offers of summer law firm clerkships, often sweetened by outlandish perks and a... (72 views)
2013 LawCrossing Salary Survey of Lawyer Salaries in Best Law Firms A recent LawCrossing Salary Survey of Lawyer Salaries of Best Law Firms survey asked attorneys about their experiences working for 94 different law firms. While the survey asked a variety of questions regarding associate life, vacation time, benefits, and firm demands, one of the more interesting components involved the salary and bonus assessment. What follows is a... (33230 views)
What Kind of Law Will You Practice? Most law students plan to practice a particular type of law after they graduate. Unfortunately, reality soon interferes with dreams. Unlike television shows, where the scriptwriters can program their characters into the most exciting legal situations, the individual attorney often has to take what comes along, and in most cases finds involvement working in areas never... (460 views)
Justice sans Juries When we hear the word "trial," most of us imagine a courtroom with a judge sitting on the bench and twelve jurors sitting in the box deciding who will win the case. (2 views)
Where Do You Want to Practice? When it comes to decide where to start practicing, look for a place where you believe you will enjoy the community surroundings and feel secure living among the people who are already there. This is a must. Over the years, as you progress in your practice, you will become an important member of this group; and if you want to enjoy the life, you will have to fit in and... (49 views)
Opportunities in IT Field No other field offers the range and number of opportunities to be found in information technology. And no area is so change-driven. The pace of technology and the rush of all types of businesses to keep up with it mean that job definitions are being reformulated every day. The key to success in your job search is staying ahead of the curve, knowing how generational changes... (19 views)
Changing the Course of Your Legal Career within the Legal Profession This article is intended to give you some ideas about changing the course of your legal career within the legal profession. You may have qualified as a lawyer, practiced for a while and then decided for a variety of reasons that your chosen career is not as you anticipated or wanted, and you are now considering making some adjustments. If you still want to practice as a... (69 views)
Alternative Careers for Law Graduates This article is aimed at two principal categories of readers. First, those readers who wish to study law but have no intention of becoming professionally qualified and practicing as a solicitor or at the Bar, and secondly, those readers who started their legal education with every intention of practicing law but who, for one reason or another now finds that that particular... (1369 views)
The Importance of Common Law American law has its roots in the law of England, and our legal system is known as Anglo-American law. When the colonists arrived here they came as English citizens entitled to all the rights of Englishmen. Thus, they brought with them the legal structure of that country: Its unwritten constitution, including the protections of the Magna Carta; the recognition of all... (5343 views)
Legal Profession Future in Today’s World One prediction that can safely be made is that the pattern of rapid - and sometimes painful - change which the legal profession has experienced in recent years will continue for the foreseeable future. Professor Richard Susskind, author of The Future Of Law, has argued that 'the legal marketplace will change beyond recognition as we progress into the information society. (105 views)
Dissatisfaction Levels for Women in Law Alternatives to careers in law become sought after options for women lawyers. One may become a career counselor, one may become a vice-president in a bank; one may take an entry-level career in advertising; another may go back to school for a masters in teaching and later become a high-school English teacher; one may become a writer. Now, at the age that we would rightly... (23 views)
Alternative Legal Career Transitional Strategies Self-assessment exercises can help you determine your strengths and interests, and can actually be a lot of fun and not very time consuming. For lawyers, it's especially helpful to let the creative juices flow, as you have probably been working so hard lately that you haven't had much time to reflect. (16 views)
Charting the Financial Needs of Those in a Law Job For most attorneys considering leaving the profession, the burning question is this: How much will you earn in a career outside of law? According to a recent Labor Department study of 65,000 households reported in The New York Times, lawyers are the highest paid workers in America today With the exception of top corporate executives, lawyers are paid, on average, more than... (23 views)
Are You Planning to Leave Your Legal Career? According to a recent poll, 70 percent of lawyers surveyed said they would start a new career if they could. Another Johns Hopkins University study found that lawyers had a greater rate of depression than workers in any of the 104 other occupations studied. (70 views)
Researching A New Career: What's More Out There for Those with a Law Degree? The first and most common question would-be career changers ask is, "What other job can I get with a law degree?" Although there are some common career paths, unfortunately, there is no list of other careers for which lawyers may get hired. There are, however, almost limitless resources for you to research other fields. Lawyers have been able to move into nearly every... (63 views)
Pro Bono and Part-Time Work for Those with a Degree in Law Pro bono (volunteer legal) work offers you a chance to explore a new area without making any drastic decisions. For example, if you feel that moving into a different practice area could make you happier, pro bono work is a good way to try it out before committing. Also, it is an opportunity to get experience in another field and thus more ammunition for your resume. (421 views)
Alternative Careers with a Joint Degree in Law You have carefully decided law school is for you. You still wonder, however, what else you might do with your legal degree besides practice law. Stories about lawyers turned medical doctors, play-wrights, or ice cream entrepreneurs abound, but these isolated anecdotes are not typical examples of the vast majority of lawyers who move out of the established bounds of... (13 views)
Law-Related Career Alternatives Many lawyers not only continue to practice law throughout their careers, but also report significant satisfaction with their chosen line of work and its various economic as well as psychological payoffs. What then separates those who like the traditional practice of law from those who leave it? The answers are as varied as the individuals who make the decisions, but in... (67 views)
Non-Legal Career Alternatives for Law Graduates Non-legal alternatives available to law graduates differ from law-related alternatives in several important ways. A law background-both educational and experiential-may or may not help, depending on the discipline. Because of this, you may encounter more difficulty in identifying and then finding a job. You will probably experience similar difficulty in marketing yourself... (164 views)
Pro Bono Work in Law Lots of people go to law school because they want to do good, help others, and perhaps change society for the better. Yet once they're in law school, most law students think of graduating, passing the bar exam, and getting a job. (569 views)
Minorities in the Profession of Law In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an apprenticeship was the primary vehicle to become a lawyer. Blacks desiring to become lawyers, however, faced a difficult challenge because most white lawyers would not sponsor blacks in an apprenticeship program. Macon B. Allen was able to find a sponsor, however, and in July of 1844, he became the first black lawyer in the... (42 views)