Owing to the world of cinema, lawyers have formed a very clichéd image of themselves in the world. It seems like every lawyer in the world is supposed to run to the court each day and run errands in the court. The fact is that a lawyer’s job is far more elaborate and diverse as is often portrayed on the larger screen. This article is dedicated to clarifying this misconception about what do lawyers do. Read on to know more about their work.
Each lawyer has his field of expertise. The lawyer may be an expert in one of these many fields- appellate law (filing cases against the jurisdiction of lower courts), trial law (including both civil and criminal), bankruptcy laws, tax law, environmental law, corporate laws, education law, extradition or international laws etc. A lawyer whose expertise is in his field will represent a client best. Every lawyer works under a different legal setting. A lawyer may work as a part of a firm or may even represent himself as an individual private practitioner. Here are some of the different legal settings under which a lawyer might decide to work:
1. What most lawyers try and do is get into private practice. This is the easiest way of starting up in the law field. Some of the lawyers also join firms as associates. Earlier, the primary aim of such lawyers was to build their position from being associates to partners. However, now a day, most lawyers start working as a law associate just to gain some experience.
2. Some lawyers also work as “in-house” lawyers. An “in-house” setting is one when a number of lawyers are appointed by a single large firm or corporate house. The fact is that these firms operate over large margins and business and thus, they have numerous different legal fields to be maintained and operated. It is for balancing the various aspects of legal work that these firms hire a large number of in-house lawyers.
3. Some lawyers also choose to work under the or for the government. These lawyers are known as public prosecutors and public defenders. Most government lawyers work at local level. However, many lawyers are also appointed by state and central ministries.
4. There are many lawyers who work for the people. Their job is to get justice to people to whom it has been denied. They also use their profession to do social service.
5. Lastly, as a qualified lawyer, your only option is not just practicing law. The fact is that you can also work as an academician and teach law. I know many who have chosen teaching as their profession and are quite content with their choice.
I hope I have provided a good answer to the question “what do lawyers do” and has been in some or the other way been successful in clearing the various myths that exist owing to the misleading portrayal of lawyers in the world of cinema.
