Legal Profession

Types of Law
The Job Market For Lawyers

Your decision to go to law school can not be well informed without considering the differences between commonly held myths and the realty of legal practice. For example most people believe:

1) Lawyers make a lot of money.
2) Lawyers can always find work or open their own law firm.
3) Law is intellectually stimulating.
4) Law opens doors to careers in government, business, higher education, communications, and numerous other fields in addition to legal careers.
5) Law offers an opportunity to effect social change, set legal precedent and defend human rights, attract many who are dedicated to make a positive impact on the lives of people they serve.

Inreality law:

1) Requires many hours of tedious, painstaking research and repetitive administrative tasks.
2) Social change most likely occurs through politics or the lower courts and require much time, patience, and persistence.
3) With over 800,00 lawyers, the market for new lawyers is highly competitive especially in the Washington/Baltimore corridor.
4) The national Association for Law Placement published the following statistics for the 39,199 members of the class of 1995.
5) The average starting salary was $45,590; the median salary was $40,000.
6) Nearly half of all salaries were in the $25,001-$40,000 range.
7) Eleven per cent of the class of 1995 received, salaries of more than $70,000.
8) Approximately 56% of the class chose private practice in law firms.
9) Over 26% took positions in public service, including judicial clerkships, government agencies, and public interest organizations.
10) About 13% entered business and industry.
11) Nine percent of the class of 1995 choose non-legal jobs.

You must take the above statistics seriously because they apply to you as well as the faceless masses. If you are still convinced that law is the career for you then "play on Mcduff" but with caution.

If after careful consideration of the realities of a law career you are committed to the prospect of a career that will require you to think logically, critically, and creatively; to address some of the major social issues that confront our times; and to play a part in shaping legal institutions and codes that influence the future, then becoming a lawyer may very well prove to be a rewarding and fulfilling career choice for you.

Source: National Association for Law Placement's Class of 1995 Employment Report and Salary Survey

BACK to top

TYPES OF LAW

About 72.9 percent of American lawyers are in private practice, most in small, one-person offices and some in large firms. Roughly 8.2 percent of the profession works for government agencies, 9.5 percent works for private industries and associations as salaried lawyers or as managers, 1.1 percent works for legal aid or as public defenders, and one percent is in legal education. (About 4.6 percent are retired or inactive.) Many lawyers develop expertise in a particular field of law. Large law firms that provide a full range of legal services tend to employ more specialists. The sole practitioner, who must handle a variety of problems alone, may have greater opportunity to work in several areas. Of course, there are lawyers in large firms who maintain general practices, and lawyers in one-person offices who concentrate on a particular legal issue. Both specialized and general practice can be rewarding. One offers the satisfaction of mastering a particular legal discipline, and the other the challenge of exploring new fields. Following are brief descriptions of selected areas of specialization, though there are many areas of the law that can rightly fall into more than one category:

Corporate and Securities Law

The corporate lawyer helps clients conduct their business affairs in a manner that is efficient and consistent with the law. The responsibilities of a corporate lawyer can range from preparing the initial articles of incorporation and bylaws for a new enterprise to handling a corporate reorganization under the provisions of federal bankruptcy law. Examples of other areas of corporate law practice include (but are not limited to) contract, intellectual property. Legislative compliance, and liability matters. Securities law is an extremely complex area that almost always requires the services of a specialist. In the past, lawyers who acquired this specialty were involved with the formation, organization, and financing of corporations through securities such as stock. However, in recent years, such lawyers also have become involved in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate takeovers.

Criminal Law

Criminal defense lawyers represent clients accused of crimes. Their public counterparts are the prosecutors and district attorneys who represent the interests of the state in the prosecution of those accused of crimes. Both types of criminal lawyers deal with fundamental issues of the law and personal liberty. They defend many of the basic rights considered crucial to the preservation of a free and just society

Environmental Law

Environmental law was born out of widespread public and professional concern about the fate of our natural resources. Lawyers in this field may tackle legal and regulatory issues relating to air and water quality, hazardous waste practice, natural gas transportation, oil and gas exploration and development, electric power licensing, water rights, toxic torts, public land use, marine resources, and energy trade regulation. They may work directly for governmental agencies that address environmental problems or represent corporations, public interest groups, and other entities concerned about protecting the environment.

Family Law

Family, or domestic relations, law is concerned with relationships between individuals in the context of the family. Many lawyers who practice this kind of law are members of small law firms or are sole practitioners. They specialize in solving problems that arise among family members and in creating or dissolving personal relationships through such means as adoption or divorce.

Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property law is concerned with the protection of inventors' rights in their discoveries, authors' rights in their creations, and businesses' rights in their identifying marks. Often, an intellectual property lawyer will specialize in a particular area of the law. For example, for those attorneys with a technical background, patent law is a way to combine one's scientific and legal background into one practice. A copyright attorney counsels authors, composers, and artists on the scope of their rights in their creations, and even personal identities, negotiates contracts, and litigates to enforce these rights. In recent years, copyright law has also focused on technological advances, particularly developments in electronic publishing. Additionally in today's global economy intellectual property issues are at the forefront of international trade negotiations.

 International Law

International law has grown significantly as a field of practice, reflecting the increasing interdependence of nations and economies- Public international law provides a limited range of job opportunities, particularly with national governments or international institutions or with public interest bodies. Immigration and refugee law also assumes increasing importance as more people move more frequently across national boundaries for business, tourism, or permanent resettlement. Private international law may offer more extensive employment opportunities, either through law firms or for corporations, banks, or telecommunications firms. Fluency in another language or familiarity with another culture can be a decided advantage for law school graduates who seek to practice in the international arena.

Tax Law

In the past 50 years, the importance and complexity of federal, state, and local taxes have necessitated a specialty in this field of law. It is one area of the law where change is constant. The federal Internal Revenue Code and its associated regulations are now several thousand pages in length. New statutes, court decisions, and administrative rulings are issued frequently and the tax lawyer must be alert to these changes. Economic planning usually includes attention to taxes, and the tax lawyer often assists clients in understanding and minimizing their tax liabilities.

BACK to top

THE JOB MARKET FOR LAWYERS

1) After a six year slide, the percentage of graduating students who found full-time jobs as lawyers inched up last year, according to a survey by the National Association for Law Placement.
2) Approximately 70.7 percent of students in the Class of 1995 found full-time jobs as lawyers within six months of graduation, the study found. The number had dropped from a record high of 84.5 percent in 1988 to 69.9 percent in 1994.
3) The proportion of graduates employed - whether full- or part- time, as lawyers or not - also climbed, to 86.7 percent nationally. It was the second consecutive increase, after a drop from the record 92.2 percent in 1987 to 83.4 percent in 1993.
4) Nationally, the survey found median salaries for graduates with full-time jobs was $40,000, tying a record set by the classes of 1990 and 1991 and up from $37,000 in 1994.
5) Jobs in business are increasingly popular, the survey found. About 13.4% of the Class of 1995 took jobs with companies - the highest number since NALP began conducting the survey 22 years ago, and more than double the number in 1989. About 60 percent of graduates in business were not functioning as lawyers.
6) Taking part-time jobs as lawyers has also been on the rise. In 1988, just 2 percent of graduates took part-time positions, but the number has increased every year since, to 5.4 percent in 1995.

Source: Adams, Edward A. 1996. "Job Prospects Up a Bit for Law Graduates." New York Law Journal, July 8.

BACK to top

BACK TO PRELAW MAIN PAGE