Law firm work can be difficult. Lawyers spend their days conducting legal research, drafting legal documents and meeting clients.
Find information about lawyers, their career paths and employment outlook using different resources – for instance the Occupational Outlook Handbook occupation profiles provide helpful details. Furthermore, gain knowledge about other careers within legal services industry.
In-House Counsel
In-house counsel positions are an attractive alternative for lawyers looking for ways to break out of the law firm grind, as they provide many advantages that cannot be found at law firms.
Increased business involvement – In-house attorneys must understand and participate in the business practices of their company in order to advise clients on legal matters, which requires investing time learning the ins and outs of an enterprise, something which may prove invaluable in terms of career advancement.
Small Working Environment – Corporate law departments tend to be smaller than BigLaw firms, making it harder for candidates to land an associate or senior attorney position. Furthermore, often successful in-house counsel hires are obtained through connections made within an organization; so networking plays an integral role.
Government Attorney
Government attorneys perform essential public service work that gives them a sense of purpose and camaraderie not found elsewhere. Many new lawyers begin their legal careers as associates for federal government departments before transitioning into private firm practice.
Local government attorney jobs can be more challenging to come by than private practice jobs and often require extensive job searching efforts, but those who do find one tend to enjoy secure working hours and good benefits – perhaps even being freed of pressure to generate 80 billable hours annually!
Government attorneys’ salaries are determined by an agency’s general service (GS) pay scale; new lawyers typically start out at GS-11. Their pay is then supplemented by locality pay factors based on where they work to offset high cost-of-living areas. Many government agencies also provide fellowships and honors programs designed to provide career advancement opportunities that can lead to permanent positions.
Private Firm Attorney
Work at a law firm can be an ideal opportunity for young lawyers, providing them with exposure to multiple areas of law as they receive mentoring from senior partners and receiving compensation and benefits in return. Private firms also typically provide more compensation and benefits. At times though, working in law firms may become tiring; whether it’s the long workweeks or bills due every five minutes that lead to burnout; at some point many attorneys search for other opportunities.
Solo practice offers another path for attorneys looking for something different than in-house counsel environments, with lawyers performing research, drafting briefs and contracts for several clients on an hourly or contractual basis. While in house lawyers are supported by paralegals and assistants; solo practitioners must find ways to perform their duties without these resources; marketing themselves can be tricky with competing ads on job boards or legal recruiter publications presenting similar challenges.
Public Defender
Public defenders are salaried government attorneys who represent those unable to afford private representation. Working closely with full-time state prosecutors, public defenders often receive a large volume and complexity cases from state authorities. Some courts even have programs that hire private lawyers on an interim or contract basis when caseload exceeds capacity in public defender offices.
Civil rights cases they specialize in range from discrimination based on race or ethnicity to gender issues or disability (physical or mental). They also handle child abuse or neglect cases as well as domestic violence incidents as well as quasi-criminal proceedings like civil commitment orders against suspected sexual predators.
Many people vilify public defenders as being inferior to private attorneys. This stereotype often arises due to budget limitations or judges seeing the same attorney multiple times before them; in reality they often have years of courtroom experience and know all their judges well.