Legal jobs
There are various different sectors to choose from when deciding to embark on a career in law. Legal jobs can include solicitor jobs, barrister jobs, legal secretary jobs and lawyer jobs as well as other positions such as paralegal jobs and legal assistant jobs. These posts can be taken up in an array of different practice areas, organisations and specialist fields some of these areas of law include banking law, commercial law, conveyancing law, corporate law, criminal law, employment law, family law, mediation law, probate law and finance law. Legal jobs within a Family Law environment are usually very challenging and can be emotionally tough, therefore job vacancies in the Family Law Sector has seen a boost due to the higher turnover of legal staff and also due to the fact that .... Contd below... contd… about Legal jobs
.... Contd.... higher turnover of legal staff and also due to the fact that the number of divorces are on the increase. Solicitors specialising in Family Law can expect to be dealing with all of the legal issues that face families. These areas of specialism will include divorce, child support, custody, division of assets, adoption and paternity. The skills of a solicitor wishing to seek out a job in this field will need to have good litigation and negotiation skills as well as counselling skills as they will often be dealing with and trying to resolve very emotional and sensitive issues for their clients.
Criminal lawyer jobs are imperative in the chain of events that result in an acquittal or conviction of any criminal who has committed a wrong doing or damaging act against other individuals or against society. The investigation of a crime will result in a sentence in the criminal courts.
Around 80,000 solicitors in the UK choose to work in Private Practice jobs, this usually means that they work for private individual clients and the areas that they would be expected to advise on are very varied. Solicitors in a private practice would typically advise on areas such as buying and selling property, claims of injury compensation, arranging wills and probate, advising on divorce, representing clients at court or employment tribunals.
If a solicitor chose to they could also give corporate law advice to businesses for example on employment law, contracts and company mergers and acquisitions.
If a solicitor worked abroad in an overseas law firm they may find themselves advising clients on foreign, UK and EU law. Other areas of specialism or law sectors would include insurance, registration of patents and copyrights, therefore patents attorneys, shipping, banking, the media and entertainment sectors also have a great need for legal advice whether it be in-house or outsourced.
Of course it isn’t just solicitors who work in all these different areas of the law, there are other jobs that support the solicitor in their role and play a very important part. These legal jobs include executives who are predominantly graduates and non-graduates who want to earn while they learn and perhaps seek their actual solicitor qualification later on in their career. Another legal job but at the other end of the scale may be a Barrister.
Barristers are legal advisors who conduct their work in the courtroom. They are instructed by solicitors and generally do not have any contact with the public but cross examines witnesses and attempt to sway the outcome of a court case.
Another legal job that is becoming more common in the UK but originates from the States are Paralegal jobs. Paralegals are either graduates or non-graduates who ideally have their Common Professional Examination or Graduate Diploma in Law and are employed to assist solicitors in their job.
The position of Paralegal includes duties such as writing contracts, preparing tax returns, researching and drafting documents and attending client meetings but do not offer direct advice to consumers of legal services.
Legal secretaries provide secretarial and clerical support to solicitors, barristers and the law courts. Legal secretaries are very specialist as they have a knowledge of how legal documents must be drafted, they write a lot of the correspondence that must be sent out to clients and they are also involved with preparing wills, divorce petitions and witness statements.