Becoming A Lawyer

Loving to argue, speak, and to persuade/convince, I have chosen to research the career of a lawyer. I have always been intrigued by the audacity and wit that lawyers have naturally. I will explain the steps in order to be on the right path in order to become a lawyer.

While attaining a degree in your undergraduate studies, you must select a major that will be of some assistance and relevance to your particular law career. For example, if you want to be a corporate lawyer, you should major in business or if you want to be a judge, you should major in political science. After attaining your degree in your chosen major, you must attend law school.

American Law schools are very expensive, especially if you plan to attend a private law school. That being said, there are excellent law schools in the States (Yale, Harvard, NYU, UT Austin, to name a few), and if you want to practice in the States, this is a good way to go about it. However, the competition to get into the top-rated law schools in the States is ferocious and exceeds by far the competition to get into Canadian law schools. The advice that most people give surrounding applying to US law schools (as there are so many), is to apply to a few "sure-thing" schools, a few schools were you would probably get in, a few where you would probably not get in, and a few "reach" schools, where it seems unlikely that you would be admitted. Keep in mind that even a very high GPA and LSAT score can not guarantee you admission to Harvard, Yale and the other top-rated schools. Because there are so many people in the US, there are more people with excellent grades applying, therefore reducing your chances, too. After finally finalizing your arrangements and getting into your chosen law school, you must attend school. Law schools differ in their various requirements: many schools have required courses in all years, and some schools only have required courses in their first or second years. As well, many schools will require that you take some breadth courses, which are courses that are intended to round out your education. These courses are ones that are outside the canonical law school curriculum. At some point in the course of law school, you will probably have to do a moot, which is like mock court. In the moot, you are given a fact situation and you have to prepare arguments and deliver them before judges (sometimes real judges, sometimes professors and practitioners) as if you were arguing in appellate court.

The workload during the school year can vary: there is always a fair bit of reading, which is best to be done ahead of time. There may be some papers throughout the year, and, of course, exams at the end. It can seem as if everyone is against each other, and you hear stories of people stealing books from the library, although it does happen, it seems as this is more of the exception than the rule. Everyone is in the same boat, and most are willing to help out their peers. The other main problem with law school is, generally, it is graded on a B curve. This means that most people will not get grades as good as they have had for the rest of their lives. This can cause some people to despair, however, it is those who can accept that their grades will fall that are the best off, because then they do not spend sleepless nights worrying about what is likely the inevitable.

The most obvious answer to the question why go to law school is: to become a lawyer. While the majority of law students will go on to practice, there are many different things that one can do with a law degree, and some of them do not involve being a lawyer. Firstly, there are many different types of lawyer, and most people do not know what type of law they will practice until they have had experience in different courses, or even after articling.

Law Streams

Ð'* Corporate/Commercial Law. This is the biggest field of practice. Corporate law involves organizing businesses, mostly contracts, liability, or intellectual property.

Ð'* Tax Law generally involves assisting businesses with their taxes and advising clients and individuals about tax loopholes.

Ð'* Intellectual Property Law is the law of copyrights, trademarks, and patents. It is a budding area of law what with the Internet and with the increased use of computers and computer software.

Ð'* Family Law involves arranging for people day to day family issues, such as adoption, divorce, and wills.

Ð'* Criminal Law comes in two forms, the Crown Attorney side (prosecution) or defense lawyers, who defend people accused of crimes.

Ð'* Constitutional Law today involves mainly questions concerning individual rights violations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but may also involve the division of powers between the federal government and the provincial governments. A constitutional lawyer may also work with the government to ensure that laws that are drafted meet the requirements of the Charter.

Ð'* Civil Litigates deals mostly with claims involving wrongdoing: tort law, and contracts.

Ð'* International Law could mean working with multinational corporations, or working on International issues such as human rights, or with the UN. Many lawyers also become general practitioners, whereby they do a variety of tasks for individual, smaller clients: such as drawing up real estate deals, contracts, as well as family law things.

Ð'* Labor/Employment lawyers can work for the management side or the labor side. Management side labor lawyers will advise their clients (employers) on employment law such as working conditions, wrongful dismissal etc. A labor-side employment/labor lawyer could work with individuals, or unions advising members how to pursue various claims (such as pursuing workers compensation, human rights or labor code violations, or wrongful dismissal suits).

Ð'* Other types of law that one might practice are: Administrative law, municipal law, real estate law, immigration law, environmental law, and entertainment law.

As is demonstrated above, there are many types of law that one can go into. In addition, there are other, nontraditional legal careers for which