preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 46)

HELPFUL ADVICE Start your legal research now, not later ou are happily reviewing your law school acceptances letters right now — or maybe preparing for the June LSATs. But as you set the gears in motion toward law school, you might have left out a step. BY HILLARY MANTIS, ESQ. Y Do you know what kind of lawyer you want to become? In my family, no one was a lawyer and I had never worked for a law firm. When I graduated from college with a degree in English, law school sounded appealing. But I had little knowledge of what lawyers really did. It was not until I actually started working part-time for a law firm as a law student that I really understood what it was all about. When I meet with pre-law students now, practically everyone mentions entertainment law or international law as their career goal … that’s what you were thinking too, right? But relatively few lawyers are entertainment lawyers or international lawyers, and you may or may not be interested in those fields anyway, once you learn more about them. There are, in fact, about a gazillion different areas in which lawyers practice. many, many lawyers nationwide were solo practitioners (about 48 percent). The percentage of lawyers in very large firms (101 plus) was relatively small (about 14 percent). The percentage of lawyers in government was relatively small as well (about 8 percent). You can do a lot more research on your own before law school. The information is out there. The American Bar Association is a great resource: See the ABA Section on Legal Education (http://www. abanet.org/legaled/statistics/stats.html). How much do lawyers earn? The salaries vary tremendously depending where you work. Starting salaries can range from a low of about $40,000 to a high of $160,000. A great place to research lawyer starting salaries is through the National Association of Law Placement (www.nalp.org), which has lots of great information for would-be lawyers and law students. According to NALP (Jobs & JD’s report, 2006), the overall median salary for the class of 2006 was $62,000. The private practice median was higher-$95,000. In general the larger firms in larger cities tend to have the higher starting salaries. So, what do lawyers do, anyway? Although litigation and corporate law are probably the biggest practice areas, there are many other choices. From real estate to environmental law to criminal law to securities law, there is something for everyone. You will, of course, learn more about different practice areas in law school, but there are great resources to start your research, such as The Official Guide to Legal Specialties, by Lisa Abrams, which outlines the major practice areas. I highly recommend doing an internship while you are in school or working as a paralegal for a while in between college and law school as another way to see what you might like. I find that more and more of the students I know are working for a year or two before law school. The average student age at some law schools can be 25 or higher. Who are the happiest lawyers? Personally, I have found that the happiest lawyers are the ones who were really ready to go to law school, had worked in at least one legal setting prior to law school and had a general idea of what type of lawyer they wanted to become. Some were happiest in small firms, while others thrived in the big corporate firm atmosphere. I have not always found that salaries were indicative of happiness in the legal profession. If you want to know what others think, try looking at America’s Greatest Places to Work with a Law Degree, by Kimm Walton. Start to research the legal profession, and where you might be happiest within it, before you go to law school. Where do most lawyers work? According to the American Bar Association research (The ABA Lawyer Statistical Report, American Bar Foundation), as of 2000, most lawyers worked in private practice (about 74 percent) and 46 preLaw HILLARY MANTIS is a consultant to pre-law students, law students and lawyers. She is the pre-law advisor at Fordham University, the former director of career services at Fordham University School of Law and the author of Alternative Careers for Lawyers and Jobs for Lawyers. She can be reached at altcareer@aol.com. http://www.abanet.org/legaled/statistics/stats.html http://www.abanet.org/legaled/statistics/stats.html http://www.nalp.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008

preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008 Contents From the Editor For the Record Large Gender Gap Remains Among Political Hopefuls Man Charged in LSAT Scam Barry Dean Recognized New Report Examines Legal Ed Drexel Receives Accredidation New Mexico No. 1 for Hispanics A Film Journey in Law A Law Student at Last Debt Salvation Great Law Schools for Minorities Grad Opts Out of Big Firm Job Specialties Helpful Advice

preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.