I just wanna get a general sense of what a typical daily workday is like for a lawyer who doesn’t work at court but rather in the office setting most of the time.
What are the typical job duties like for real estate, patent, immigration, family, corporate lawyer? How much travel, phone calls, and reviewing documents is involved in work? How many hrs do lawyers typically work?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
HTTP___WWW_ADVERNATION_COM said:
Oct 06, 09 at 5:50 amcheck my daily blog at the source, i am a female lawyer
Sanaz_Ban_ said:
Oct 06, 09 at 7:27 amI have an aunt thats an Immigration lawyer .. most of the times shes at her work place and not in court.
She gets up early and stays late.
She sits at her desk and there are people that come on a daily basis because theyre petitioning for their relatives to be here in America so they come in to ask questions about papers and make notaries and copy’s and transfer money to peoples accounts in the same place.
She also carries around this beeper thats from her company ( she works with a bunch of other lawyers ) and she gets paged and called so she would report back to the place ( the meeting area ) when there is something to discuss. She gets a whole hell of a bunch of phone calls from regular people asking her questions. She doesnt travel much. A regular day for her is at the office doing this and reviewing peoples documents. I never asked her how much she gets but when we hired a lawyer to speak for my cousin who got arrested .. he took 550 dollars for speaking for 5 minutes. Thats like 110 a minute. LOL. Depends on how good you are and what level.
mailaccount63 said:
Oct 06, 09 at 10:14 amBe aware of what you are proposing on getting yourself into. Please do more research first. Reminder: We are in a World-wide Recession. Consider career paths that have available JOBS.<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Warning> Jobs in the field of Law are drying up fast!! This is just not a good field to invest time and/or money into. This is a SHRINKING, crumbling, and dying vocational field. Many reasons. We now have computers. So, many people today (mistakenly) think they can do their own legal work, thanks to the Internet. Also, there are a lot of companies out there making very efficient legal software for the field of Law. Today’s graduating lawyers tend to be very computer savvy, so they just do the work themselves to save themselves the cost of overhead. Also, the "Public" buys this legal software in order to get legal work done without the cost of an Attorney. Also, we simply already have way too many Legal Professionals - we have an absolute glut!! ("Legal Professionals" includes, but is not limited to: Attorneys/Lawyers, Paralegals, Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries, Bailiffs, Court Reporters, etc, etc)
There are no jobs in this vocational field. My family, coworkers, friends, acqaintances, etc. are being laid off left and right in this vocational field.
Employers (usually law firms) in the field of Law today want employees with degrees from traditional colleges/universities. Those "certificates" you see advertised aren’t worth the paper they are printed on - they are generally scams. (I found this out the hard way.)
Cost of law school to be lawyer, approx $150,000+.
Be prepared to take on a LOT of debt.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Even if you finish law school, you won’t be able to find a job when you are done. Since this vocational field is shrinking, many new attorneys/lawyers are, themselves, having to work "down" as Paralegals, Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries, Bailiffs, Court Reporters, etc, etc, to simply try to keep some of their bills paid <<this would be your competition. And the competition is fierce!!
Now… the law schools know this, but they won’t tell you the truth >that the job market/economy is just saturated with way too many Legal Professionals. Instead the schools will feed you a fairytale and will LIE to you. The root of the problem is we have too many law schools. We are in a recession, and the schools are fighting for their own survival - they will tell students anything to get to the students’ money. (Which is why they won’t tell you the truth about the job market for the field of Law.) And these schools continue to recruit and churn out even more graduates………….Remember: law schools are BUSINESSES - their top concern is making money for themselves.
If you don’t believe me, then just do a SEARCH here on Yahoo Answers to see what other posters are saying about the current status of the field of Law. Call some local law firms - ask to speak to the Manager of Human Resources - ask them if they are hiring; ask them what they think about job availability in the field of Law………………
In the book "So You Want to be a Lawyer?" by Marianne Calabrese and Susanne Calabrese (ISBN 0-88391-136-1): "The United States has more lawyers than any other country in the world. About 38,000 students graduate >each year< from the 200+ law schools in the United States. The competition is very keen for jobs and clients." - Even Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (who served on the U.s. Supreme Court for more than 20 years) says there are too many lawyers. (9/14/2008)
Check out these websites: http://informeddecisionmaking.blogspot.com
http://calicocat.com/2004/08/law-school-big-lie.html
http://abajournal.com/news/triplt_bad_news_for_law_students_three_firms_aX_summer_associate_programs/
http://abajournal.com/news/as_rio_tinto_saves_millions_other_corps_will_outsource_too_counsel_says/
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/02/03/dont-try-to-dodge-the-recession-with-grad-school/
(A link to a website does not constitute endorsement.)
If you want a job when you are done with your studies, consider and look into the fields of >>>Healthcare or Information Technology! I spoke to a career counselor from Jobs and Family Services, and HE told me that these areas are where the jobs are, and future job availability! and scholarships!
Good luck.
(This is based on my current knowledge, information, belief, and life experiences. This was intended as personal opinion, and not intended to be used as legal advice. Please be careful and do your research.)