Why Legal Office Profession Is in Demand

The­re is no bet­ter time than the pre­sent to mani­fest chan­ges in your legal care­er – we all deser­ve pro­fes­sio­nal ful­fill­ment and hap­pi­ness. Com­pli­ance is ano­ther area that spans indus­tries and eco­no­mic sec­tors, so there‘s a good chan­ce that no mat­ter what you‘re inte­res­ted in, com­pli­ance work will be asso­cia­ted with it. Com­pli­ance offi­cers assist their cli­ents in mee­ting the para­me­ters of govern­ment gui­de­lines that app­ly to the indus­try or prac­ti­ce in ques­ti­on. As regu­la­ti­ons are com­plex and gro­wing, the­re is an ongo­ing need for lawy­ers to sup­port com­pli­ance poli­ci­es and pro­grams. The legal mar­ket is hot­ter than ever – with tech com­pa­nies mas­si­ve­ly gro­wing and hiring (show­ing a grea­ter need for in-house lawy­ers) and com­pa­nies con­stant­ly expan­ding their inter­nal roles to cater to a chan­ging work­force, now is the time to prepa­re for a poten­ti­al job search. The busi­ness exodus shouldn‘t shock us – we‘ve all chan­ged during COVID-19. The effects of ten­se self-care, dimi­nis­hed work-life balan­ce, and a chan­ging mar­ket­place that accepts and advo­ca­tes long-term remo­te work envi­ron­ments no lon­ger sca­re lawy­ers and no lon­ger hesi­ta­te to make rapid care­er chan­ges. Some­ti­mes, espe­ci­al­ly for defen­se lawy­ers, you need to pro­tect the cul­prits. Even if you don‘t work as a liti­ga­tor, you may have cli­ents with whom you fun­da­men­tal­ly dis­agree, but you are obli­ga­ted to repre­sent them.

This sepa­ra­ti­on of pro­fes­sio­nal demands from per­so­nal beliefs is some­ti­mes ten­se. If you‘re inte­res­ted in beco­ming a lawy­er, it‘s important to con­sider all that this pro­fes­si­on ent­ails. While it has seve­ral advan­ta­ges, it also has its own chal­lenges. Under­stan­ding both the pros and cons will help you deter­mi­ne if you‘re a good can­di­da­te for this care­er path. In this artic­le, we explain the role of a lawy­er and list both the advan­ta­ges and dis­ad­van­ta­ges of this pro­fes­si­on. As a lawy­er, you can choo­se from seve­ral care­er oppor­tu­ni­ties in both the public and pri­va­te sec­tors. Once you have pas­sed the bar exam, you can choo­se the spe­cial­ty that you are most pas­sio­na­te about. For exam­p­le, you can repre­sent citi­zens in your com­mu­ni­ty as a law enforce­ment offi­cer or pro­tect inno­cent lives as a defen­se lawy­er. From real estate to cor­po­ra­te law, the­re are many oppor­tu­ni­ties to flou­rish in this profession.

The natio­nal num­ber of fresh­men enrol­led last fall grew near­ly 12 per­cent, accor­ding to recent data from the Ame­ri­can Bar Asso­cia­ti­on. The jump comes after months of COVID-19 spe­cu­la­ti­on dis­rupt­ing the ent­ry-level mar­ket for col­lege gra­dua­tes. Other fac­tors that may have inspi­red this rise include the legal dis­cus­sions sur­roun­ding the 2020 pre­si­den­ti­al elec­tion, the death of Geor­ge Floyd and the death of Ruth Bader Gins­burg – all events that spark­ed public deba­te about the law and the role of jud­ges and lawy­ers. The recent increase in demand for lawy­ers may also have play­ed an important role in incre­asing law school enroll­ment. Navi­ga­ting an evol­ving legal sys­tem, tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­ces, abun­dant case law and the demands of the legal pro­fes­si­on crea­te a sti­mu­la­ting intellec­tu­al envi­ron­ment for the lawy­er. Lawy­ers and non-lawy­ers must deal with con­cep­tual­ly dif­fi­cult issues, argue logi­cal­ly and cle­ar­ly, ana­ly­ze case law and legal law, explo­re com­plex legal issues, and mas­ter oral and writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. While the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics expects job growth of 4% over the next deca­de, the­re will be fier­ce com­pe­ti­ti­on for this occu­pa­ti­on in the labor mar­ket. This is becau­se the num­ber of uni­ver­si­ty gra­dua­tes con­ti­nues to out­strip available job oppor­tu­ni­ties. When the­re are fewer oppor­tu­ni­ties for lawy­ers to use them, it can beco­me stressful for lawy­ers to find rewar­ding posi­ti­ons – or posi­ti­ons at all. Many peo­p­le con­sider the legal pro­fes­si­on to be high­ly pres­ti­ge. This is usual­ly due to their impres­si­ve degrees and the level of aut­ho­ri­ty they have over others. This pro­fes­si­on requi­res respect and is often con­side­red glamo­rous by the media.

Even if you‘re not curr­ent­ly pur­suing oppor­tu­ni­ties, the legal mar­ket is at one of the hot­test hiring levels, and this 1995 resu­me won‘t work on a search in the digi­tal age. It‘s time to crea­te an agree­ment sheet, recon­nect with your net­work, con­nect with past men­tors, hone your skills (pass the pri­va­cy cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on you‘ve always wan­ted), and be fearless about the oppor­tu­ni­ties that curr­ent­ly exist in the legal mar­ket. Any care­er decis­i­on about what you plan for the next few years (if not lon­ger!) should con­sider seve­ral fac­tors, inclu­ding satis­fac­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties for pro­fes­sio­nal growth. Other fac­tors such as intellec­tu­al sti­mu­la­ti­on, demand and job secu­ri­ty should also be part of the equa­ti­on. You don‘t want to lose inte­rest in your work and you don‘t want to work in a field whe­re it‘s hard to find or keep a job. Working as a lawy­er, like any pro­fes­si­on, has its advan­ta­ges and dis­ad­van­ta­ges. Some of the chal­lenges that come with a care­er in law can be dif­fi­cult for anyo­ne to over­co­me. Con­sider all angles, posi­ti­ve and nega­ti­ve, befo­re deci­ding whe­ther the legal pro­fes­si­on is right for you. Real estate lawy­ers help indi­vi­du­als and busi­nesses buy, use, deve­lop, lea­se and sell land and real estate. The rol­ler coas­ter of the recent housing mar­ket and incre­asing urban deve­lo­p­ment has crea­ted many jobs for lawy­ers inte­res­ted in this tran­sac­tion­al legal and plan­ning work.

More and more com­pa­nies and cor­po­ra­ti­ons are crossing inter­na­tio­nal bor­ders and expan­ding world­wi­de through mer­gers, acqui­si­ti­ons, con­so­li­da­ti­ons and coope­ra­ti­on with for­eign lawy­ers. The glo­ba­liza­ti­on of the legal pro­fes­si­on offers today‘s lawy­ers a world­view and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ser­ve inter­na­tio­nal cli­ents. In the past, the legal pro­fes­si­on has wea­the­red eco­no­mic down­turns fair­ly well and is expec­ted to con­ti­nue to do so in the future, in part due to the incre­asing geo­gra­phic diver­si­fi­ca­ti­on and prac­ti­ce of many law firms. In fact, cer­tain prac­ti­ce are­as such as liti­ga­ti­on, bank­rupt­cy and reor­ga­niza­ti­ons, fore­clo­sures and regu­la­to­ry com­pli­ance will actual­ly bene­fit from an eco­no­mic down­turn. The­r­e­fo­re, lawy­ers should find many job oppor­tu­ni­ties in any eco­no­mic cli­ma­te. [xii] The Natio­nal Law Review. (Sep­tem­ber 21, 2021). Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty law: a gro­wing spe­cia­liza­ti­on for lawy­ers. www.natlawreview.com/article/cybersecurity-law-growing-specialization-lawyers#:~:text=Cybercrime%20is%20expected%20to%20cost,profession%20has%20never%20been%20easier.

Many lawy­ers spend time at a law firm, cor­po­ra­ti­on, or govern­ment agen­cy during the day. This means they can avo­id the tra­di­tio­nal office cubic­le that most pro­fes­si­ons offer. If you pre­fer a more open lay­out, this is a par­ti­cu­lar­ly advan­ta­ge­ous advan­ta­ge. The legal pro­fes­si­on is con­stant­ly evol­ving, brin­ging new chal­lenges and rewards. Lawy­ers must be pro­blem sol­vers and inno­va­tors rea­dy to take on new respon­si­bi­li­ties, take on new chal­lenges, mas­ter new tech­no­lo­gies and navi­ga­te an ever-chan­ging legal sys­tem. This dyna­mic legal land­scape makes every day uni­que and pro­mo­tes an enjoya­ble and rewar­ding work expe­ri­ence. In addi­ti­on, com­pa­nies have adapt­ed by adjus­ting work arran­ge­ments and offe­ring par­ti­al­ly or com­ple­te­ly remo­te sche­du­les to employees with sought-after mid-level expe­ri­ence. Some com­pa­nies offer com­pre­hen­si­ve remo­te work arran­ge­ments for employees based on geo­gra­phic mar­kets whe­re the com­pa­ny does not have a phy­si­cal office, as we explai­ned in more detail recently.