Lawyers and Career Considerations Recently,

Lawyers and Career Considerations Recently, I conducted an interview with my uncle Steven Joanes, a successful real estate lawyer. He has been practicing for over 20 years and has developed a large client base. He was kind enough to help me understand his profession by explaining the many requirements and considerations of becoming a lawyer. He was also candid in his own remarks regarding the pros and cons of becoming a lawyer and the skills required of many of the most successful lawyers, including his own experiences whenever possible.

The education requirements for a lawyer are rather stringent. This means that people looking to become a lawyer in the U.S. must excel at academics and have a college education prior to entering law school (Goldstein, 34). Most law schools are also highly competitive, so students' high school and college performances are taken into consideration along with their community involvement, personal disposition, and intellectual and social abilities.

This does not necessarily mean that a person has to be a straight "A" student in college to become a lawyer, but the best colleges and law schools are keen to weed out applicants who do not fit the strict requirements of entry (Joanes). There are also many specialized training schools and platforms for lawyers looking to receive training in specific fields (Goldstein, 34). This gives them an advantage over others who may be less familiar with the ins and outs of a specific industry.

Employment opportunities vary depending on many factors. In law school, many students find a particular subject or niche they would like to specialize in (Sterling and Reichman, 23). However, many of these decisions that are made before the student becomes a lawyer and before he or she has had an opportunity to actually try the job, fail to materialize as careers. True careers come from a specific legal field that the lawyer is passionate about.

There is no true way to discover what one's passions are unless a person works for enough different law firms or corporations to discover for themselves what they like. Lawyers will always be in demand as long as there are legal cases. This means that there will always be positions available to those lawyers looking hard enough.

For real estate lawyers, locations where people are highly concentrated or companies that deal with real estate and real estate related matters are typically where a lawyer will begin his or her career (Joanes). Many lawyers chose to work for a company in order to gain personal experience to then go on and start their own practice (Levit and Linder, 73). Others find a rewarding career working for a municipality as a prosecuting attorney or city or state lawyer.

The opportunities for advancement are many, especially when a lawyer is fresh out of law school. This means that a person can find many different jobs in the beginning, all of which are typically low paying, high stress positions, but the chances for them to move upward after a little on the job experience are many.

Authors Munneke and Wayne (2008) argue that getting hired and enjoying one's job as a lawyer in a particular place has as much to do with serendipity, or even blind luck, than it does with going out and seeking a position that a person thinks they will be happy at. (33). In the beginning there is less opportunity to chose exactly what type of lawyer a person wants to be or what he or she wants to specialize in, especially if they did not graduate at the very top of their class.

But, like any other occupation, lawyers can move up the ladder in pay and position as they gain recognition and experience. Lawyer pay ranges vary widely from location to location, position to position, and experience level to experience level. This means that a law school student should expect to make more the longer they have been a lawyer and the longer they are able to develop a community or company presence.

Lawyers can make as little as $40,000 working for a small firm or independently or they can make millions in the right position. Students graduating from law school should expect to make between $50,000 and $80,000 their first year as lawyers, with many factors influencing these numbers (Levit and Linder, 66). This is typically enough to successfully pay down any student loan debt while maintaining a relatively comfortable lifestyle. In the current economic recession, things have changed a bit.

Recently, law school graduates have become more of a commodity, given that student loans and opportunities have not been what they once were (Sterling and Reichman, 22). This means that lawyers can expect to make more than their counterparts a decade ago at a particular law firm. However, it also means they will likely have to work longer hours to get the same job done. The skills required to become a lawyer are many, and some are not clearly defined as specialty fields require specialty skills and knowledge.

Generally, lawyers looking to practice within a certain field that interests them will have some kind of past personal experience or interest in this field. Lawyers need to be highly effective communicators in order to create client and business relationships and to argue effectively in court (Joanes). Lawyers also need to be organized and disciplined, as many times they will be working on multiple court cases simultaneously (Dinovitzer and Garth, 12).

Most importantly, lawyers need to understand that issues often times have no black and white moral definition, and should be prepared to argue for or take the side of a cause or issue that may not be a reflection of or interest them personally. A career as a lawyer has many pros and cons. More specifically, many law school students do not understand the huge amounts of.