If you live in a decent-sized city, you may notice there is no shortage of lawyers around you. You might very well see legal offices every few feet in the downtown area. While not every lawyer will have the same legal specialty, there are also many individuals who obviously passed the bar and have gone into business for themselves.
In this article, we are going to talk about why so many people decide to practice law. If you’re looking for a new career or are not far away from starting your first one, it’s certainly a field that you may want to consider.
There Are Personal Injury Victims Who Need Lawyers Constantly
If a company or individual harms someone, then that person might decide to sue the guilty party. Part of understanding your rights in personal injury claims involves seeking out a lawyer and asking them if you have a case and whether they want to represent you.
If you pass the bar and decide to get into personal injury to represent plaintiffs, you’ll likely have all the work you can handle. That might appeal. You will have plenty of clients, and while it’s seldom glamorous work, you’ll make a positive difference in many lives if you help sick and injured parties receive financial compensation.
You might do even better for yourself financially if you get into personal injury on the other side of the law. If you agree to represent defendants, and you can win at trial or talk the plaintiff into accepting a lower settlement amount, you should make a nice living that way as well.
You Get to Meet Many Interesting People
There’s also no denying that in many instances, you will meet fascinating people as a lawyer. If you get into criminal law, for example, you might meet some real characters.
If you’re defending criminals, you may meet people who you would prefer not to run into in a dark alley, but they still need legal representation. It’s a way to get up close and personal with a dangerous lifestyle without being in actual peril.
You Can Enjoy Independence
You can join an established legal practice if you are just starting out in this profession, but you can also start your own firm. That might take a little time. You must establish yourself before you can have a base of enough clients who will support you when you go solo.
If you start your own firm, though, you will answer to no one. There’s something about that which appeals to many people. You can accept only the clients and cases you want to take. No one can order you around, and you can retain your integrity.
You’ll Enjoy a Feeling of Prestige
There’s also a sense of prestige that you can enjoy as a lawyer that you seldom get with other jobs. If you know a certain legal niche very well, then you will command respect, both with your peers and the general public.
You might become famous, or at least infamous. Think of lawyers like Johnnie Cochrane, Gloria Allred, or even former president Abraham Lincoln. They all become household names. You can probably think of many more, including Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Darrow, Woodrow Wilson, and Sandra Day O’Connor.
You can create or implement policies that might change the world. Some consider the legal profession boring, but think about what some of the names we’ve mentioned have accomplished.
You Have Flexibility
If you’re a lawyer, you set your own hours. You can work a lot or a little, depending on how you’re feeling at a certain point in your life. If you want to bury yourself in work, you can, but if you want to take a step back from it you can easily do that as well, provided you’re running your own practice.
You Can Make Very Good Money
There is no denying the financial potential of the best lawyers in their fields. They can afford sports cars and mansions if they want. That is provided you have the skill to deliver high-quality service to top-tier clients.
You might work as a corporate lawyer. If so, you might have a huge corporation as a client. If that client often has individuals suing them, you can get them out of trouble. You can expect a very respectable salary if that is the case.
You Have Career Options
Think of the many fields you can get into within the law. You might become an entertainment lawyer. You can make sure singers and actors have the best contracts, and you can share in their success if they make it to the top. You might represent athletes instead. If one of them scores a nine-figure contract, you will cash in as well.
You can get into environmental law, criminal law, or whatever else suits you. You can involve yourself in politics, healthcare, education, and many more.
Intellectual Stimulation
Many lawyers want to get into the legal profession for mental stimulation, though. If you can never picture yourself doing the same boring thing day in and day out, then you might opt for this career path because of that.
Once you pass the bar, that’s like your Golden Ticket. You can enter the legal niche and start crafting persuasive arguments that you will deliver to juries if you’re trying to convict them to let a a client off the hook.
You can utilize your analytical and critical thinking skills. You shouldn’t have any dull days, provided you got yourself into an area of the law that you find exciting.
These reasons may compel you to get into the legal profession, but some people have a far simpler one. Sometimes, much like a military career, the law runs in your family. Maybe you get into it because you appreciate the legendary Atticus Finch character in To Kill a Mockingbird.
No matter your reasons, the legal profession always needs new recruits.
