Students with law degrees coming out of high school tend to be drawn towards attorney law practices such as criminal law, commercial law, business law and tax law among things.
These are all admirable pursuits, however, it is often the case that students aren’t fully aware of the large scope of career options that can be pursued with a law degree.
Outside of the different types of law to be practiced, a few of which have been listed here, there are careers in the field that do not necessarily entail the practice of law as a defending or prosecuting attorney. Here are a few of these options:
- A paralegal. This is a profession of legal science that forms a part of the legal team and offers their knowledge and understanding of legislation to offer up assistance to the legal team. They, however, are not a qualified lawyer.
- A legal assistant. They are typically in charge of collecting research and data to create a case or argument in defence of, or in prosecution against another party. To do so, they prepare the legal documents and properly investigate the facts.
- A court reporter. They take down live accounts of testimony as the court proceedings take place, enabling all the information mentioned to be transformed into an official transcript.
- An arbitrator. They’re specialty resides in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), and they act as a neutral party within conflict resolution. Arbitration is one of the many ways that court disputes can be resolved outside of the courtroom and it is one of the resolution options that have to be engaged in on a voluntary basis by all parties involved.
- A solicitor. They are responsible for taking instructions from and advising clients on the necessary course of legal action as it relates to their particular situation. Their clients range from individuals, to companies, and so on.
- A legal advisor. They are typically hired by large companies to offer legal advice as well as legal services to protect the organisation that employed them and the employees of that organisation.
- Finally for this list, there are court magistrates. They listen to the court proceedings, taking into consideration the prosecution and the defendant’s claims, and decide on a judgement as well as an appropriate sentence for the accused. They act similarly to a judge, but can offer judgement on a greater variety of cases.
This is not a complete list of all the careers that one could explore in the field of law, but it gives insight into the variety that a law degree offers.
