Lawyers play an essential role in our legal system and assist both individuals and businesses with solving legal issues. Lawyers use research, analysis, writing and communication skills to provide advice to their clients as well as advocate on their behalf.
Gain experience in various practice areas through internships, externships and volunteer work to determine whether certain specializations align with your interests and career objectives.
1. Private Practice
Private practice is the dominant segment of legal employment. Lawyers working in private practice typically are employed at law firms that range in size from large (500+ lawyers), medium, or small. Some law firms specialize in certain practice areas like corporate, real estate, civil rights, family trusts & estates intellectual property criminal. Some legal practitioners even operate independently as “solo practitioners.”
Private practice lawyers typically focus on three primary areas of legal work: transactional work – such as negotiating and preparing contracts, license agreements, mergers etc – advisory work (researching and providing legal advice), litigation (mainly representing clients in court litigations or settling disputes through arbitration mediation and settlements ) and advisory services.
Lawyering in private practice can be extremely demanding work. Junior employees trying to make an impression and meet billable hour targets often work 60-80 hour weeks, though even when workload declines they are still expected to stay abreast of current legal trends and read up on any relevant new laws or precedents that emerge.
Due to the intense nature of their work, successful lawyers in private practice typically enjoy excellent salaries and bonuses as a result of their labors. Furthermore, the prestige associated with private practice draws many students who wish to join this profession.
Lawyers in private practice need a solid professional network in place, which they can utilize for business opportunities, support and socialization. Such connections are essential for sustaining and expanding one’s practice – an integral component of career longevity and success.
Private practice lawyers may find it challenging to see how their legal input contributes to meeting or protecting long-term company goals, especially when representing clients in contentious cases where it would be more efficient for them to hire a separate legal representation as their outside counsel.
2. Government
Aspiring government attorneys have an array of choices at both state and local levels, as well as at the federal level across three branches (executive, legislative and judicial), independent agencies like the Federal Reserve System, National Labor Relations Board as well as independent organizations like the Federal Reserve System or National Labor Relations Board. A young lawyer looking for employment with government can select either litigation or advisory legal practice depending on his/her desired experience and interests.
Litigation lawyers may work for the Department of Justice (DOJ) or other government agencies with in-house litigation divisions; advisory lawyers serve as counselors or attorney advisers providing counsel or advising professional staff of agency administrators on administrative matters. Government attorneys generally start as general schedule (GS) employees with salaries determined by time in grade as well as cost of living variations; they are eligible for promotions depending on performance over time.
Many law students pursue careers on either a state or local level after law school, often called honors attorneys or legal clerkships. Entry-level positions like these can be found in city law departments and district attorney’s offices; state AG offices; as well as other government agencies and departments. Most require a JD for these entry-level roles with hiring processes often competitive; moreover there may not be central coordination when hiring occurs so law students interested in government work should research each of the departments where they would like to work before making their decision.
Entry-level legal jobs offer new lawyers more hands-on learning early in their careers than associates at larger firms do, for instance handling multiple small trials over three years to build strong litigation skills rather than watching senior partners handle cases each year over that time period.
Just like private practice, government service can lead young lawyers into morally troubling situations that they might find objectionable; such as prosecuting defendants in criminal trials or defending actions they don’t personally support. Yet for many young attorneys serving their communities is rewarding experience.
4. Nonprofit
Nonprofit organizations, whether promoting the arts or providing medical care to the poor, are driven by a vision to address a particular social need. Although nonprofits tend not to focus as heavily on profits or market share as for-profit entities do, they still generate revenues and are subject to multiple laws which may govern them.
Experienced lawyers working in nonprofit law can advise their clients on all legal issues involved with structuring and running nonprofit organizations, from selecting appropriate forms of legal structures like trusts or corporations or associations to creating bylaws and other documents for compliance. In addition, this practice area also encompasses tax exemption, compensation benefits and planned giving planning as well as tax-exempt financing as well as business transactions between nonprofit corporations and charities and federal and state compliance requirements.
An important task of any New York nonprofit, 501(c)(3) & NGO attorney’s work involves reviewing contracts for potential litigation risks. Clients need a lawyer with extensive nonprofit knowledge in this area who understands issues like compensation adequacy disputes or international contracts enforceability issues.
Nonprofit lawyers offer more than contract negotiation. In addition to drafting agreements and advising on terms for grant agreements, nonprofit lawyers provide counsel on fundraising campaigns’ legal repercussions, mergers acquisitions and dissolutions advice as well as guidance regarding compliance with Revised Model Nonprofit Corporation Act and Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act regulations.
When choosing an attorney for your New York nonprofit organization, make sure they are an active member of the New York State Bar and that their law firm does not have any malpractice or ethics complaints on file. When researching potential lawyers online, check their biography as well as whether or not they have been listed with any disciplinary agencies such as Grievance Committees. Furthermore, use Fictitious Name Registry to see if any potential candidates have filed or received extensions on fictitious names – an ideal nonprofit attorney will possess both clean records as well as focus on meeting community needs.