“Lawyer”. It’s a term thrown around at career fairs and university open days as potential future job for young people. In fact, the term lawyer encompasses a huge number of different people, all working very different day-to-day roles.
In this guide we will look at the different types of lawyer that you could decide to become.
Do you want to be a barrister or a solicitor?
This is the very first question that a potential future lawyer needs to answer. Those people you see on TV in court arguing on their clients behalf? Those are barristers, and often the first thing that springs to mind when you ask the layman to describe a “lawyer”.
Whilst barristers do spend some of their time in court, the daily life is not quite as glamorous as you might expect. There is a lot of paperwork to be done as a barrister and much of their time is spent giving legal advice, whether in person or in written form. They will also be responsible for drafting and filling a variety of different court documents on behalf of their clients and will have an in-depth understanding of the court system.
Barristers must also study case law extensively and will be constantly updating and expanding their knowledge.
Solicitors, on the other hand, make up the vast majority of lawyers in the UK, outnumbering barristers more than 8 times. They oversee pretty much everything in the legal world besides appearing in major court cases and will consult with a barrister if they need a second opinion.
Solicitors are generally the front facing individuals of a law firm and will be the first people that someone meets when they seek legal advice.
Areas of the law
Besides deciding whether a solicitor or barrister is the job for you, trainee lawyers must decide which area of the law that they want to specialise in.
Criminal law and corporate law are probably the two most famous of these due to their appearance in popular culture but there are also many lawyers who specialise in civil and family law, immigration, media law, and a variety of other areas.
When first training to become a lawyer, obtaining a general law degree is fine, but at some point down the line you will need to decide which area of the law you want to focus on. Any work experience that you can get with a law firm that has a reputation for excellence in this field will be highly beneficial.
Many law firms such as Aamer Anwar & Co. will cover a range of different areas of the law such as criminal law, immigration law, and human rights law, but this is usually only possible after many years of experience in the industry. As a new lawyer the sensible place to start is to grow your experience in one specific niche, grow your reputation in that area and then expand in the future if you wish to.