Lawyers

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  Beginner's Guide to Become a Lawyer, A

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • The English Press

    (Publisher)

  ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Chapter- 1 Lawyer Lawyer 19th century painting of Lawyers, by French artist Honoré Daumier Occupation Names Attorney, counselor (counsel), solicitor, barrister, advocate Type Profession Activity sectors Law, business Description Competencies Analytical skills Critical thinking skills Knowledge of the law Proficiency in legal research and legal ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ writing Fields of employment Courts, government, private sector, NGOs, legal aid Related jobs Judge, Prosecutor, Law clerk, Law professor A lawyer , according to Black's Law Dictionary , is a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law. Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political and social authority, and deliver justice. Working as a lawyer involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific individualized problems, or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e., hire) Lawyers to perform legal services. The role of the lawyer varies significantly across legal jurisdictions, and so it can be treated here in only the most general terms. More information is available in country-specific articles (see below). Terminology In practice, legal jurisdictions exercise their right to determine who is recognized as being a lawyer; as a result, the meaning of the term lawyer may vary from place to place. • In Australia the word lawyer is used to refer to both barristers and solicitors (whether in private practice or practising as corporate in-house counsel). • In Canada, the word lawyer only refers to individuals who have been called to the bar or have qualified as civil law notaries in the province of Quebec.

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  Introduction to Law

  • Beth Walston-Dunham(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Legal Advice and Analysis Giving legal advice requires a lawyer to have a special analytical ability. A lawyer is responsible for examining the law applicable to a situa-tion, informing a client as to the likely outcome of the case, and often recommending the next course of action. Based on the information received, the client can choose to accept or reject the analysis and recommendation. A licensed attorney must use analytical ability to locate all relevant legal principles in a given circumstance, recognize the significant facts of the case at hand, and deter-mine the impact of the most relevant and current legal principles on those facts. To do this, the lawyer must be able to take each applicable legal principle, break it down into the necessary components, and compare it to the specific elements of the client’s circumstance. Then, based on the similarities and differences identified in this analysis, the lawyer must determine the likely outcome of the client’s case if these legal princi-ples were to be applied by a court. Such analytical ability by a lawyer is a valued and respected skill. It comes as the result of education and training to develop exactly that analytical ability. Because clients often determine future conduct affecting their rights based on the lawyer’s recommendation, the process of giving legal advice is licensed by the state and prohibited for anyone who does not have a proper license. Advocacy The second function of a licensed attorney is advocacy , or the process of representing the legal rights and interests of another person within the confines of legal proceedings in a branch of government. In business, it is not uncommon to have an agent represent one’s interests in such areas as negotiations, sales, and purchases, but a license to practice law is required to represent the interests of another person in court and other legal proceedings.

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  Foundations of Law

  Cases, Commentary and Ethics

  • Ransford Pyle, Carol Bast(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  In the meantime, individual paralegals must stay informed of the requirements of their states. Despite variations among the states, it is possible to arrive at general principles because there is a consensus on what an attorney’s license permits. Lawyers are privileged to provide legal advice and legal representation to clients. Legal advice means advising a client about legal rights and duties and especially about the proper course of action as it relates to the law. For instance, a paralegal may properly advise someone, “I think you ought to see a lawyer,” but it would not be proper to say, “I think you ought to file a motion to dismiss.” This extends even to matters of law clearly within the paralegal’s knowledge and competence. The tempta-tion to advise must be resisted. This proscription extends beyond actual clients—whenever a paralegal gives legal advice, she may be engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. The line is not always easy to draw. Consider the example of a friend laboring under the misconception that the statute of limitations is 4 years when the paralegal knows it to be only two. Should she quietly sit by and let her friend lose a suit? Without advising the friend on a course of legal action, the paralegal can certainly question the friend’s knowledge and suggest a visit to an attorney or provide a copy of pertinent state statutes, without interpretation that might constitute legal advice. Legal representation includes a number of important activities, including representa-tion before a court, which is the privileged domain of attorneys. This monopoly of the bar is necessary to exercise control over attorneys who act improperly and to enable clients who are improperly represented to sue their attorneys for malpractice. NonLawyers may not represent others in court, may not sign documents submitted to the court in any proceeding, and may not sign any documents that call for an attorney’s signature.

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  American Judicial Process

  Myth and Reality in Law and Courts

  • Pamela C. Corley, Artemus Ward, Wendy L. Martinek(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  For example, in large urban areas there are five major divisions of law practice, each with its own subspecialties, as depicted in Table 3.4. There are business Lawyers who concentrate on highly specialized matters affecting large corporations such as antitrust, patents, business taxes, stocks and bonds, corporate banking, and commercial law. Other Lawyers handle general corporate matters such as business litigation, business real estate, public utilities, defending against personal injury lawsuits, and civil rights issues. Labor Lawyers specialize in the legal relationship between management and unions. Lawyers who work for the government largely deal with criminal matters on the state and local level. Finally, attorneys who handle personal matters for individuals deal with general litigation for their clients: criminal defense, divorce, personal injury on behalf of plaintiffs, real estate, probate (wills and estates), general family law, and personal tax issues. In short, there are countless subspecialties within the broader specializations of law work. The chances are small that Lawyers working in one of these five areas will ever do much work in one of the others. For example, a banking or tax lawyer probably will never do any business litigation or civil rights work, and a tax lawyer virtually never appears in criminal court. Many Lawyers never even cross over subspecialties, such as a Lawyers who specialize in patent law for investors of computer microprocessors or Lawyers who work on new stock offerings for bank corporations. Both legal specialists may work for the same large corporation—or law firm representing that corporation—but they do not practice the same kind of law. Lawyers who represent private individuals are more likely than other Lawyers to do a variety of law work, often because they do not have many repeat clients and have to take what they can get. The population size of the community affects the degree of legal specialization

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  Judicial Process

  Law, Courts, and Politics in the United States

  • David Neubauer, Stephen Meinhold(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Thus, one of the critical skills of the lawyer is the drafting of documents. The difference between a properly written will and a badly drafted one means the difference between order and chaos, between the quick settlement of an estate during probate and litigation over competing claims. Because of the technical aspects of this kind of work, the ability to write documents such as mortgages and articles of incorpo-ration has been referred to as “the most legal of the lawyer’s skills” (Mayer 1967). A properly drafted document can avoid potential lawsuits, but not all lawsuits can be avoided. Lawyers also draft important documents during all phases of litigation. In filing a case, the plaintiff’s attorneys must precisely state the nature of the claim. In finalizing an out-of-court settlement, Lawyers for all parties need to specify the agreements in detail. After the trial, judges prepare judgments and write court orders. For appellate judges, of course, writing opinions explaining the court’s decision is a major activity. Counseling Clients Another important task is counseling clients. Part of this role requires attending to the cli-ent’s emotional needs, particularly during stressful events such as divorce or criminal prose-cution. Just as patients evaluate their doctors’ friendly bedside manner, clients measure their Lawyers’ courteous and understanding demeanor. The most important counseling role, however, centers on advising clients about the dic-tates of the law. As professionals educated in the law, Lawyers are expected to provide advice about the possible legal consequences stemming from their clients’ actions or inactions. Thus, Lawyers must fully and dispassionately evaluate the strengths and the weaknesses of the client’s case, as well as assess the position of the opposing party. 130 Part II Interpreters of the Law Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.

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  Law and Society

  An Introduction

  • John Harrison Watts, Cliff Roberson(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Law is considered as one of the three archetypical “learned” professions, with the Church and medicine being the other two. About 200 years ago, Edmund Burke, an influential British statesman and orator, stated that in “no other country, perhaps, in the world, is the law so general of a study as it is in the United States.” 1 Despite the fact that it is so generally studied, it appears that the American people have many misconceptions regarding the legal profes-sion. The authors of this text, one an attorney and former judge and the other a nonlawyer, criminal justice practitioner and educator provide their assess-ment of the current status of the legal profession. The Legal Profession Oliver Wendell Holmes once stated that law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries and cannot be dealt with as if it con-tained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics. Holmes also stated that in order to know what the law is, we must know what it has been, and what it tends to become. 2 As noted earlier, legal systems were developed as a means of formal control in societies. As legal systems developed, so did the legal profession. As with our legal system, the American legal profession is a hodgepodge of borrowed principles and homegrown theories. It is an adaptable profession and, thus, it changes to meet the needs of times. The origins of the legal profession have been traced back to the Roman Empire. Roman law allowed individuals to present cases for others. At first, the individuals were trained in rhetoric rather than in the law. Later, Roman “jurists” became popular. Jurists were individuals who were knowl-edgeable about the law, and they advised individuals about the law. By the time of the Imperial Period, the complexity of Roman law made the legal profession indispensable. Originally, the word attorney implied an agent. During the Middle Ages, attorneys had three basic functions—agent, spokesperson, and consultant.

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  May It Please the Court

  Judicial Processes and Politics In America

  • Brian L. Porto(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Successful examinees will be formally sworn in to the bars of their respective states and can begin their legal careers. They will have traveled a long, sometimes arduous, road from law student to lawyer and will perhaps have questioned the wisdom of their career choice along the way. Yet, they can be proud of having successfully completed professional training that taught them a disciplined, careful way of thinking and that gave them powerful tools with which to play a leadership role in American society.

  3.3.2 Culture

  Lawyers newly admitted to practice soon discover that, if they are not always admired or even respected, they are nonetheless prominent actors in American life. Their prominence results from several traditions in American political and legal thought that combine to make litigation a more common means of resolving disputes and of creating public policy here than it is in other countries. One such tradition is the common-law tradition (see Chapter 1 ), which developed from the English king’s enforcement of his royal rights.71 Its most fundamental principle is the supremacy of law , which states that all acts of government are subject to review in the courts and that no person is beyond the courts’ jurisdiction.72 A related principle is that judges bear the major responsibility for interpreting the law.73 They interpret the law by deciding cases, which gives them great power because the power to interpret the law is the power to make the law, especially when no prior, similar cases are available to guide the judges.74

  Another tradition that influences modern American law is Puritan individualism . The Puritans believed that the most important purpose of law was to protect individual freedom. They also believed that individuals should be free to choose how to live their lives and that government should not coerce them in those matters. By the same token, the Puritans held that people must accept the consequences of their choices; they should not expect government to rescue them from their own foolishness.75

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  International Perspectives on the Regulation of Lawyers and Legal Services

  • Andrew Boon(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  28 ibid 354. in which the judiciary is constituted independently of the executive. More ambiguous than the role of the judiciary is the role of Lawyers in a state subject to the rule of law. Some see independent Lawyers, able to invoke the power of the judiciary, as essential to maintaining the rule of law, 23 but this may not be a universal view. B. Lawyers In one of the founding texts of the sociology of legal professions, Abel explored differences between Lawyers in the common law and civil law worlds. 24 The common law world was dominated by private practice; the adversarial system so central and dominant that judges had to come from the ranks of practitioners. In civil law countries, by contrast, elite Lawyers were jurists employed by the state, and expected to serve the state as judges, prosecutors and civil servants. In many civil law jurisdictions membership of some legal occupations depended on direct appointment by the state. 25 While there was often a cadre of specialist advocates, the value of legal advocacy was less significant than in a common law system. The nature of the inquisitorial system, and the perception that Lawyers served the state rather than citizens, 26 led to state control of private practice Lawyers in many civil law states. In 1997 a collection edited by Halliday and Karpik focused on the role of Lawyers in constituting political liberalism between the 17th and 19th centuries. It suggested that the English and French Bars were influential models in this pro-cess because they had prestigious historical origins and were well organised. 27 Their models differed, however, particularly in the relationship to the state. Burrage showed that following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the English Bar was embedded in the ‘deep structure of constitutional life’ such that barristers were never collectively ‘committed to politics, especially against the state’.

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