What Makes A Profession?

A great career to pursue for a person who strongly desires to help people is a lawyer. Lawyers are people who practice law, and most of them specialize in a specific field in which they decide is their passion. Within the career of a lawyer, there are many options to choose from to specialize in. Some options include the practice of family law, environmental law, tax law, criminal law, and immigration law among many others. The

Criminal law paralegals provide assistance to defense attorneys and prosecutors. Their duties include drafting documents, doing research, interviewing witnesses, putting together discovery information, communicating with other parties, and assisting attorneys when they are in

It is a task in itself for one, such as myself, to allow another to fully grasp the principle of why I want to become a paralegal, let alone explain it within three pages without simply stating, “I desire to use the set of skills and passion that I possess in order to help others while working within this specific field of law.” Nevertheless, the reality of the fact is that it is purely the essence and core of why I have the drive and determination to work towards becoming a paralegal.

To understand what a paralegal does we must first understand what the job of a lawyer entails. Black’s Law Dictionary defines a lawyer as “a person learned in the law; as an attorney,

Family Law, to me, is a very interesting type oflaw. It has so much variety to it, whether it be divorce, child custody, wills, criminal law, juvenile law, and a whole lot more. All of this adds a challenge because of all these fields family law can cover. A paralegal has to be well prepared and willing to handle all of these potential areas not only professionally but emotionally as well. A lot of the clients will be in a emotional state of distraught and need support from the legal team that as the legal team that is representing said person, will do their best to ensure that we provide the best services in order to make our client as happy as possible and try to achieve their desired outcome, whether defending or working with the plaintiff.

A person considering joining a paralegal work field should have at least an associates or bachelor’s degree, be very organized, and committed. Life of a Paralegal Paralegals and lawyers play a huge role to any lawyer they are working for. According to one source, “the typical work of a lawyer’s assistant or paralegal would be doing client interviews, drafting legal documents, reviewing pertinent case law, summarizing legal proceedings, and regular office work”(Siegel, Worrall, 2015, p. 169). The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that depending on what firm you may work for “Paralegals would also be in charge of maintaining the schedule of their attorney, conduct research on relevant laws, regulations, and legal articles. Paralegals would also write or summarize reports to help lawyers prepare for trials, gathering information that may be used as evidence in court, taking notes, or reviewing trial transcripts, file exhibits, briefs, appeals and other legal

In stating so, Flynn argues that while some in the legal field think that paralegals are supervised and work under an attorney, therefore do not need to be licensed or certified. Others believe paralegals handle intricate legal matters, therefore should be licensed and certified. This statement from Flynn reinforces my belief that paralegals are essential to the effectiveness of a law firm and leads into my standing that licensing should be in place to ensure education, knowledge and adherence, which in turn will make a paralegal more valuable. Licensing of the paralegal profession and the requirements of experience and education that come with it; would dispel the long time misunderstanding of position titles among law office staff, attorneys and the public.

Prior to returning to college, I worked as a paralegal in various areas of law. The majority of my paralegal career was focused on family and criminal law. My views have changed and evolved over time in how I have witnessed individuals that get caught in the legal system. A good number of legal issues stem from situations that an individual has as much control over as their eye color and the longer I worked in the legal field the more I observed how punishing people for uncontrollable issues in their lives is cruel and unproductive. Eventually, the fruitless legal circle became exhausting and I found myself burnt out, although I still wanted to help the clients I worked with. Consequently, when I considered going back to school, I knew that

According to the www.paralegal.edu “The paralegal profession has grown tremendously since its introduction in the 1960s. Now there are more than 256,000 paralegals working in the United States. Additionally, paralegal jobs are projected to grow by 18% from 2010-2020.” So, what is a paralegal? According to the National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. A paralegal is “a paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily, but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer. This person may be retained or employed by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or court authority to perform this work. Substantive shall mean work requiring recognition, evaluation, organization, analysis, and communication of relevant facts and legal concepts.”

The purpose of this memorandum is to go into detail about the legal career path of being a lawyer. Within this memo, you will find information regarding the preparation for a career as a lawyer, such as the necessary degrees and skills, as well as information on the general outlook for this job, such as expect salary, and where most of the jobs in this field are located. Finally, the memorandum will discuss how occupational research for being an attorney helped tailor my resume and cover letter to specific job postings in the field.

Many paralegals who are currently employed started out their careers without a formal degree. Per the BLS, any paralegal that wants a job in the modern legal system will need at least a two-year degree. Most employers naturally prefer job candidates who have completed a four-year degree program and supervised internship. Paralegal programs provide students with a well-rounded education of both general education and specialized law courses. These programs are usually taught by legal professionals with some type of real-world experience, so students gain real-world skills and knowledge for use on the job.

The Top 5 important soft skills I found on usdepartmentoflabor.com to thrive in legal profession were Communication, Enthusiasm/Positive attitude, Creative thinking/Problem solving, Flexibility/Adaptability and Conduct. Communication is the most valuable skill but also we cannot forget the importance of listening. A paralegals ability to communicate will determine the effectiveness of the work produced. Communication is the top complaint among most state bars attorneys saying “I became a lawyer to draft contracts, motions, help corporations, and/or go to trial and litigate, but not to hold my client’s hand,” is no longer an acceptable attitude. It should also be the attorney’s goal to communicate better, and that means in a timely and

In the criminal justice field, the two careers I am considering are Law and Criminal Law Paralegal. I have known for the past years that I wanted to be in a job that contributes to the betterment of society while helping others around me. These two lines of work seem exciting and challenging.

Paralegals often help lawyers write and do research on cases to find case law to support evidence in their favor. A reason I picked this profession is, I want to be able to help fix a lot of the problems facing the United States. One example bickering about bills and stalling laws that could help benefit the people. Have an education of the law in order to help lawyers sort case law information.

I am majoring in history and getting a minor in political science and am looking at the career of being a lawyer. The reason why I chose this profession is because of the ability to aid those in need and try to make a difference through the practice of law. There are many positive things about this career that I look forward to. Being a lawyer involves working with and representing people from businesses, huge corporations, individuals, and many others on legal things. They usually work for private legal firms and in offices but there are many different kinds of lawyers. Some of the types are criminal, tax, environmental, family related, and many other types, but most lawyers deal with legal services. Different types of lawyers do different things pertaining to what type of work they are involved with. Depending on the type of lawyer they are, they will have various duties. Some of those duties involve communicating, advising, and advocating their clients. The job is trying to better the law profession and legal services by using different technologies available to them. They can do this by using different technologies to transform written law to online text, when they do that they will be able to better use client portals and other developments to replace some of the work, also they will be able to advance their collaboration software and technology. These things will benefit the profession of being a lawyer and those in need of help from them.