If you are thinking of changing careers and you are looking to the world of law as a potential place to go, then there are certainly many good reasons to think about that. A lot of people before you have achieved great things in the realm of law as a practice, and it is one of those types of careers that can be very rewarding and distinctive too. But how can you get started with this kind of career?
In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the things you’ll want to consider doing in order to start building a career in law. As long as you have thought about and enacted the following, you’ll find that you can start developing that career in no time, and that should mean that you are following your career dream soon enough.
Look At Your Options
The first thing you should do when you have decided that you want to work in law is to take a look at your options, so that you can start to narrow them down and get a sense of what kind of work you would specifically like to do. There are a lot of choices that you can and should consider here, from being an attorney for specific kinds of clients to running your own legal advice firm, or even training to be a barrister. It’s up to you which you would like to do, of course, but you need to look at your options and be aware of them from the start.
After that, it’s a case of talking them through with someone who knows what they are talking about. That can be a careers guidance counsellor, ideally one who is specifically aware of the world of legal careers. Or it could just be someone in the profession that you look up to and you have managed to secure a conversation with. That might also prove to be a useful contact later on in other ways, so it’s definitely worth aiming for that.
Once you think you might have honed in on your preferred career, you can then start looking at what you need to do to specifically go for it and get the ball rolling.
Gain Some Experience
Once you know what path into the world of law you would most like to take, and you understand a little about how you can get there, it is time to start looking for some experience that you can make use of. By gaining some experience, you should find that you are much more likely to be able to get whatever career path you are thinking about, so it is really important that you are thinking about this. Bear in mind that it is best to get experience in a specific path that you are thinking about pursuing, but that doesn’t mean that this is your only option.
For instance, you are still going to benefit from just having some experience in a legal firm or a legal advice company, and it’s a good idea to seek those out as well. The important thing is that you are learning some of the essential things you need to learn and gaining some confidence too. As long as you are doing that, you should find that you can start building your career in law much more easily and effectively.
Get The Grades
Law is one of those areas where you are unlikely to do well if you don’t have the necessary grades. You need to make sure that you are doing all you can to learn as much as you can and work hard at school, as it is really going to pay off and make a difference in the long run in a massive way. Getting the grades is something that can take a great deal of hard work and time, and as such you should be prepared for that as best as you can be. But as long as you put the necessary work in, you’ll get the grades you need, and the world of legal work will open up beneath you much more easily.
If you are ever struggling with this side of things, then you might want to think about getting some help. Sometimes even perfectly bright and hard-working people struggle with their education, and it’s important that you are doing all you can to try and make sure that you are getting the help you need when you need it. Just seeking that assistance can be the difference between succeeding and failing at your chosen career path, so it’s definitely something to think about in those terms at the very least. With the right grades, everything should fall into place much more easily than you might think otherwise.
Understand The Skills You’ll Need
In order to improve your chances of getting any legal job, you should think carefully about the kinds of skills and qualities that someone in that profession tends to have, so that you can work out whether you have them yourself or whether there are parts that you need to work on developing before you can hope to get the job you are dreaming about. Some of these skills will apply to any job in law, and some are specific to a particular role, so it’s a case of doing both general and specific research as best as you can.
In general, you’ll need intelligence, a good ability to listen and respond compassionately and fairly, and a heap of confidence. Depending on the role in question, you might also have to be quick-thinking, with an ability to come up with creative solutions, and you might find that a very good memory can be important for advising clients on aspects of the law too. This is probably all stuff that you can develop if you don’t have it already, and it will mostly be about putting the necessary work into it as you go along. In any case, make sure that you are gaining those skills as and when you can.
Make Use Of The Right Resources
Throughout all of this and beyond into your career, you are going to find a lot of things so much easier if you have the right resources around you at all times. There are many resources that those in the legal professions will always find important or useful or even just interesting, and it’s good to be aware of these if you are keen to improve your chances of success in the world of law.
One such resource that works as a perfect example of the kind you will need by your side is Practical Law. You can learn more about Practical Law from Thomson Reuters easily enough, but essentially it is a service where you can seek the necessary resources and help you might need for a case whenever you need it. Being aware of this kind of resource is always going to make everything a lot easier, whether you are still studying or you are thinking about starting a new job soon. So make sure that you are thinking about all of that if you are keen to do well.
Consider An Apprenticeship
One of the very best ways to gain a lot of skills and improve your prospects in the world of law is to do an apprenticeship. These are often unpaid or low-paid roles that you take on for a while with a company or team, in order to learn the ropes and see what it is all about within that kind of profession in a day-to-day sense. If you are keen to do this, it could be one of the best things you have ever done in terms of improving your chances of landing a decent job as a lawyer or similar professional.
However, don’t just go for an apprenticeship with just anyone. You need to choose carefully who you are going to do it with. It needs to be a firm that relates quite directly to what you want to do, for a start. It should also be as well-respected a company as possible, as that is going to be a much better way to ensure that you get a lot of value out of the role. Whether you do it for six months, a year or more, you are going to find that it really helps – and often leads directly into a role that you have been dreaming about. It is well worth considering.
Patience
Remember that developing this kind of career can take a lot of time, and you need to be able to have a lot of patience along the way. As long as you are able to be patient, you are going to find it a lot easier to build up your career in the way that you need to, and over time that is going to make for a much more satisfying role for you. If done well, this kind of career will pay off.
