Lawyers
Overview
Introduction
Lawyers, or attorneys, serve in our legal system two ways: as advocates and as advisers. As advocates, they represent the rights of their clients in trials and depositions or in front of administrative and government bodies. As advisers, attorneys counsel clients on how the law affects business or personal decisions, such as the purchase of property or the creation of a will. Lawyers represent individuals, businesses, and corporations. Approximately 813,900 lawyers work in the United States today, in various areas of the pr...
Quick Facts
Median Salary
Employment Prospects
Minimum Education Level
Experience
Skills
Personality Traits
Earnings
Lawyers earn salaries that vary depending on the type, size, and location of their employers. Incomes generally increase as the lawyer gains experience and becomes better known in the field. The beginning lawyer in solo practice may barely make ends meet for the first few years.
Robert Half Legal, a national staffing firm, reports that first-year associate lawyers in law firms earned sal...
Work Environment
Offices and courtrooms are usually pleasant, although busy, places to work. Lawyers also spend significant amounts of time in law libraries or record rooms, in the homes and offices of clients, and sometimes in the jail cells of clients or prospective witnesses. Many lawyers never work in a courtroom. Unless they are directly involved in litigation, they may never perform at a trial.
Som...
Outlook
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment for lawyers is expected to grow by about 4 percent, about as fast as the average for all careers, through 2029. Competition for jobs continues, as always to be keen due to the high numbers of law school graduates (although the number has declined in recent years), the outsourcing of some legal services to lower cost legal provi...