Lawyers are legal experts and advisers who advise and represent business houses, individuals, and government agencies on various legal matters and disputes. There are different types of lawyers who are masters in and caters to one specific branch of law.
A majority of lawyers work in corporate and private legal offices, such as law firms. At the same time, some choose to work for local, federal, and state governments. Over the next ten years, experts expect that the law as a profession will grow at a 4% rate, equivalent to the average for all professions.
Let us move forward and see what constitutes the actual job role of lawyers and how they carry it out.
Analysis Of The Job Role Of A Lawyer
Typically, lawyers have the following roles and responsibilities to fulfill when acting in the profession’s capacity.
- Act as an advisor and representative to their clients in courts, private legal matters, and before government agencies.
- Constantly communicate with all the parties involved in a case he handles, such as his clients, judges, colleagues, and others.
- Administer research and analysis activities concerning legal problems.
- Explain the laws, rulings, and regulations meant for businesses and individuals.
- Find truthful facts and bring them to the surface in front of their clients, judges, and other concerned parties, both in writing and verbally, and argue convincingly on behalf of their clients.
- Draft and file legal documents, viz appeals, contracts, lawsuits, deeds, and wills in the respective courts.
Lawyers who are interchangeably called attorneys act as both legal advisors and advocates. In the capacity of an advocate, lawyers work as a representative of one of the parties in a civil or criminal trial, presenting evidence and arguing in support of their clients.
In an advisor position, lawyers act as legal counselors who counsel their clients about their legal obligations and rights and accordingly suggest the best courses of action in their personal and business matters for their best interest. All lawyers research the purpose of each law and judicial decision and implement the applicable law to the particular circumstances that their clients face. Lawyers sometimes even supervise and manage the works of support staff, like legal assistants and paralegals, and legal secretaries.
Depending on their place of work, lawyers are subjected to different titles and are assigned different duties. In the largest law firms, lawyers are often called associates asked to perform legal work for businesses and individuals. Those lawyers who defend or represent the accused in a criminal trial are defense attorneys or criminal law attorneys.
1. Prosecutors:
A few lawyers are also appointed as legal advisers for state, federal, and government. Such lawyers are known as prosecutors who work for the government, filing charges or lawsuits against organizations or individuals accused of violating the law. Here, the government also appoints some lawyers as public defense attorneys who represent individuals who financially cannot afford to hire a private attorney.
2. Government Counsels:
Lawyers appointed as government counsels work at the government’s legislative branches or administrative bodies. The works of such government counsels include writing and interpreting laws and regulations and establishing procedures for its enforcement. They also work as a legal reviews writer of agency decisions. On the government’s behalf, they argue on criminal and civil cases.
3. Corporate Counsels:
Corporate counsels or in-house counsels are lawyers who work as legal experts for companies. Their work is to advise the organization’s legal executives about the legal issues regarding the company’s business activities. The common problems that involve an organization’s business activities are government regulations, patents & trademarks, property interests, collective-bargaining contracts with unions, contracts with other companies, and taxes.
4. Public-Interest Lawyers:
They are lawyers who work for non-profit and private organizations, providing legal aid to disadvantaged people or people who have been wronged or duped and cannot afford a legal representative. This kind of lawyer usually accepts civil cases, like those that are related to job discrimination, leases, and wage disputes.
There are particular fields, which lawyers may choose to specialize in. Based on the areas, the following is an elucidation of the types of lawyers and the job role they follow.
5. Tax Lawyers:
They have expertise in handling all tax-related matters for organizations and individuals. They assist their clients in decoding complex tax regulations so that they end up paying a fair amount as taxes on items they earn as income, such as profits, property, and revenue.
6. Environmental Lawyers:
Such lawyers advocate for the environment and handle the issues and regulations that directly or indirectly relate to the environment. For instance, ecological lawyers may work for waste disposal companies, advocacy groups, or government agencies.
7. Family Lawyers:
This type of lawyer deals with a variety of legal issues that involve a family. Their area of expertise includes advising their clients on child custody, divorce, and adoption proceedings.
8. Securities Lawyers:
Securities lawyers look after legal issues that arise from the buying and selling of shares and stocks. They ensure that all the requirements related to disclosure are ok. They explain the law to corporations interested in buying shares in other organizations or getting in the stock exchange through an initial public offering or IPO.
9. Intellectual Property Lawyers:
These lawyers govern the laws applicable on patents, inventions, trademarks, and creative works, like books, music, and movies.
Parting Words
As you have read above, the roles and responsibilities of a lawyer are vast and depend on the type of lawyer you choose to become or the field you would love to pursue as a lawyer. While those who require a lawyer’s services need to know what legal help they need and accordingly look for the type of lawyer who specializes in their problems.
