Where to Lawyers Work

Many lawyers aim to balance their career and personal lives. This can be challenging in any job field, but especially within law.

At times, legal work requires unfaltering focus while under intense pressure. With deadlines and other commitments pressing in unexpectedly, lawyers must keep billable hours high in order to remain profitable; often leading to long workdays with little chance for relaxation in-between.

In-House Counsel

In-house counsel are legal specialists hired exclusively by private businesses. In their capacity as legal advisors, they provide legal advice, draft and review contracts, negotiate business deals, identify risks to reduce, develop opportunities to capitalize upon or mitigate and manage outside law firms performing legal services for them. Their job requires translating complicated legal matters into commercial terms that resonate with management and investors of a business.

As they must address all legal needs for their employer, in-house lawyers rarely specialize in certain areas like firm associates do. Furthermore, there may be less opportunity to switch into non-legal roles after working in-house and finding it more challenging to return to a law firm after having spent some time working alone.

Many lawyers choose major markets such as New York City as they make finding challenging legal work easier, but if achieving work-life balance is important to you, smaller markets and secondary or tertiary markets may offer lower costs of living and more flexible working hours.

Government Attorney

Tens of thousands of lawyers work for government entities on local, state and federal levels. Working for government can be intellectually stimulating while offering significant responsibilities early on in one’s career. Most commonly these jobs are found with either executive, legislative, judicial branches of the government where lawyers may handle civil or criminal litigation cases as well as draft laws and regulations and counsel lawmakers on legislation matters.

Many new attorneys seek clerkships with local, state and federal judges in order to gain hands-on legal experience and build their credentials. Clerkships generally last one or two years and involve researching and writing memoranda; drafting orders; internal memos and attending various judicial proceedings.

Some lawyers choose to practice public interest law, providing representation for low-income individuals and groups impacted by social policy issues like housing, immigration, family, employment, bankruptcy consumer and discrimination matters. To learn more about this career path visit the American Bar Association’s resource, Public Interest Careers which contains occupation profiles, education/licensing requirements, duties/pay/outlook details.

Public Defender

As a public defender, your job would be to represent criminal defendants who cannot afford their own lawyers. You could work in either a large public defender office or at multiple smaller ones that cover a specific geographical area.

Many public defender offices require prospective public defenders to undergo an initial panel interview, during which candidates are asked questions regarding substantive legal law and ethical matters in order to assess their abilities and dedication to providing indigent defense services. Public defenders must be willing to accept cases while dealing with emotional strain that comes with representing clients.

Attorneys sometimes enjoy taking on the challenges of defending clients against what can often seem an unfair system; others feel called to perform this work out of a strong sense of moral obligation. New York City public defender groups include Brooklyn Defenders & Legal Aid Society.

Private Practice

Some lawyers opt for private practice, which may take the form of either a law firm or solo practice. Law firms may specialize in areas like corporate law, taxation, trusts and estates administration, family law, bankruptcy filings, immigration or civil rights; solo practitioners usually specialize in litigation for one particular case type.

Lawyers can also work for government agencies or nonprofit policy think tanks. Here, lawyers perform research and write briefs intended to inform policymakers. Such positions provide lawyers with opportunities for political advocacy while paying lower salaries than private practice groups.

Beginning your own private practice can be both exciting and fulfilling; whether you are unhappy with an agency, group practice isn’t meeting your needs, or you just want more autonomy, starting your own private practice can be immensely satisfying – however it does present unique challenges which must be considered such as financial, professional, and logistical matters.