if you tell someone you are a lawyer, what do you think?

amother

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 6:21 pm

I know you can't judge someone on their profession, to a certain extent...but anyway, I decided that it's probably the best option for me to study law, as everything else I can't get a job in even though I have good qualifications, just so much competitition in everything. not that I'm just thinking of law as an alternative, it is kind of interesting to me, but my dad isn't really keen on me doing it. he says that lawyers are liars (he's had bad experiences with them), and that in this profession, you will end up lying, no matter how hard you try not to. it seems to me that being a lawyer has a very negative connotation in general. that bothers me quite a bit. am I being stupid? also, I am unsure about entering a profession where I will "end up lying" somewhere or other, and just having to do somewhat immoral things. I try to always be fair and right in my life.
does anyone have any advice for me?

amother

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 6:29 pm

Depends what kind of lawyer you are
As a profession yes they do suffer a lot of negative publicity, due to overcharging,
taking on immoral cases, and fighting for those that really don't deserve to be represented at all

but it depends on what field of law you are in. you could be a lawyer who deals with wills, then you wouldn't suffer any negativity at all.

amother

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 9:35 pm

Hate to break it to you, but you're not going to have much luck finding a job as a lawyer either. The market is awful, and is likely never going to regain its former glory. Law school costs a lot of money. And while I would disagree with your father that lawyer = liar, chances are you will have to represent someone sketchy at some point because your boss tells you to or whatever- and you have an ethical obligation to give the best representation you can, so you can't just do half-hearted job because you don't like the client. But that's the least of your problems. The big issue is that you're about to put a lot of money up front for a very small chance of making enough to justify that cost. Think long and hard before you do that.

smilingmom

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 9:52 pm

As a person who has worked in the courts for over twenty years, I can unequivocally say that it is very easy to tell when a lawyer is lying.
When their lips are moving.
Seriously, it is a great profession if you have no ethical or moral values, otherwise you will make a pittance doing menial or boring cases.
In this poor economy you can make the most money out of other peoples misfortunes.

Orchid

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 11:05 pm

smilingmom wrote:

This refers to trial lawyers, not all other types of lawyers.

smilingmom

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 11:26 pm

Orchid wrote:

smilingmom wrote:

This refers to trial lawyers, not all other types of lawyers.

No offense meant, but what 'type' of lawyer are you referring to?

nyer1

Sat, Jun 09 2012, 11:58 pm

I hate to break it to you but if you are planning on going into being a lawyer because u cant find a job in something else than u are in for a rude awakening. there are hundreds of qualified lawyers out there who can't get jobs and meanwhile they are in serious debt from being in law school in the first place. so, I would rethink your reasons for wanting to be in the profession.

amother

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 12:06 am

Have you considered court reporting?

I am in school for court reporting. I practice one hour during my lunch break at school and another hour at home.

If you become a court reporter, you can be in the legal profession and still get jobs.

I have a friend who completed her paralegal certificate, with a B.A. in something else, while working for a lawyer. She left and couldn't find a single paralegal job. Now she is a secretary at a doctor's office.

Think court reporting for the legal field.

amother

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 12:25 am

I can think of a few good other reasons why you shouldn't go into law that have nothing to do with your concern. The cost of law school, the average salary for a noncorporate lawyer and the fact that it's an oversaturated market are three better reasons to look elsewhere for a career.

amother

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 10:24 am

Okay, I am a little surprised at the stereotypes everyone is so quickly buying into. To say that every time a lawyer talks he's lying? I live in Passaic, and due to its proximity to Manhattan, there are tons of "big firm lawyers" living here. To tar and feather them all as liars and unethical people (which it seems like pretty much everyone on this forum is doing) seems really not nice to me. We have neighbors who are tax attorneys, estate and trust attorneys, real estate attorneys, zoning attorneys. . . forget about the fact that I don't even think EVERY litigation attorney is unethical, why would you assume a tax attorney is unethical?

I'm shocked at how judgmental the responses here have been.

chanchy123

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 10:36 am

My husband is a lawyer, he would never lie or do anything immoral. He does occasionaly represent clients who do such thing, and cringes doing so, he and his partner try to shake off such clients.
There is nothing my DH hates more than falsehood and liars.

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 11:50 am

amother wrote:

Yes, don't be a lawyer. If your primary motivation is that you can't get a job doing other things - look hard at the job market for new lawyers (I am assuming you are in the US). It is absolutely dismal.

If you are genuinely intrigued by the study of law and are motivated despite the poor job outlook, speak to lawyers in different aspects of the legal field, and find out how it really is.

Please don't let a few disgruntled people convince you that everyone who has ever been to law school is unscrupulous. That's just not fair.

Mrs Bissli

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 3:22 pm

As a LLB who decided not to pursue a legal career, I find that lawyer = lier stereotype highly offensive. Especially I'm in financial services with full fledged MBA in Finance where we get accused a LOT for credit crisis and global recession, not to mention greed and lack of ethics. (Right sometimes I don't even comment I worked in Wall St/City/hedge fund etc etc just to avoid social flogging, and just mention sometihng vague and neutral, like eh, I'm in research.)

There are lawyers and lawyers, and IMHO almost any profession would involve some degree of moral or ethical dilemma. Some people may find it hard to be a criminal defense lawyer, for example, but even an evil criminal is entitled to due process. I think it is totally one-dimmentional to call one legitimate occupation unethical or evil.

OP maybe you can tell your Dad that you're gonna take his advice and you decided to go into politics or work for a hedge fund instead... ;-)

As for the ease of getting a job, it really depends on which country you're, and what field of law you practice. You can be working for smaller family firms, or as in-house legal department, which is a totally different environment from working in a large law firm. Also, area of law can be quite diverse, doing securies law, maritime law, family law or criminal justice--all have different requirements.

Tzippora

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 4:09 pm

Mrs Bissli wrote:

You said it, sister! My husband is an attorney and thanks us bankers for making them comparatively popular these days.

Raisin

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 4:13 pm

Have you been reading bleak house?

I was going to say bankers are probably far less popular nowadays - but if someone is a bad person, they will be bad in any profession. Business owners can do a lot of evil as well.

But I know lots of lovely bankers, and lots of lovely lawyers. And criminals need to be defended and innocent people get into trouble as well.

amother

Sun, Jun 10 2012, 4:40 pm

there are some lawyers who are liars and immoral but the profession itself is neutral to very respectable, and yes it is perfectly possible to work as a lawyer and be honest. some lawyers are highly repsectable people in what they do. you do realise that as a lawyer you decide what cases you take on and you are perfectly entitled to turn cases down if you morally see it fit to do so. and some lawyers will knowlingly make less money because they are turning down cases they don't want. there is self autonomy and free choice.
and as someone else said, a lawyer who works in conveyancing, wills, probate, property and transfer of property from one person to another etc, is in a completely "safe" and area of law which doesn't bring harm to anybody and there is no "lying" involved. and by the way, the salary isn't that high, or as high as you think either.
some people are more ambitious or want to make more money. it's most likely in the fields of personal injury and things like that where most lying occurs to make more money, but even then, it totally depends on the lawyer as a person, and many lawyers are honest and do not lie. maybe your father has had bad experiences, fair enough to him, but there are other people who may have had good experiences with another lawyer.
it's not fair to judge a person just because of their profession