Ah, the profession of law - the joy of being a counselor, a court-going lawyer vehemently defending your clients, or being a shrewd law practitioner within chambers where you are structuring business deals, strategies and transactions for your clients in those multi-million dollars deals. You could also be a lawyer fighting for human rights, be passionate about defending and maintaining the rule of law and thereby a civil society. Whatever your choice, a legal career is indeed fascinating and only gets more interesting. This has been the case ever since laws were made and lawyers came into existence. So, how does one prepare for a legal career?
Preparation for a legal career begins even before you enroll in law school; it begins with your choice of law school. Try to get into the best possible law school and learn from the best faculty members available in the legal arena. You will have illustrious classmates who, just like you, will go on to occupy good positions in administration, public service and law practice; you could be chosen for employment by the big law firms, where you get opportunities to participate in some of the landmark legal cases while working with the best brains in the business.
Once you are enrolled in law school, ensure get the best grades possible. If you do start off with low grades make efforts to improve them quickly. Pay attention to all subjects. It is not a good idea to choose favorites among them in the first few semesters. Keep your focus on attuning yourself to basics and founding principles of all the subjects and laws that you are taught.
Lately, in order to be successful in most streams of education and to appear as a well-rounded individual who would attract the best employers, it has become highly essential that you continually excel in extracurricular activities as well. Some avenues for extracurricular activities in legal education include moot courts, youth parliament, debating societies and so on. Choose any or all of these which deal intensely with laws and policies in a jurisdiction. They help create an articulate individual, provide simulated environments for real court action, experiences of adversarial actions and adversary legal defense.
Whether your law course is for 3 years or 5 years, divide your time between studies, extracurricular activities and include practical training in as many places that deal with legal practice as possible. Examples include assisting a law professor, working as a paralegal for a solo-practitioner, assisting a judge in the higher courts, interning in a law firm, summer placements with non-profit organizations that work in fields of human rights, policy formulation and environmental issues. Lastly, toward the final semesters when you have sufficient theoretical knowledge and some practical training you may consider doing some non-representative pro bono activities, preferably under the supervision of an attorney. Any time during your law training, you can consider writing articles for campus periodicals, local newspapers and business publications.
Follow this and you are sure to have an edge over some of your classmates which will result in a good paying legal career.
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