Introduction to Law - from a work experience course regarding career prospect and job types PDF

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from a work experience course regarding career prospect and job types...

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Introduction to Law

You should know that Law is a very broad, and often complex field, though it can lead to wonderful careers and very happy lives. In this programme, we will present an overview of Law, though be prepared for lots of terminology and theories that you may not be familiar with. Of course, we don’t expect you to remember everything - just try to enjoy the process, engage with the topics, and complete the activities and quizzes to the best of your ability. In effect, you’ll be giving yourself the best possible opportunity to gain an introduction to Law by getting stuck in! There are many reasons why you might want to pursue a career in Law. Here are just a few of the more important ones:

Diverse career options With a multitude of positions and an ever-expanding range of practice areas, Law offers you the opportunity to specialise in what you are interested in most. Family, environmental and criminal law are just a handful of the more popular routes you can go down, though there are many more. Law can also open opportunities in fields such as media, academia and social work. Every organisation needs legal advice at some point in time, and so you could have the power to make a real difference.

Financial rewards The legal profession remains one of the most lucrative industries to work in - in other words, if you build a decent career in the field of Law you will almost certainly be financially comfortable, if not rather wealthy. While figures vary widely by location, practice and position, you could earn upwards of £40,000 as a trainee lawyer in London. This is likely to increase as time passes!

You’ll get to work in a dynamic environment Laws and legislation are constantly evolving, creating fresh challenges and, subsequently, new rewards. Each case is unique, and you’ll need to use all your skills to achieve the best possible outcomes for your clients. Reputation is key in the Law industry, so build yours from the word go!

Job stability Economic downturns have the power to put some industries under great pressure, as the Covid-19 pandemic has proven. However, no matter what becomes of the UK economy, you should still find opportunities as a legal professional.

You could explore international opportunities The world becomes increasingly connected in recent decades, and therefore so has the legal profession. If you can secure a position at an international law firm or corporation, you may be able to take on exciting opportunities to work and travel in new countries and regions abroad.

Can you see yourself pursuing a career in law? If you’re looking for a mentally and financially rewarding career in a flexible and fast-paced industry, becoming a lawyer could give you all that and more. The possibilities are endless, and so is your earning potential... Career Opportunities

Okay, so in this section, we are going to present a batch of potential career opportunities for you if you have a Law Degree. This is by no means a comprehensive list - more of an overview of some of the more popular and common career paths:

Arbitrator Arbitrators work in alternative dispute resolution (or ADR). Arbitration is one of the ways legal disputes are resolved outside the courts and across international boundaries. Arbitrators are used by many individuals and businesses, on a voluntary basis, meaning both sides must agree to follow any final decision. To sum up: An Arbitrator plays the role of a neutral person, who makes decisions on a dispute based on the evidence presented by the two or more parties.

Barrister Barristers are specialists in advocacy and represent individuals or organisations in court. They're independent sources of legal advice and can advise clients on their case. Generally, they are hired by solicitors to represent a case in court and only become involved once advocacy before a court is needed. To sum up: As a Barrister, you'll plead the case on behalf of your client and the client's solicitor. Members of the public can also go directly to a barrister to ask for advice and representation in court.

Barrister's Clerk Working as a Barristers' Clerk, you are responsible for running the administration and business activities of a Barristers' chambers. Your role is integral to the success of a set of chambers, both as a legal practice and as a business. To sum up: As a Barrister’s Clerk, you must be familiar with court procedures and etiquette and develop expertise in the type of law undertaken by your chambers.

Chartered Legal Executive As a Chartered Legal Executive, you'll provide specialist legal support and advice to clients. These may be individuals, groups, public sector organisations or private companies. To sum up: As a Chartered Legal Executive, you'll take instructions from clients and advise on necessary courses of legal action.

Company Secretary As a company secretary, you'll need to ensure a company complies with financial and legal requirements, as well as maintaining its high standards of corporate governance. Although not strictly required to provide legal advice, you'll also need to have a thorough understanding of the laws that affect your areas of work. To sum up: As a Company Secretary, you will act as a point of communication between the board of directors and company shareholders and in some cases an organisation's executive management.

Costs Lawyer Costs lawyers are highly specialist lawyers working in the practice area of legal costs - they're the only branch of the legal profession with detailed knowledge and expertise in the legal costs field. You'll predominantly work with firms of solicitors, but you may also be instructed by members of the public, including businesses. To sum up: A Costs Lawyer ensures that a business relationship between a lawyer and their client is properly established so that any legal costs incurred can be charged appropriately

Detective Detectives are accredited police officers who work as Serious and Complex Crime Investigators or Specialist Investigators. To sum up: Detectives are responsible for managing a range of investigations, such as those concerning robbery, drugs, domestic violence, public and child protection, company fraud, cybercrime, homicide and counter-terrorism.

Licensed Conveyancer As a qualified, professional Property Lawyer, you'll specialise in property law and will work on behalf of clients buying or selling houses, flats, business premises or land in England and Wales. To sum up: As a Licensed Conveyancer, you'll deal with all the legal matters, administration, finance and queries involved in a property transaction.

Paralegal As a Paralegal, you may work in a variety of law firms, chambers and private, public sector and notfor-profit organisations. To sum up: As a Paralegal, you'll play an important role within a legal team and your tasks will often mirror the work of a trainee - or at times even a recently qualified solicitor. The position is sometimes used as preparation for qualifying as a solicitor.

Solicitor

Solicitors take instructions from clients and advise on necessary courses of legal action. Clients can be individuals, groups, public sector organisations or private companies. To sum up: Solicitors deal with personal issues, commercial work and protecting rights, amongst other things. Core Values

Law, at its very foundation, is conceived and derived from values. These values inform and underpin how power should be organised, exercised and controlled at a private and public level. These values are an expectation of not only formal law, but also societal expectations, behaviour and actions. They lie at the heart of every individual, and at the heart of society – as human values.

Here are just three of the most profound core values of Law: 1. A rejection of unfairness and an insistence on essential equality - the whole idea of Law is to establish justice. That means being fair to all parties who may have a dispute and the constant emphasis on equality throughout society. 2. Respect for the integrity and dignity of the individual - every person, in a civilised society, is entitled to their dignity. This is a basic human concept that spans every sector of Law. 3. Mercy - compassion or forgiveness is shown towards someone who we have the power to punish or harm. This is why most countries in the world reject the death penalty, regardless of the crime.

Each of these core values is much more than just expectations of the Law. I guess you could see them as our human moral compass, too. What is Legal Research?

Let’s try to decipher what that actually means. Well, simply put. Legal Research is the process you need to use to identify and find the laws—including statutes, regulations, and court opinions—that apply to the facts of the case you are working on. Lawyers may need Legal Research to provide clients with accurate legal guidance. In the case of Law students, they will often be required and encouraged to use Legal Research to complete memos and briefs for class. These are just a few of the situations in which legal research is necessary. Legal Research is categorised in two main sections: Primary and Secondary sources.

Primary Sources Primary Sources contain the actual law. Constitutions, court decisions, cases, statutes, treaties and administrative regulations are all examples of primary sources. Let’s take a closer look at their meanings within Law: •

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Constitutions - A constitution is a gathering of fundamental principles that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or another type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. Court decisions - The decision of a court regarding the rights and liabilities of parties in a legal action or proceeding. Cases - A particular instance, situation, or example a case of injustice / a situation or an object that calls for investigation or action (as by the police) / a question to be settled in a court of law. Statutes - A written law passed by a legislative body. Treaties - Any legally binding agreement between nations. Administrative regulations - Rules or orders put into effect by a governmental agency to carry out the intent of the law. Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources are materials that comment on, explain and annotate these primary sources. Usually, they include legal periodicals, articles, legal encyclopaedias, annotations, law dictionaries, commentaries and continuing legal education publications. Let’s take a closer look at their meanings within Law: •

• • • • • •

Legal periodical - a category of serial publications about the law. Legal periodicals include legal newspapers, law reviews, periodicals published by way of commerce, periodicals published by practitioner bodies, and periodicals concerned with a particular branch of the law. Articles - a separate and distinct part of a written document, such as a contract, statute, or constitution, that is often divided into sections. Legal encyclopedias - a comprehensive set of brief articles on legal topics. Annotations - a note, summary, or commentary on some section of a book or a statute that is intended to explain or illustrate its meaning. Law dictionaries - a dictionary that is designed and compiled to give information about terms used in the field of law. Commentaries - an unofficial text, intended to complement a particular source of law, often consisting of one or more statutes Continuing legal education publications - publications which help with the continuing professional education for those practising law.

On the other hand, finding tools are reference publications, which are used to find out primary and secondary sources. They include digests, indexes to legal periodicals, and indexes to annotations, law dictionaries and citations.

What is the Purpose of Legal Research?

The purpose of legal research is to find legal documents that will aid in finding a solution to a legal problem. You will likely use a combination of primary and secondary sources to do this. For example, Lawyers must conduct legal research if they need court opinions (that is, case law) to back up a legal argument they are making in a motion or brief filed with the court.

Why is Legal Research important? There are lots of reasons why Legal Research is important.

Firstly, Legal Research helps you focus on the facts of the case. It also enables you to identify the point of law in the disputed issue. The research will also help prepare arguments that you can use in court, and prepare the evidence in that case, which is also backed up by research. On top of that, Legal Research supplements the area of practice, since it backs up everything with credible sources, evidence and even historical data. Regardless of the complexity of the case, Legal Research will help you give complete answers, examine any statutes and even ensure that all legal matters are handled accordingly. Generally speaking, laws are not written in a way that is easy to understand. Lawyers are trained to read and understand the law to make qualified judgments when working on cases, and they can only do this by extensive legal research. Legal Research is needed for just about any type of case, and it will help you move the legal process forward most of the time. What Types of Legal Research are there?

In this section, we will take a look at some of the more common types of Legal Research. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it should give you a general overview of what you need to know. Descriptive v Analytic Descriptive research describes the state of affairs as it exists at present. It reports only what has happened or what is happening. It does not go into the causes of the phenomenon or situation. The methods commonly used in descriptive research are survey and fact-finding methods of all kinds. Analytical research sees the researcher using the facts or information already available to make a critical evaluation of the material.

Applied v Fundamental Applied research aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem. Here the researcher sees their research in a practical context. Applied research aims to SOLVE the problem. In fundamental research (also known as pure research or basic research) the researcher is mainly concerned with generalisation and is not so bothered about its practical context or utility. Fundamental research aims to GENERALISE and add to the fundamental research that already exists.

Quantitative v Qualitative

Quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity and only applies to a phenomenon that can be expressed in terms of quantity. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories, and hypotheses about the phenomenon under inquiry. The process of measurement is therefore central to quantitative research. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with quality or character, not quantity. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research deals with the reasons behind various aspects of behaviour.

Conceptual v Empirical Conceptual research is related to abstract ideas or theories. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones. Empirical research relies on experience or observation alone, often without regard for system or theory. It is data-based research, coming up with conclusions that are capable of being verified by observation or experiment. It is therefore also known as experimental research. In empirical research, it’s necessary to get facts firsthand, at their source. he Legal Research Process

In order to conduct Legal Research, there are questions that you need to ask yourself: What are the facts? Always gather the key facts so you know the "who, what, why, when, where, and how" of your case.

What is the actual legal issue? You’ll never know what to research if you don't have a good understanding of what the legal issue is. For example, is your client seeking help to collect money from an insurance company following a car accident? Make sure you identify the relevant legal problem as well as the outcome sought by the client.

The Legal Research Process The research process you follow will vary depending on the nature of your topic and legal issue. There is no rigid way to conduct legal research, and there will be times when some of the stages that we are about to suggest will either a) not be relevant, or b) be undertaken in a different order.

Identify the scope of the legal question You must identify: • • •

the relevant jurisdiction key sources and search terms the applicable time period.

Begin your research by consulting a secondary source Key articles can give perspective on how your specific issue fits into a broader legal context.

Identify relevant statutes Locate an applicable statute in your review of secondary sources, and review the annotations for the applicable provision (provision: a statement in a contract or a law that a specific thing must happen or be done, or not happen or not be done, in a certain situation)

Identify the cases that are on-point for your specific facts

When reading secondary sources, note cases that relate to your set of facts. Follow up the cases, checking headnotes and reading judgments that seem applicable. One good case can be a great starting point for research on narrow topics.

Use digests and databases to find more cases Digests provide another excellent resource to identify relevant case law. The Digest is a good source for finding cases by topic.

Confirm that your authority is still good law Check that your cases are still good law and provide the most current, direct authority available for your set of facts.

Search other online sources to fill any gaps in your research There are many other online sources, such as blogs and policy websites, etc, that are also useful depending on the topic. You must be careful, however, to evaluate the information you find on the web for accuracy.

Keep a record of your research trail Document all sources reviewed, including all sections and page numbers, regardless of whether you located relevant materials in them. This will help you later when you write up your research and need to checkpoints. Regardless of the path you follow using the above advice, if you are thorough and flexible in your research you will succeed!

Why is Client Communication so Important?

When you work for a legal firm you should be helping develop the brand instead of diminishing it. That all begins with effective client communication. Providing legal expertise and helping with a case is one thing, but good communication with clients is absolutely essential. Keeping in touch is one of the major points to note - being a lawyer is a very busy job, but poor communication can leave clients with reasons for grievance. Among common shortcomings of client communication within Law include failing to keep clients abreast of the progress of a case, or missing a deadline without prior warning. One of the hardest things you’ll have to do is to explain to a client why something was late and a promise not kept. This can easily cause distrust and stack up the pressure. The old saying “under-promise, over-deliver” is a great piece of advice worth following!

Other shortcomings of client communication include failing to take account of language barriers. Not everyone is fluent in English, which is something you must be sensitive to when communicating. Your own clients will be more likely to come back if you have kept in touch and met their expectations. Also, the reputation of the company you work for hinges on your effectiveness of communication. Word-of-mouth will amplify the impact you have, eit...