Is Law a good career choice?

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Hi all

I was hoping I could get your opinions on this.

The background is that my job has just been made redundant. After the initial shock wore off I decided to take the opportunity (and the severance money), and go back to university full time to study Law, which I have always wanted to do but never could (I never had a way to study at university full time before as my parents threw me out at the end of high school, however by supporting myself to study part time whilst working full time I manage to get an an undergraduate degree. At the time Law was not available as a part time option anywhere near where I live).

So now I have been accepted into a decent local Law school and am soon to receive my redundancy pay out. If I get a part time job it will supplement the redundancy payout enough so I can just manage financially, if I am very, very careful.

But I am now questioning whether or not I will make it as a lawyer. I don't have good social skills at all and assertiveness is very difficult for me. I am really good at analytical things and verbal comprehension, logic and reasoning, all useful for a lawyer, BUT, as I have found out in my past employment, having a high ability to do the job is rarely enough if you don't have good or even average social skills and assertiveness.

This will probably be my last chance to go back to University full time. If I study law am I just setting myself up for a career that I am unsuited to and can't succeed in? Can I learn the assertiveness?

I don't know.

I would really appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers

Alessi

From what I've heard other lawyers say, you should really only go into law if you have a passion for it. If you're only looking for a big paycheck or guaranteed employment, look elsewhere. As for the social skills and assertiveness, you can probably manage a career without those things, but you'll never succeed far beyond entry level in a competitive firm without them. If you're OK with that, then there's no problem.

An Aspie friend of mine recently endeavored to take the LSat test which is typically required here in the US for entry into Law School. I was flabbergasted because his verbal comprehension is so poor. The LSat tests for aptitude in exactly what you say you are good with:

After studying within an expensive pre-test course; my friend made little headway and decided he is now too old to be able to learn as he had in the past; still missing the self knowledge that his comprehension of anything outside his own brilliant head is lacking.

Also coincidentally, a young woman who I've known from her childhood; who I always knew to be the shyest most soft spoken type; has apparently worked for a law firm since high school!? and is in great demand with that firm. She is now in college and is considering going to Law School next; being urged to do so by the lawyer she works for summers and during school vacations. I think she will be great; she is conscientious and exacting.

Why not find a way to work in law while studying it? Or test the field by becoming a paralegal? Do you have that in your country; paralegals? There is much to be said for immersion in a field before and during higher education. It gets all the bungling out of the way before you command a high salary. Becoming extremely familiar with how a profession really is practiced through direct work in it goes a long way in the area of personal confidence and confidence breeds at least, some, assertiveness.

Law is a huge field, with different areas requiring very different skills. Some types of law require a lot of detailed analysis of documents and regulations, but not a great deal of interaction with clients; others are quite the opposite. Some involve being in court every day; while other lawyers will never step inside a courtroom. Lawyers work not only in law firms but also within other organisations; some lawyers don't actually practice but work in related fields. That may seem unhelpful, but the point is that if you really have a passion for law then you're likely to be able to find a niche that could suit you.

I would agree that the best way to find out if a legal career might suit you is to get some work experience. Also, think carefully about your skills and style of interaction - for example, I'm not very assertive at all on my own behalf, but was always able to be so on behalf of clients. It somehow felt less personal, and there was also an element of acting.

Do also find out more about the chances of employment where you live. Here in Britain, there is a real shortage of legal jobs so many people with law degrees don't actually get to work as lawyers.

There are many different paths a lawyer can take. If you are a strong analytic thinker, you can find success as a lawyer even without having good people skills. Patent lawyers, for example, don't require much human interaction and are notoriously socially inept. Focus on transactional work or working for a company.