The legal profession in the US Like in many countries around the world, the legal profession in the US includes the profession of lawyers, legal experts of businesses, legal experts of administrative agencies, and teaching professions in schools. law, judge or prosecutor. Among them, lawyers in the US are considered popular and have the highest salaries, so many people want to become lawyers.
1. The profession of Lawyer is very popular and has high salaries but it is difficult to succeed
There are many reasons to explain the problem of having the largest team of lawyers and the highest salaries in America. First, America is the most litigious country in the world, so the number of lawyers in America is very large. People can sue on any issue they feel requires legal intervention. Second, even if they don’t sue anyone, many transactions in society need to go through a lawyer if they want to be sure. You need a lawyer for very small things like traffic violations, tax returns, to divorce, inheritance, all kinds of contractual transactions… Of course, the cost of hiring a lawyer is very high. For example, if you drive too fast and are caught by the police and you want to hire a lawyer, the cost will vary depending on the severity and the state in which your violation occurred, ranging from at least $300 or more.
According to a survey by the American Bar Association (ABA), just over 50% of lawyers are satisfied with their careers. Among lawyers with 6 – 9 years of experience, only 4/10 lawyers said they are satisfied with their career, for lawyers practicing for 10 years or more, this rate is 6/10 . Of nearly 800 respondents, 80% said they were very proud of their profession, and 81% commented that this is a profession that requires a lot of intelligence.
The above numbers show that lawyers are only satisfied with their careers when they are old, simply because as their careers develop, they need to have more responsibilities to maintain their reputation as well as to ensure their jobs. Change career after a few years. However, only 42% of lawyers who have practiced for 10 years or more recommend young people to choose a legal career, for lawyers who have practiced for less than 3 years, this rate is 57%.
Many lawyers underestimate the training of law students in the US. 54% of lawyers polled agreed with the statement that training at law schools is very poor. Law students are not well informed about the needs of the profession.
Many experts also voiced warnings about lawyer ethics. In recent years, litigation fees have increased, and there have been more and more signs of unfairness between lawyers. According to experts, the reason is due to competition for customers. That leads to lawyers caring more about money than their main job of solving problems for clients. “They aim to win at all costs, leading to “disrespectful” behavior towards each other and pushing the litigation process further into wasting money.”
2. Conditions to become a lawyer in the US
In the US there is no distinction between consulting lawyers and defense lawyers. Normally, they are called lawyers, and when defending, they are called attorneys. Attorneys operate under the control of the State Supreme Court in which they practice. Unlike those who teach in law schools, corporate jurists are not controlled by the courts, but are almost always members of the Bar Association of some State, not necessarily the State in which they reside. work.
Conditions to become a lawyer are different in different states. A person admitted as an attorney in a State may practice only in that State, and before the Federal courts. Any lawyer can be registered on the bar list (and pay a small tax). Currently, in many states, if you want to practice law, you must pass an exam held under the control of the court. In three-quarters of states in the United States, having a college degree is a necessary but not sufficient condition to become a lawyer.
The majority of American lawyers practice individually (70%) or in association with only one other colleague (15%). However, in large cities, lawyers often work in a Law Office consisting of about 10 to 200 lawyers. A small number of lawyers specialize in litigation, participating in pre-trial proceedings (interrogation and counter-interrogation) in civil and criminal cases. Some others specialize in similar fields to French public lawyers. The remaining majority of lawyers operate outside the litigation field, performing similar roles as notaries, legal consultants, and tax consultants. Many lawyers are employed at administrative agencies, state-owned or private enterprises.
However, becoming a lawyer is not easy. Most states require a law degree as a prerequisite (some states that do not require a law degree are California, Maine, New York, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming and they may self-study while doing an internship at a law office). The current trend is that fewer and fewer people are self-studying to become lawyers and of course, getting admitted and completing a lawyer program is not easy at all.
3. Training lawyers in the US
Unlike in Vietnam, the legal profession requires a degree, meaning you must graduate from university. More specifically, American universities do not award Bachelor of Law degrees. Every year, prestigious law schools receive many applications from candidates who already have PhDs in a certain field and want to change careers to become lawyers. The admission board will base on the scores (average score of the entire course, scores of each subject) that you have studied, letters of recommendation, self-introduction articles,… and an entrance exam ( depending on each school). Although the entrance exam score is not a completely accurate measure of a lawyer’s necessary reasoning ability, schools often place relatively large weight on this test.
Teaching and learning methods at American law schools are very different from those of schools in France and England. Students must read documents before coming to class (as requested by the Professor). Documents include: judgments, legal documents, legal doctrines (excerpts), some economic and sociological articles. In most classes, the rhetorical method is used, whereby students work in groups under the direction of professors, presenting what they have read and the issues they are aware of. , the professor will ask questions to the students, to make them discover the relationship between the problem being researched and related problems.
The duration of law school is usually 3 years of concentration, the amount of law work is extremely large. Students must read laws, case law, and write commentaries… In addition, first-year law students must take a writing skills class to be able to write articles for a legal journal properly (that is also a process of learning and getting used to). The amount of homework is large, but extracurricular activities at law schools in the US still take up a significant level of priority for writing to prepare for future practice. They must actively participate in mock trials, or work as editors for student law magazines, and provide free legal advice to the community… Some schools (such as Harvard Law School) require students to work 40 hours. Free community consultation as a condition of graduation. Graduates are awarded a degree to practice law.
However, being granted a law degree does not automatically mean being able to practice. Those who are granted a law degree must also pass an exam to be admitted to the bar association. All states require that all potential lawyers (whether they have a law degree or not as required by some states in the US) must pass the bar exam in order to practice law. .
In addition, in the US there is a tendency to combine theoretical training with vocational training in law university programs. Accordingly, law school graduates only need a short internship period to be able to work. This training method is very different from the training method in European countries (which often includes law training in the basic university program and graduates are not capable of practicing immediately and those who want to practice must go through a vocational training course).
