In most common law countries, especially those with fused professions, lawyers have many options over the course of their careers. Besides private practice, they can become a prosecutor, government counsel, corporate in-house counsel, administrative law judge, judge, arbitrator, or law professor.[99] There are also many non-legal jobs for which legal training is good preparation, such as politician, corporate executive, government administrator, investment banker, entrepreneur, or journalist.[100] In developing countries like India, a large majority of law students never actually practice, but simply use their law degree as a foundation for careers in other fields.[101]
In most civil law countries, lawyers generally structure their legal education around their chosen specialty; the boundaries between different types of lawyers are carefully defined and hard to cross.[102] After one earns a law degree, career mobility may be severely constrained.[103] For example, unlike their American counterparts,[104] it is difficult for German judges to leave the bench and become advocates in private practice.[105] Another interesting example is France, where for much of the 20th century, all judiciary officials were graduates of an elite professional school for judges. Although the French judiciary has begun experimenting with the Anglo-American model of appointing judges from accomplished advocates, the few advocates who have actually joined the bench this way are looked down upon by their colleagues who have taken the traditional route to judicial office.[106]
In a few civil law countries, such as Sweden,[107] the legal profession is not rigorously bifurcated and everyone within it can easily change roles and arenas.
Specialization[edit]
In many countries, lawyers are general practitioners who represent clients in a broad field of legal matters.[108] In others, there has been a tendency since the start of the 20th century for lawyers to specialize early in their careers.[109][110]
In countries where specialization is prevalent, many lawyers specialize in representing one side in one particular area of the law; thus, it is common in the United States to hear of plaintiffs' personal injury attorneys.[111][112] Texas offers attorneys the opportunity to receive a board certification through the state's Texas Board of Legal Specialization. To be board certified, attorney applicants undergo a rigorous examination in one of 24 areas of practice offered by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Only those attorneys who are "board certified" are permitted to use the word "specialize" in any publicly accessible materials such as a website or television commercial. See Texas Rule 7.02(a)(6).[113]
Organizations[edit]
Lawyers in private practice generally work in specialized businesses known as law firms,[114] with the exception of English barristers. The vast majority of law firms worldwide are small businesses that range in size from 1 to 10 lawyers.[115] The United States, with its large number of firms with more than 50 lawyers, is an exception.[116] The United Kingdom and Australia are also exceptions, as the UK, Australia and the U.S. are now home to several firms with more than 1,000 lawyers after a wave of mergers in the late 1990s.
Notably, barristers in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some states in Australia do not work in "law firms". Those who offer their services to members of the general public—as opposed to those working "in-house" — are required to be self-employed.[117] Most work in groupings known as "sets" or "chambers", where some administrative and marketing costs are shared. An important effect of this different organizational structure is that there is no conflict of interest where barristers in the same chambers work for opposing sides in a case, and in some specialized chambers this is commonplace. Where lawyer will decide to work is largely down to the remuneration that they will receive. Trainee lawyer salaries vary widely throughout the UK, with their location having a big impact on their pay.[118]
Some large businesses employ their own legal staff in a legal department, e.g. the BBC's Legal Team in the UK,[119] and Molson Coors in Canada.[120] Other organizations buy in legal services from outside companies.[121]
Professional associations and regulation[edit]
Mandatory licensing and membership in professional organizations[edit]
In some jurisdictions, either the judiciary[122] or the Ministry of Justice[123] directly supervises the admission, licensing, and regulation of lawyers.
Other jurisdictions, by statute, tradition, or court order, have granted such powers to a professional association which all lawyers must belong to.[124] In the U.S., such associations are known as mandatory, integrated, or unified bar associations. In the Commonwealth of Nations, similar organizations are known as Inns of Court, bar councils or law societies.[125] In civil law countries, comparable organizations are known as Orders of Advocates,[126] Chambers of Advocates,[127] Colleges of Advocates,[128] Faculties of Advocates,[129] or similar names. Generally, a nonmember caught practicing law may be liable for the crime of unauthorized practice of law.[130]
In common law countries with divided legal professions, barristers traditionally belong to the bar council (or an Inn of Court) and solicitors belong to the law society. In the English-speaking world, the largest mandatory professional association of lawyers is the State Bar of California, with 230,000 members.
Some countries admit and regulate lawyers at the national level, so that a lawyer, once licensed, can argue cases in any court in the land. This is common in small countries like New Zealand, Japan, and Belgium.[131] Others, especially those with federal governments, tend to regulate lawyers at the state or provincial level; this is the case in the United States,[132] Canada,[133] Australia,[134] and Switzerland,[135] to name a few. Brazil is the most well-known federal government that regulates lawyers at the national level.[136]
Some countries, like Italy, regulate lawyers at the regional level,[137] and a few, like Belgium, even regulate them at the local level (that is, they are licensed and regulated by the local equivalent of bar associations but can advocate in courts nationwide).[138] In Germany, lawyers are admitted to regional bars and may appear for clients before all courts nationwide with the exception of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof or BGH); oddly, securing admission to the BGH's bar limits a lawyer's practice solely to the supreme federal courts and the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.[139]
Generally, geographic limitations can be troublesome for a lawyer who discovers that his client's cause requires him to litigate in a court beyond the normal geographic scope of his license. Although most courts have special pro hac vice rules for such occasions, the lawyer will still have to deal with a different set of professional responsibility rules, as well as the possibility of other differences in substantive and procedural law.
Some countries grant licenses to non-resident lawyers, who may then appear regularly on behalf of foreign clients. Others require all lawyers to live in the jurisdiction or to even hold national citizenship as a prerequisite for receiving a license to practice. But the trend in industrialized countries since the 1970s has been to abolish citizenship and residency restrictions. For example, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a citizenship requirement on equality rights grounds in 1989,[140] and similarly, American citizenship and residency requirements were struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and 1985, respectively.[141] The European Court of Justice made similar decisions in 1974 and 1977 striking down citizenship restrictions in Belgium and France.[142]
