General Description
This is an ideal career for analytical thinkers. A solicitor has a wide range of duties and responsibilities. In most instances, a solicitor is engaged by a client to advise on legal aspects of a matter.
Career Advice - Solicitor Career
This may require the solicitor to draft letters of advice, represent their client in court, conduct negotiations, undertake extensive legal research or draft/ review legal agreements on a client’s behalf.
Ultimately, you must be capable of:
- assessing the nature and scope of a legal matter;
- understanding a client’s overall objectives and expectations;
- meeting those objectives while managing the client’s expectations; and
- sticking to ethical responsibilities .
Your work may cut across a number of areas including property, taxation, finance, employment, family, personal injury, litigation, probate, competition and criminal law.
What you do every day
Depending on the area of law in which you specialise, a large proportion of your day is spent drafting and reviewing legal documents, researching the various legal angles of a matter and communicating with clients, barristers and other solicitors. Accurate record keeping, time management and effective communication are all extremely important aspects of the job.
Personality that best fit this career
You must be able to communicate effectively. Likewise you must be persuasive, an influencer and an excellent negotiator. You must have presence and stature. You have to be able to absorb and distil large quantities of information, get to the heart of the issue and make a recommendation or give advice.
Any law career has pressure, as many times, particularly in criminal cases, a person’s life is at stake. Above all else, you must have a heightened sense of right and wrong and an unquestionable character and set of ethics. Common sense and the ability to remain calm whilst under intense pressure and scrutiny complete a skill set only the very gifted solicitors possess.
Best thing about this career
The best part of a solicitor’s work is enjoying the feeling of achievement and accomplishment which occurs when a legal matter is resolved. In litigation, it is the thrill of victory; in corporate law, the finalisation of months of work ending in an agreement; and in family law, a custody case settled amicably. You are challenged every day as a solicitor. Your work forces you to develop and implement valuable life skills, which assist in your success both inside and outside the professional world.
Worst thing about this career
You are required to review large amounts of documentation, which at times can be tedious. Working to meet pressure deadlines and keep clients satisfied can be very stressful and may result in long hours at the office. Unfortunately, the nature and the stress of a heavy caseload can weigh heavily on a solicitor.
About the Author
Brand Partners, Melbourne
Brand Partners is a niche Melbourne based firm, specialising in commercial law. We run our practice on a philosophy of specialisation and excellance, with our principal goals being to provide the highest quality legal services and to be an instrumental part of each client's success.
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