If you are considering becoming a lawyer, you need to know the different types of lawyer that you will have to choose from when making a decision on the career path that you want to follow.
There are actually far more areas of law than most people realise and for each one there is a complex legal industry you will need to navigate.
This might sound scary, but pick right and you have a fulfilling and successful career ahead of you where you will be challenged and right in the heart of the action every single day.
Here are some of the most common types of lawyer practicing right here in the UK.
Criminal lawyers
Criminal law is one of the most popular areas of study for budding new lawyers. Criminal lawyer can either work on behalf of the defendant or as a prosecutor on behalf of the crown.
Either way, they will be involved with cases involving everything from minor assaults to murder and a whole lot of other offences in between. Depending on the area a criminal lawyer specialises in they may appear in your local sheriffs court or in a crown court, as well as settling many of their cases in plea agreements outside of the courtroom.
As much as criminal law has a certain appeal to would-be lawyers, working in this industry can take its toll and you have to be the sort of person who thrives under pressure and can deal with potentially traumatic incidents on a daily basis to be successful.
Many criminal lawyers change area of law after just a few years of the stress and pressure involved.
Corporate lawyers
Corporate lawyers tend to deal more with businesses than individuals and will oversee major corporate integration, mergers, contractual disputes and more. They will either work directly for a business as part of an in-house legal team or work for a law firm that has businesses as their clients. Corporate lawyers will often start out their careers by studying business at university before specialising in law further down the line.
The world of corporate law is incredibly competitive and fast paced and making inroads in your career can take years of full-time dedication and hard graft. That said, if you are successful and become a well renowned corporate lawyer you can earn a huge amount of money as this is the most lucrative sector of legal work by some distance.
Human rights lawyers
Human rights lawyers work closely with individuals, government agencies, charities and NGOs to ensure a certain standard of equality and humanity is maintained across civilised society.
They often handle cases involving individuals captured in conflict, racial or sexist discrimination, torture, and ensuring that the families of those lost as a result of a human rights violation receive the justice that they deserve.
Human rights lawyers are some of the most overlooked and underappreciated of all lawyers, often earning far less that corporate or even criminal lawyers but protecting us all from some of the worst possible experiences. The best law firms for human rights are regularly consulted by national Governments and the EU when new laws are being written to ensure that they do not compromise or conflict with existing human rights regulations.
Personal Injury Lawyers
These lawyers get a bit of a tough time in the media due to the abundance of adverts on TV and other forms of media making claims such as no win no fee earning them the rather unpleasant nickname of ambulance chasers.
However, personal injury lawyers are absolutely essential to helping workers get the compensation that they deserve in the event of a workplace accident or where there is genuine fault from a company or anyone else for the accident that has have a genuine negative impact on the victims quality of time.
As well as injuries, there are also lawyers in this area who work with those who have suffered as a result of poor medical care or malpractice within a medical facilities including cosmetic surgeries that did not go the way that they were supposed to or harm caused due to the wrong treatment being applied in the event of a misdiagnosis.