Career Guidance On LAW

LAW

Personal desire

Many people who choose this path do so mainly due to the prestige attached to it. For centuries, lawyers have been considered to associate around nobility. They gave counsel to the most powerful, mainly aristocrats of societies. Because of their association, lawyers generally lived prosperous and dignified lives. This perception still continues today.

The law has been an attractive career path for so many especially the young. The degree gives a certain dignifying stature to all those pursuing the program and those who have already obtained their law degrees and using them for whatever purpose.

Financial Prospects

The law degree is quite a lucrative degree. However, for some venturing into this career, it may be found that the financial prospects may not come as soon enough as they may actually have imagined.

Law has many career paths that one would want to take and each one of them would present a good opportunity financially. For many, the main reason they would pursue the law degree, is to take the Bar exams and get admitted to the Bar then begin their career as practicing lawyers after which, some may immediately begin experiencing good financial prospects while others may not. It all depends largely on the clientele. The first path therefore for law is in the practice of law.

Lawyers also have career paths in the judiciary. In most countries it is increasingly becoming a common trend that for one to become a judge of even the lower courts, that they should have a background of law. Hence, depending on the level at which one is to join the judiciary, either as a judge of the higher courts or subordinate courts. One would become a magistrate upon obtaining their law degree or appointed judge of the higher court after having practiced law for a certain number of years. The prestige of the bench and the incentives that go with a career on the bench makes the law degree to be a highly sought after degree.

The law degree does not just open up lawyers to a career in practice or the bench. Lawyers also have an opportunity to have a career in the corporate world and in government. In the corporate world, lawyers always make Company Secretaries for most companies. The need for compliance with companies’ statutory obligations means that almost every company, has to have a compliance officer who in most instances would be a law degree holder. Every contract that is entered into by a company, may not be completed unless the company’s legal counsel has given legal guidance.

In government, almost every ministry of government deals with legal documents. The need for lawyers in government, will always be high. There is always a need for legal services in government institutions. Further, lawyers can find good careers in politics because of the nature of the program. Since parliament makes laws and is an institution of discussion on matters of national interest, lawyers by their training, understand the law that parliament makes, better than others would. Further, the training of lawyers place much emphasis on their ability to be critically analytical thereby making them better parliamentarians.

Law degree holders may therefore choose anyone of the paths and in each, the financial prospects are good.

Longevity

Choosing a career where one determines when they retire is an important factor that one should look at as they decide their career path. In some countries Zambia inclusive, it is a legal requirement that, at the ripe age of fifty-five (55) years, one should be retiring.

A career therefore where the belief, the older the wiser, is true, is in the legal profession. If one has chosen the path of a lawyer, one can remain in the practice of law into their old age and as their hairs grey, so equally are they considered wiser sometimes notwithstanding their standing at the Bar.

Hence, if one desires to become professionally active way after the prescribed retirement age, the law degree would be the best degree to pursue where one would even embark on this new career upon retirement from their other professions and start a new career altogether after the ripe age of fifty-five and still make a good career for themselves way into their twilight years.

If you are a school leaver or at crossroads in your career and deciding which career path to take, you may want to consider the law degree. Lusaka Goldsmiths University has a strong law faculty with academicians who have both strong practical and academic experience spanning over eighteen years of research and lecturing in the field of law. Law is the number one sought after degree at Lusaka Goldsmiths University and you would be making an important life changing decision choosing to pursue your Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree with Lusaka Goldsmiths University.