Lawyers in TV’s
The legal profession or lawyers, in particular, are always portrayed in movies, television shows, or any other media as some kind of sleazy, very chill, very smart guys (or gals). Lawyers are always depicted in courthouses engaging in rebuttal discourse with another lawyer and after driving home a seemingly game-changing point would turn his back in a very slick and dissident way.
Unfortunately, scenes like this seldom play out in a courtroom. And that is if they ever get to see the insides of a courthouse. Surprised? Being a lawyer is not what the TV made it appear to be?
Lawyers in Sacramento can help their clients with many things. In fact, if law enforcement officers issue a search warrant to falsely accuse or mislead you, a Sacramento criminal attorney can help you terminate the warrant search.
This shocking revelation may have you thinking about getting into the legal profession but you still should because despite lacking the flair the silver screen portrayed lawyers to be, there are still tons of interesting facts about lawyers to convince you to become one.
There are roughly 200 possible clients for every lawyer in the US
The US bar lists at least 1.34 million lawyers registered and as of the latest census available, there are 259 million adults in the US that may need legal defense sometime in their lifetime. Crunching those numbers you would come with roughly 200 possible clients you can provide legal assistance or legal defense too. Not counting the probability that some of those in that adult population would require your services at least more than once. This is in direct contradiction to the common myth that there are too many lawyers already.
Lawyers clock more hours weekly
This fact should not be surprising since lawyers are known to have studied long hours before becoming bar registered, fully-pledged lawyers. Lawyers clock upwards of 60 hours per week way higher than the national average of 35 hours per week.
Now, this piece of data might dissuade most people from pursuing a legal career but for the workaholics who love to put in the time into his or her craft and working overtime, this is the perfect career path. So if you do not mind putting in few extra work hours on a daily, then pursuing a career down the legal pathway is for you.
Arizona, South Dakota, and South Carolina
If ever you are a resident from these states then you better hurry up and become a lawyer. These states are found to be fairer and reasonably less litigious than most states. This litigation climate is a telltale sign of how much lawyers are needed per individual. Coincidentally, these states have the fewest number of lawyers. These two statistics would indicate that while few lawyers work in these states they also work fewer hours, so if you are a resident of said states, a legal career should be one of your choices.
Lawyers are actors
While this is a negative connotation of the profession and is certainly not true the reverse, actors are lawyers, could not be said to be true. There are a number of actors who attended law school. While many of them were not able to finish their degree or pass the bar, a good deal of them were able to and successfully practice law. The following actors and performers were able to finish law school, pass the bar and successfully practice the profession.
· Jerry Springer
· John Cleese
· Jeff Cohen
· Gerald Butler
· Ben Stein
· Julio Iglesias
· Gemma Chan
· Andrea Bocelli
· And Rebel Wilson
You would not be surprised by some of these actors' legal precedent and inclination but some in this list will surprise you as they just don't strike you as the lawyer type.
Being a lawyer pays
We all know that being a lawyer pays good bucks but do you know how much exactly lawyers are paid? Lawyers are paid on an hourly basis by their clients. They are paid for each hour they spend studying the case and meeting with their clients.
While some top-notch lawyers reportedly charge a staggering 1,500 USD per hour of their services, national averages fall anywhere between 45 to 90 USD per hour. A lawyer’s hourly rate depends on what state he is working in and what case he is defending for the harder the case to defend the higher the hourly rate they charge.
Less and fewer lawyers in the congress
Congress is seeing fewer and fewer lawyers working on the floor. In the mid-19th century, the congress floor is dominated primarily by lawyers, accounting for around 80% of the total population of the congress. In recent years, however, this percentage has sunk to 40%. Now the congress is a melting pot of different and varied professions. Maybe it has something to do with businessmen and lobbyists?
More lawyers leave their career paths than any other professions
In terms of the relative percentage of people leaving their professions to pursue other career paths, lawyers top the list as more lawyers leave per number of total practitioners. These lawyers leave the profession to either pursue a totally different career path such as going for art or creative career, such as acting, singing, or writing or going to practice some adjacent professions such as law enforcement, executive or management positions in corporations and others. Some other lawyers, on the other hand, leave the profession to practice a different line of work entirely.
Some lawyers never go to court
Not all those who pursued a career in the legal profession want the attention. Not everyone who becomes a lawyer longs for speaking in front of a jury or engaging in heated rebuttals with the opposing side's lawyer.
Other lawyers want to do paperwork like contracts, real estate, and formality paperwork and are called to a court very seldom only if something bad happened that warrants their appearance. Although these types of lawyers do not get a piece of the courtroom action they are still equally responsible for the outcome of the case.
Not every lawyer know every law in a chosen field
Lawyers as much as doctors do have specialties. Not every lawyer can properly provide expertise in subject matter that they are not familiar with and these specializations allow lawyers to better provide legal expertise and assistance to their clients.
Not a single area of expertise can cover the rest or majority of the other areas hence, clients often look for lawyers who have specialization in areas they need to be taken care of. These specializations in different areas including but are not limited to:
· Admiralty Law
· Business Law
· Constitutional Law
· Criminal Law
· Environmental Law
· First Amendment Law
· Health Care Law
· Intellectual Property Law
· Joint Degree Programs
· Patent Law
Lawyer-client privileges
If there is one thing we know of lawyers is that lawyer-client privileges are their sort of a sacred oath, their very own Hippocratic Oath. But what few of us know is that lawyers are required to maintain that lawyer-client privilege even in times when his or her lawyer is called to testify against the client.
This privilege is kept even under times of extreme duress much like doctors’ oath “To never do harm”. And much like doctors, lawyers would go well beyond their means to try to adhere to this oath.
Law is a great career path for women
The law profession is a profession where there is an almost equal ratio of men and women. Women lawyers account for 40% of all US lawyers. That percentage is one of the highest in any professional field and is what makes it attractive to other female aspiring lawyers. Also, the first woman lawyer passed the bar in the 1890s that makes the legal profession one of the earliest metoo movement followers. Talk about gender equality, right?
You can defend yourself in the courts
If ever you find yourself in need of legal representation and defense but a pinch financially, take solace in the knowledge that you can represent your case and defend it accordingly by yourself. First, you have to prove to the judge that you are legally competent to represent yourself and second, you must prove that you are competent to stand trial.
If you answered yes to both then, by all means, represent yourself but legal professionals would argue against it as practicing law is the kind of profession where the more experience you have the better you will be and if you have no experience at all you would stand little chance defending yourself.
The “Bar” in bar exams
We know that passing the bar means you get to become a fully-pledged lawyer and you can now legally practice law. But did you know that passing the bar literally means that you can now pass through the physical gated wall that separates the lawyers and judges from the members of the public? This representation means that by passing the bar exam, you can now pass through the bar that separates the public and the legal practitioners in a courtroom. This is a nice little fitting symbolism that sort of inspires young people to pursue a career in the legal profession.