how has being a lawyer improved through the years?
338268
Lawyers used to follow the letter of the law. Now, they petition the Supreme Court to change the letter of the law to suit their needs. So ... law is changing according to lawyers' personal ambitions and business needs. Cheers!
313484
Go to law school and become a lawyer.
716810
I work in one.  Your friend is overly sensitive.  People are jerks everywhere you go and people are nice everywhere you go.  Law practice can be stressful and lawyers do vent sometimes.  Personally, I really like the professional enviroment.  I'm only here 35 hours a week and the rest of my life is the part that counts.  I'm just here for the paycheck and at 5:00, I leave the office and don't give it another second's thought.
316901
Depends on YOU!\n\nAny career you choose, the success or the failure rates depends on. Only YOU!. Its your choice. So everything is yours.\n\nTo be a lawyer, you need to have a good memorising capability, logical reasoning(as much as possible), good (very very good) in ENGLISH Language, ability and interest to work with peoples of different types, capable of handling criticise and a lot, lot, lot of beleif in yourself. And more things I dont know. But there are more things. The main thing is that you have to be a good human being. As far as I think bad human being or bad lawyers are also unseccessful lawyers - from the perspective of money and respect.\n\nIf you are really interested in studying law and wants to choose law as your carrer then life for you will be challenging and thrilling for sure as u said your country is too much corrupted. But as the system is itself TOO MUCH corrupted so "respect", "honour" and "honesty" cannot be assured. But, Good Luck aneway. You should be capable of having a very very strong and VERY STRONG DESIRE to be a lawyer otherwise take some other things as a career for earning money and challenge, thrill and others. Take law as a hobby.\n\nYour choice.\nThink. Not only lawyers, everybody should think. right?\n\nGoodLuck.
975666
I'm glad you asked that question.\n\nI went to university and studied economics. And then I took an aptitude test (the LSAT, as it then was) on a bet, and got a very high score. And even though my college grades weren't the greatest (they weren't bad, either) I got into the #3 law school (I applied to 3 only of the top 10 and got into them all). So I studied law even though I hadn't any particular interest.\n\nAnd I passed the bar first time, but the law still bored me so I spent 20 years seing the world and making babies.\n\nAnd then I went back to law school in another country for six years, and got 3 more law degrees. And in the country where I got those degrees, and in the funny language they speak there, they call me "Doctor". Which embarrasses me, because I still think the title belongs to a medical person, and my youngest daughter, of the many I have, is studying medicine in London. \n\nAnyway, to get back to the subject, people kept asking me questions about why they were caught up in the legal system, and I didn't want to be rude, and so I answered them.\n\nAnd that's how I got involved with the criminal justice system. Giving free, or relatively free, advice. But the practice of law is a business even more than it is an academic subject or a professional expertise; and I have no business sense and no wish to emulate the late Jimmie Cochrane.
76029
Your questions contain non-sequitors that indicate a possible inability to become an ideal lawyer, much less a member of the bar.  One doesn't attain secrets.  One has secrets.  One might attain a secret desire.....etc.\n\nHowever, I didn't pick this to abuse you...but rather to help.\n\nI'm not sure what an "ideal lawyer" is, although I have some idea.  I'm pretty sure that studying political science is not necessarily the way to go about it...in fact, I'm pretty sure that in most countries, one studies law to become a lawyer.  If you are referring to undergraduate studies prior to law school, that is another question.  There is no such thing as an ideal lawyer as law is practiced in many ways....corporate law, criminal law, tax law, general practice, specializations, etc.  \n\nFrankly, the discipline of political "science" (yeah like it is really a science", prepares one to understand political systems and processes.  It gives one the tools to analyze these systems and understand them more clearly than the average person.  As an academic subject, it is practically useless except as preparation for other study.  It does provide a good foundation for analysis of policy and law, which could be useful in law school.  However, most pre-law programs are probably better suited for preparation to be an attorney.  There, one gets targeted preparation in subjects and skills.  One gets history, political science, legal history, communications.  It is important to study philosophy (specifically logic), debate, psychology, and then other subjects that can be hlpful in specialization...accounting and business for tax and corporate lawyers, sociology or forensics for family and criminal lawyers, etc.  Good luck.\n\nAn ideal lawyer, in my view, is an attorney who represents his client to the best of his ability while observing the ethical standards of his profession.
1034112
None.  I had a classmate in law school who was in her 50s.  She had been a kindergarten teacher for 20+ years before that. One of her former students was in the group of law students a year behind us!
976853
I happen to be a lawyer.  I was somewhat older when I started law school (30), so there wasn't an illusion of showing up to save the world from all of the injustices, however, I wanted to be really good at what I did.  After working in private practice for 4 years, I struck out on my own.  It has been a struggle to establish a solid client base, but I love being my own boss, getting to pick and choose what cases I want to take, and setting my own hours.  It really gives me a lot more time to spend with my family.  Not the typical burning the midnight oil scenario.  What I truly despise are the people who stereotype the entire legal profession as power hungry, greedy, blood sucking vultures.  That is entirely untrue, and while there are unsavory persons in any profession, many attorneys in my community are truly concerned and caring individuals who volunteer their time on many occasions to help those less fortunate.  Enough said!!
446370
Yes atheletes are getting better. If you look at it, atheltes today have an advantage because if the get sick or hurt, we have better doctors and medicine that can help them get better. Plus, we have better teaching(like in baseball, better coaches to teach the best swing), and better ways to train. So yes, players are getting better all the time.
509552
You should get a little life experience in your chosen profession before running off to law school. Too many people become lawyers simply because they have sufficient reasoning ability, but their lack of life experience makes them a disaster for their clients, because they have never faced any real world problems in their own life, so as to bring that experience to bear in solving the problems of others.\n\nYou are undoubtedly intelligent enough to get into law school, and any decent ABA school will be sufficent for you to obtain employment. But, don't do it just because you think medical law is interesting. Do it because you want to help people.\n\nFood for thought for an early Sunday morning. Good luck.
847582
Sorry, but if your question represents the best English you can muster, you will not make a good lawyer.  Contrary to what several people have said here, it does take smarts to make a good lawyer.  A person of average intelligence will make a poor lawyer and, frankly, will get eaten alive by other, smarter, lawyers.
943497
You have to go to four years of college, major in anything but political science is good, then pass a law school entrance exam, get accepted into a law school which takes three years to complete, then sit for the bar, which means you have to pass the bar exam.  After you pass the bar, you get sworn in and you are then a lawyer.\nYou have to pass the bar for each state that you want to practice.
474058
HAHAHA, as a law student I think irdll's answer is hilarious... Sure if you believe in ridiculous stereotypes, yeah, we all want money.  But there are lots of lawyers who take public interest jobs, work with the ACLU, etc.  Lawyers are the ones who make sure your rights aren't trampled on on a daily basis, products are safe for you to use on the shelf, and keeps us from all getting out phones wiretapped.\n\nOk, there's a few things increasing the numbers of applications to law school.  The economy is one of them... it is harder to get a good job and make money unless you have a higher degree - graduate school is expensive, you are gathering debt while you are going, and you aren't bringing any income in during that time.  Doctors can make a lot of money when they graduate, but they're in school, residency, etc for 5 or more years after their bachelor's.  Lawyers have 3 years of school, then they can go out and pay off their debt, and be more comfortable. Also, I live in SoCal, where to have a "middle class" household you need a house that will cost you at least $500k in this market, and both parents need to work and earn at least $60k a year, if not more, just to get by comfortably.  Most lawyers aren't rich, they have more money than others, yes, but they also work twice as hard.\n\nAlso, lawyers are always in demand.  Everyone is always suing everyone, and with current issues like living wills (think Terri Schiavo), abortion, the increase in e-commerce, technology and the need for new patents, there are plenty of exciting areas to explore.\n\nIf you are asking why law school became important in order to work in a legal field (your question is a bit vague), you can check out the history of the legal field on wiki, etc.  However, some schools used to offer legal degrees without a bachelors many years ago (it wasn't the same Juris Doctorate you get at law school today).  But since the legal field is so increasingly important, and states have the need to license and endorse attorneys (American Bar Association, various state bars) there needs to be an approved type of institution to regulate the minumum educatiional guidelines.\n\nI'm not sure if I have answered your question, but hopefully I've given you something to think about.
452570
you can major in anything at a 4 year undergraduate college, then it takes 3 years of law school to get your JD. After that you need to clerk for at least a year. so youre looking at quite a while before you actually start practicing law.
1166126
The biggest thing is to get your hands on as many actual LSAT exams as you can and really study those tests well. You can buy them directly from LSAC (www.lsac.org) or you can buy books of them at many bookstores (online or physical). Make sure to get ACTUAL LSAT TESTS!! Many companies produce their own versions of the test that do not accurately mimic the questions on the LSAT. Get the real ones. \nAs far as a test prep class goes there are lots of them out there, but they may or may not be worth the cost to you. For example the average score increase for a student who takes 20 practice exams (from the 50 or so actual exams available) is actually higher than Kaplan's average score increase. If you have the dedication, and the discipline you may be able to succeed on your own. \nI would recommend getting the book "The Next Ten Actual LSAT Exams" and start taking those. The book is about $30 and contains (as the name suggests) ten real tests. It is the most recent of the books of real tests (has test numbers 29-38 Oct, '99-Oct. '02) and is a reasonably good gauge of how well you are scoring. See how you are doing on those, and compare it to how well you will need to do to get into the law schools you want to attend. \nIf you work at it for a while on your own, and still aren't seeing improvement, then perhaps look into the courses out there. Do some research though. Just because someone spams that a certain class is the best doesn't make it so.
562037
To call yourself a lawyer in the US you have to pass your state's Bar Exam which is a pretty brutal test. I suppose it would be possible to get through it without going to school but most people--- and I mean pretty much all of them--- go to law school, which you can't get into without a 4-year college degree.  Without passing the Bar exam, you can call yourself an "advocate" or "advisor" or such but you won't make nearly the money that a lawyer does.
196982
To be any kind of lawyer, you must first get your bachelors, then go to law school, another 3 years.  Then you can decide what kind of law to practice.