Law and Legal Services Career Community
The field of law and legal services encompasses a wide variety of careers. Maybe you’re an attorney, paralegal, law enforcement officer, court reporter, border patrol agent, mediator, compliance officer, consultant, and other related professions, or you’re thinking about becoming one. People currently working in or considering a career in this field are invited to join us and share opportunities, learn from each other, and build a strong network.
Careers in law run the gamut from paralegal to Doctor of Juridical Science. This article will introduce you to a variety of career pathways in the legal field, including several types of law degrees.
The right time for law school will vary from person to person, but here is the good news: every year, first-year law students come from a mix of folks fresh out of undergraduate and those who have been working for a few years.
Areas of law can focus on specialties ranging from civil rights and environmental regulations to criminal or commercial litigation. Learning about the various fields you can pursue can help you choose a specialization that suits your interests and unique skill set.
There are many jobs in law that you can pursue. Some positions involve studying the law while others focus on applying it to practical situations. Here are a few types of jobs you can consider if you are interested in a job where working with the law is a regular part of your duties.
In this course, law professor Kim Wehle explains how thinking like a lawyer and employing the legal method of decision-making helps eliminate emotional reactivity, confirmation bias, and other decision-making pitfalls in favor of evidentiary-based analysis. Kim highlights key aspects of decision making and problem solving, like identifying stakeholders affected in any decision, the importance of asking the right questions, identifying, and prioritizing your goals, and exercising critical listening skills.
This course—part of the Microsoft Professional Program offerings—explores the ethical and legal frameworks applicable to the data profession. Learn how these frameworks apply to practical problems posed by work in big data and data science and investigate applied data methods for ethical and legal work in analytics and AI.
With a little practice, anyone can learn the simple rules of negotiation to get a great deal on a new car or house or achieve greater success at work by getting better deals with suppliers, customers, and even colleagues.
FindLaw is a comprehensive site for legal professionals. Also, its Law Career Center provides many job listings for attorneys and others in the industry.
Law Crossing's job listings include more than 70,000 open legal positions from around the globe. The site lists jobs from about a quarter of a million legal employers, including law firms, governments, corporations, and more.
This site bills itself as the premiere resource for legal jobs. In fact, Lawjobs.com provides users access to information about open positions for attorneys, legal aids, support staff, and others in the legal profession.
Legal Staff is a great free option for locating key open positions in the legal field. The site’s search features are easy to use, and its dedicated focus on the legal industry ensures that you only see jobs that are relevant for your career.
In addition to joining the Connect UMass Career Community for Law and Legal Services, there are many other ways you can meet and collaborate with people in these industries.
UMass Registered Student Organizations of Interest
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Pre-law club
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Isenberg law club
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Student Legal Services Office
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Mass SPIRG
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Debate
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Roosevelt Institute