Job Responsibilities
Civil litigator - represent companies and individuals at all
stages of non-criminal court cases, including drafting pleadings,
making arguments to the court, managing support staff, counseling
clients, etc.
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Job Requirements
First tier law school. Academically challenging, with strict
grading criteria, and heavy workload. Prior experience was four
years active duty military officer, acted as personnel manager
and primary trainer for up to 100 soldiers in surface-to-air
missile units. Definitely honed sense of responsibility - helped
with admission to law school, and with success in law school.
Undergraduate education at highly ranked public university.
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Uppers
Work satisfaction - feel like I really make a difference for clients.
Intellectually challenging. Great people to work with. Professional arguing -
pretty good if you like to argue. Very well compensated.
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Downers
Long hours. Can have extreme pressure from clients because they
pay so much for the service.
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Lifestyle
work an average of 55-65 hours a week. Lots of very nice social activities
through work. Dress code is dress casual. Not many weekends worked, but it does
happen. Many late nights. Racial diversity is ok and improving, but not good.
Gender equity is improving dramatically.
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Compensation
$125K/year base, with bonuses for working longer hours than
required. Bonuses range from $5K to much higher, but for entry-
level attorneys, limited to a maximum of about $15K. Three weeks
paid vacation/year, 12 holidays, very flexible hours, can work
from home, 8 weeks paid paternity leave, very flexible maternity
leave policies (12 weeks paid, then disability).
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Advice to Jobseekers
Excellent job outlook. Great work if you want to be a
professional arguer. Money is good, but not the reason to go
into the law. If you want to become rich, go into some kind of
sales, not the law.
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