Perhaps you have always wanted to stand in a court of law, and say “your honor, permission to approach the bench?” or maybe your dream was made up of a constant and perpetual daydreaming of you cross-examining someone’s witness quite remarkably to then win your case.
Though, after having acquired your bachelor’s degree, gone to law school, taken the bar exam, with your fair share of working either as a paralegal or at a law school clinic throughout these years, you must have come to recognize that a practicing lawyer may sometimes have to go through more than what the big screen depicts. The same goes for law firms.
Here are a few fundamental basics of law firms and their functions that you may want to know.
Law Firms
This business entity, which is either formed by one person or more, the person being a lawyer obviously, engages in the practices of law. The primary service they provide is that they advise their clients, whether they are individuals or companies, about anything concerning the law.
This means their advice is mostly about their client’s legal rights and responsibilities. They may represent their clients in cases, whether it is a criminal case or a civil case. Their services go beyond just that as they can represent clients during business transactions and other matters in which legal assistance is needed.
They have various roles as their services work in many ways. They can represent you during a wrongful death case and make sure you are healing. The law wizards over at Bryant Law Center explain the importance of compassion from a law firm’s perspective, as they understand the devastating emotional impact of wrongful death. They would fight in your stead for the compensation that you deserve, while your family can focus on healing.
Types of Law Firms
Firstly, to get things started, you must know and understand the different types of law firms that exist in this world. They are various and each operates differently.
1. Solo Law Firm
They are run by a single lawyer, as it suggests, and these solo lawyers usually handle a whole lot of legal matters with a variety of topics being added into the mix. Though sometimes, they may also specialize in only one thing. They are generally inexpensive when compared to their larger counterparts, and often do have the flexibility of hiring outside staff, like paralegals and other legal experts. Though they usually lack experience and do almost always certainly lack the resources.
2. Small Law Firms
They are usually called ‘boutique’ law firms, and they usually employ any number of attorneys between 2 and 10. When they are handling complicated legal matters all the lawyers may collaborate. That too is applicable when they are handling related legal matters. They share the mantra of a solo firm, with costs being reduced more than the large law firms, as well as with things such as having close one-on-one attention to clients. They are usually more experienced than solo law firms.
3. Large Law Firms
This type of law firm is also known as a ‘full-service’ law firm, because they are able to handle a large capacity all at once, with extensive legal knowledge and a large staff. They vary in size, with the smallest law firm housing any number of a dozen all the way up to the big sharks that can have as much as several thousands of employees. This is the type of firm that most businesses go to, and even individuals, as they have the resources to fix almost anything, as long as it is not impossible. Though, even sometimes they manage to fix the impossible. Full-service law firms are the most expensive, with lawyer billable hours starting in the range of hundreds of dollars.
The Different Departments in a Law Firm
They have the same departments any company will have. Everything from accounting & finance, marketing, human resources (HR), IT, and many more. Though the hierarchy may be unconventional from most businesses. They start at the top with the senior partners, then comes in the junior partners, then a senior associate followed by a junior associate and then a trainee, but that is on the attorneys’ end. The legal assistants include law clerks, paralegals, and legal secretaries.
Law firms may seem utterly and indispensably complex, though once you get a good grasp on how things work in a law firm and understand all the different functions they possess you will find that is all very easy and very much straightforward.
