Family Law Degree

Is Family Law really for You?

Family law degree programs train you to handle a broad mix of tasks, from divorce and pre-nuptial agreements to issues related to child custody and adoption. Family lawyers do spend a lot of time in court, exploring relationships between husband and wife, parents and children.

This specialization of the law is very interesting as it allows you to spend time working with doctors, psychologists and social workers. Those that decide to pursue family law, often obtain an additional degree in social work or psychology. Check joint law degree for more information.

If you decide to pursue family law you will need to have good negotiation skills as well as strong interpersonal skills. This is because much of your time is spend on solving crisis situations in your client’s life. Clients must feel comforted and safe in your presents in order for the relationship to work. An additional important trait for this profession is objectivity as you must remain calm and objective at all times – taking emotions out of the decision making and planning process. Counseling skills as well as time management are equally critical as are accounting and finance.

• Helping others
• Frequent client contact
• Responsibility from the start of your career
• Frequent Court appearance
• Varied tasks

• Pay is not as high as in some other specializations of the law
• Frequent court deadlines
• Much paperwork to be field at set times
• Emotionally draining when those involved are set on hurting each other
• Work in small firms

As a family lawyer you would be involved in regulating child support, parental leaves, child custody and parental neglect. To be a successful family lawyer you will have to master many areas of the law, such as contract law, constitutional law, property law and civil procedures.

Family law cases include adoption, alternative dispute resolution, divorce, child support and alimony, wills and estate planning, elder law, prenuptial agreements, tax, bankruptcy as well as third party parenting (step-parents, same gender parents). This list is in no way exhaustive and as you can see, family law covers a lot of ground.

There is no typical day or typical tasks in this profession. You would spend yours days resolving your clients issues, returning phone calls, negotiating small issues, drafting correspondence, preparing pleadings for court and going to court for hearings and motions. One day you may be helping your client with a missed custody exchange and on another day you may be resolving custody over a holiday or financial issues.

The raise and continues increase in divorce rates has let to plenty of job opportunities. Additionally, because this career is emotionally tasking, there is a high turn around as people exit the profession and open up new positions.

While there is no specific data for family lawyers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of lawyers is expected to grow 11% during the 2006-20016. This is about as fast as the average for all other professions.

According to the same source, the median annual salary for lawyers was $102,470 (May, 2006). The specific salary earned depends on your specialization, years of experience and place of employment.

For more information regarding the legal profession visit careers with law degree and law degree jobs.

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