Course · Interpersonal Skills
Life as a Practising Lawyer
What attorneys, solicitors, barristers and advocates really do: the work, the week, the duties, the business and how to choose a path.
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Many people want to become a lawyer and few can find out what the job is actually like. Books describe the law; films show the courtroom; neither shows the diary, the deadlines, the client who will not listen or the day when the target is behind. This is the first course of the Legal Careers series, and it works across legal systems: attorney, solicitor, barrister, advocate and their equivalents. It starts with what the profession is and how people qualify, goes through where lawyers work and the main kinds of work, and follows a matter and a week in detail. It sets out the duties that make a lawyer a lawyer (confidentiality, conflicts, honesty to the court, client money, mistakes), the craft of interviewing, researching, advising, drafting and negotiating, and the business of practice: targets, progression, winning clients and wellbeing. It ends by helping you compare roles and choose a path, and a capstone follows a new lawyer through her first year.
The Curriculum
What a lawyer is: titles, professions, reserved work and the road in→
Titles and professions, what only lawyers may do, regulation and the licence, the road in and the questions to ask locally. Practice: Name the Role and Spot the Myth.
Where lawyers work and what they do: settings, practice areas and how to choose→
Large, small and solo firms, in-house, government and legal aid; litigation, transactions and advice; how settings differ and how to compare them. Practice: Match the Work and Weigh the Settings.
The shape of the work: matters, deadlines, supervision and a real week→
The life of a matter, deadlines and diaries, time recording, supervision, files, interruptions and a realistic week. Practice: Triage the Day and Write the File Note.
Duties, clients and conflicts: the rules that make a lawyer a lawyer→
Duties to client, court and public; competence, confidentiality, conflicts, honesty, client money, fees and mistakes. Practice: Conflict Check tool, Handle the Dilemma and Spot the Breach.
The craft: interviewing, researching, advising, drafting, negotiating and advocating→
Interviewing, researching, advising, drafting, negotiating and advocating, with a method for each. Practice: Order the Steps, Write the Advice and Spot the Weak Work.
The business of practice: time, targets, money and progression→
How practices earn money, billable targets in real weeks, progression, winning clients and wellbeing. Practice: Billable Target tool, Read the Offer and Spot the Pressure.
Choosing and building your path: entry, specialising, moving and staying well→
Comparing roles, the first role, specialising, learning fast, moving and leaving practice. Practice: Role Explorer tool, Plan the Move and Spot the Career Trap.
Capstone: Capstone: Maya’s first year at Calder & Rowe→
Run a conflict check, plan a week, handle a dilemma and a mistake, test a target, compare specialisms and write a plan for year two.
What It Covers
“You will know what the work is really like before you commit years to it, and you will have habits that protect your clients and your career.”
- Seven modules and a capstone that follow the profession from first questions to a chosen path, in a way that holds across countries.
- Honest about the business side: targets, utilisation, progression and pressure, which most courses leave out.
- Three working tools: a Conflict Check that shows how names match and what is flagged; a Billable Target that turns a yearly number into a real week; and a Role Explorer that compares roles by how you like to work.
- The first of a series: the Role Explorer gains a role each time another career course is added, so it grows with the series.
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Or give this as a giftOther Scrolls in This Chamber
Across the Table$15 →Interests, walk-away numbers, offers, trades, pressure tactics and professional limits, with practice rooms and calculators.
Cooling the Room$15 →How conflict escalates, mapping a dispute, de-escalation, hard conversations, choosing a process, mediation, power, culture and ethics, with practice mediations.
The Client Conversation$15 →Trust, the first meeting, fees and scope, updates in plain words, advice and decisions, bad news, boundaries and ethics, with practice meetings.Module 1 is free to try. Sign in, pass each module quiz and the course average, and your Certificate of Completion is emailed to you automatically. This course teaches method and technique with invented people and figures; it is general education, not legal advice, and professional rules differ from country to country.
Common questions
- Is it for one country?
- No. It teaches principles that hold across legal systems and says where the rules differ, so that you know what to look up where you live. It is not a guide to qualifying in any one country; the Bar Admission and Law Schools pages help with that.
- Is it only for people who want to be lawyers?
- It suits students deciding, graduates starting out, career changers and people who work with lawyers and want to understand them. It will not suit someone looking for the law itself; the foundation courses cover that.
- Does it tell me what to choose?
- No. It shows what each setting and area is like and gives you a way to compare them. The choice is yours, and the Role Explorer is a starting point for conversations, not a verdict.
- Does it give salary figures?
- No. Pay differs too much between countries, firms and years, and any figure would soon be wrong. It teaches you to ask the right questions about pay and targets.
- Is it legal or career advice?
- No. It is general education using invented people and firms. Take advice from your regulator, your profession and people who know your situation.
- How do I get the Certificate of Completion?
- Sign in, pass each module quiz and keep a course average of at least 75. The certificate is then issued and emailed to you automatically.
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