Working in a law office

I now work in a law office. Last month, after the first reading of all Bar subjects, I have decided to hold out my taking the exam until 2009. As I have intended, now I work in a law office to hone my skills in becoming a lawyer I want to be. I didn't take up law just to get a law degree and a title of "Attorney." So now I have put myself in the grill of some sort of an apprenticeship.

In some countries, or was it the practice in Europe in the past, students before becoming lawyers have to be under the tutelage of a senior member of the Bar for at least a year, a sort of an apprenticeship. There were no Bar exams to be taken.

In our case, since we're following the American model, law graduates have to pass the Bar exam before getting a license to practice law. So far this is the best way to ensure professional standards in the practice of law. However, most often than not, law practice is very different from what law students learn in law school (because students have to be taught everything in law school in just four years).

This is what I learned in the short time that I have been working now in a law office. Assigned to draft pleadings and other legal documents, I have to reexamine carefully what I was supposed to have already learned in law school. It's not just my and my school's reputation before my lawyer-boss that are at stake. Most importantly, it is the client's cause that is in line, a cause that might suffer by any mistake on my part in drafting his pleading. The basic lessons I learned in law school always come in handy but still nothing beats really practicing the real thing.

One more year of reviewing the books, and at most eight months of law office work, then I can say I'll be much closer to my goal.