When most people picture a lawyer, they think of courtroom dramas on TV, where the attorneys are defending or prosecuting alleged criminals. While this is one part of the law in which an attorney can engage, the field of law is diverse, and the activities a certain attorney will engage in on a given day will vary greatly depending on which area of law they practice. For instance, a litigator will spend a significant amount of time in courtrooms, arguing cases for one side or another, while a real estate attorney may never set foot in a courtroom. A lobbyist spends much of his time attending events and having lunches with politicians, while an intellectual property attorney reads schematics of complicated technological devices.
One of the primary responsibilities of an attorney is to be informed of the law that relates to their area of focus and to be able to apply it. Attorneys spend a large portion of their time researching laws and using their knowledge to create and edit legal documents for clients. A contracts lawyer will spend much of her time looking through a contract and changing it in ways that are favorable to her client, while a litigator might spend most of her time outside the courtroom looking through old court decisions, to prepare questions or points to raise to a judge or jury. For some attorneys, especially newer associates without their own clients, review and creation of documents occupy almost all of their time.
The other major activity that an attorney engages in each day is communication. This encompasses a broad range of activities that, again, varies from one type of lawyer to the next, but includes things such as litigation in a courtroom, negotiations between represented parties and opposing parties, discussion between lawyers within the firm, and discussions with clients. In the end, an attorney's prime directive is to gain clients and make the clients they have happy. Attorneys can spend a significant amount of time wooing potential clients by giving sales pitches, going to lunches, posh events and dinners.
Some attorneys spend a lot of time traveling, while others might not travel at all. Those working in international law or on real estate projects where they must attend closings or visit properties, often travel more than others, but any type of attorney may have to travel for different reasons. When traveling, an attorney is often able to bill the client whose needs necessitate their journey, meaning a lawyer that travels a lot will have to spend less time actually doing work to achieve the same amount of billable hours as an attorney that travels less.
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