Larbert High School Curriculum Review

What's it like?

You would advise people and organisations about the law. You'd help them when they need to complete a legal process like buying a house or signing a business contract.

Depending on where you work you would:

Advise clients about legal matters
Represent clients in court, or instruct advocates to act for your clients
Draft letters, contracts and documents
Research similar cases to guide your current work
Keep financial records
Attend meetings and negotiations
Prepare papers for court
You would work for individuals, groups of people or companies in a variety of roles. You would often choose to specialise in a particular area of law.

If you work in a private practice you would help people to:

- Buy and sell a house.
- Make a will or set up power of attorney.
- Get divorced or adopt children.
- Seek compensation for an injury or accident.
- Set up a business.
- You could also defend a person in certain courts and tribunals if they are accused of a crime or civil offence, or are involved in a legal dispute. If you do extra training to become a solicitor advocate you could also present cases in higher courts in Scotland and the UK.

If you have a job with a commercial practice you would advise businesses. You'd work on legal issues and processes related to contracts, tax, employment and company sales and mergers.

Some solicitors work as in-house lawyers for a specific company or organisation, a government department or agency or a local council.

You could also join the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service where you would examine evidence to decide whether to bring cases to court and prosecute cases.

Legal situations can be stressful and upsetting for people, so tact and empathy would be important. You'd also need to keep information confidential.