Lawyers

Represent clients in criminal and civil litigation and other legal proceedings, draw up legal documents, and manage or advise clients on legal transactions. May specialize in a single area or may practice broadly in many areas of law.

tasks jobzones knowledge skills abilities work_activities work_context interests work_styles work_values

Tasks

• Act as agent, trustee, guardian, or executor for businesses or individuals.

• Perform administrative and management functions related to the practice of law.

• Work in environmental law, representing public interest groups, waste disposal companies, or construction firms in their dealings with state and federal agencies.

• Supervise legal assistants.

• Search for and examine public and other legal records to write opinions or establish ownership.

• Confer with colleagues with specialties in appropriate areas of legal issue to establish and verify bases for legal proceedings.

• Negotiate settlements of civil disputes.

• Prepare legal briefs and opinions, and file appeals in state and federal courts of appeal.

• Help develop federal and state programs, draft and interpret laws and legislation, and establish enforcement procedures.

• Prepare and draft legal documents, such as wills, deeds, patent applications, mortgages, leases, and contracts.

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Job Zone

• Name: Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

• Experience: Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

• Education: A bachelor's degree is the minimum formal education required for these occupations. However, many also require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

• Job training: Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

• Examples: These occupations often involve coordinating, training, supervising, or managing the activities of others to accomplish goals. Very advanced communication and organizational skills are required. Examples include librarians, lawyers, aerospace engineers, physicists, school psychologists, and surgeons.

• Svp range: (8.0 and above)

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Knowledge

Browse Knowledge

• Law and Government
  Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.

• English Language
  Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

• Customer and Personal Service
  Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

• Administration and Management
  Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

• Clerical
  Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.

• Computers and Electronics
  Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

• Personnel and Human Resources
  Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.

• Psychology
  Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

• Communications and Media
  Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.

• Mathematics
  Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

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Skills

Browse Skills

• Critical Thinking
  Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

• Reading Comprehension
  Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

• Persuasion
  Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

• Active Listening
  Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

• Writing
  Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

• Active Learning
  Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

• Speaking
  Talking to others to convey information effectively.

• Judgment and Decision Making
  Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

• Negotiation
  Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

• Time Management
  Managing one's own time and the time of others.

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Abilities

Browse Abilities

• Oral Expression
  The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

• Speech Clarity
  The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

• Oral Comprehension
  The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

• Written Comprehension
  The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

• Written Expression
  The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.

• Near Vision
  The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

• Deductive Reasoning
  The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

• Inductive Reasoning
  The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

• Speech Recognition
  The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

• Fluency of Ideas
  The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).

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Work Activities

Browse Work Activities

• Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others
  Handling complaints, settling disputes, and resolving grievances and conflicts, or otherwise negotiating with others.

• Getting Information
  Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.

• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge
  Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.

• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
  Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.

• Communicating with Persons Outside Organization
  Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.

• Provide Consultation and Advice to Others
  Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.

• Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work
  Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.

• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
  Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.

• Processing Information
  Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.

• Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
  Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.

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Work Context

• Telephone
  How often do you have telephone conversations in this job?

• Indoors, Environmentally Controlled
  How often does this job require working indoors in environmentally controlled conditions?

• Letters and Memos
  How often does the job require written letters and memos?

• Face-to-Face Discussions
  How often do you have to have face-to-face discussions with individuals or teams in this job?

• Freedom to Make Decisions
  How much decision making freedom, without supervision, does the job offer?

• Frequency of Decision Making
  How frequently is the worker required to make decisions that affect other people, the financial resources, and/or the image and reputation of the organization?

• Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
  How important is being very exact or highly accurate in performing this job?

• Structured versus Unstructured Work
  To what extent is this job structured for the worker, rather than allowing the worker to determine tasks, priorities, and goals?

• Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results
  How do the decisions an employee makes impact the results of co-workers, clients or the company?

• Electronic Mail
  How often do you use electronic mail in this job?

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Interests

Browse Interests

• Enterprising
  Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

• Conventional
  Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

• Investigative
  Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

• Social
  Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

• Realistic
  Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

• Artistic
  Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

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Work Styles

• Integrity
  Job requires being honest and ethical.

• Attention to Detail
  Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.

• Dependability
  Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.

• Stress Tolerance
  Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.

• Persistence
  Job requires persistence in the face of obstacles.

• Initiative
  Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.

• Achievement/Effort
  Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

• Analytical Thinking
  Job requires analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems.

• Independence
  Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.

• Leadership
  Job requires a willingness to lead, take charge, and offer opinions and direction.

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Work Values

Browse Work Values

• Autonomy
  Workers on this job plan their work with little supervision.

• Ability Utilization
  Workers on this job make use of their individual abilities.

• Compensation
  Workers on this job are paid well in comparison with other workers.

• Achievement-Mean Extent
  Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

• Independence-Mean Extent
  Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employs to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.

• Responsibility
  Workers on this job make decisions on their own.

• Achievement
  Workers on this job get a feeling of accomplishment.

• Working Conditions
  Workers on this job have good working conditions.

• Recognition
  Workers on this job receive recognition for the work they do.

• Creativity
  Workers on this job try out their own ideas.

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