Career opportunities for lawyers

Newly graduated lawyers often find employment soon after graduation. Employment opportunities for lawyers are expected to remain favourable in the years ahead and the number of professions will be continually expanded.

About half of all practising lawyers have jobs that require a law degree for the work they perform. The remaining lawyers work in areas where also persons with other backgrounds work, such as economists, political scientists, and systems analysts. As a lawyer, you often act as a creative problem solver with special expertise in law.

In the public sector

Approximately half of all newly graduated lawyers work in the government sector. Many of those who work in the government sector work as clerks in district courts. Clerkships are time-limited employments in a court and include continuing education. After completing a clerkship it is possible to become a judge, prosecutor, or bailiff. Those who wish to become lawyers often start by working as a clerk in a district court and then continue to work as an assistant lawyer in a law firm. A smaller percentage start their careers in municipalities and county councils.

In the business sector

Forty percent of newly graduated lawyers find employment in the private business sector, for example in an accounting firm or as assistant lawyers in a law firm. After three years of qualified legal work it is possible to take the Bar Association's lawyer program and then apply to become a lawyer. It is, however, quite common to leave the lawyer profession after a few years and instead work for a company or the public sector.