A lawyer in plain terms is a person who has studied law and practices it for a living. A lawyer can be a solicitor, a counselor or an attorney. Lawyers ensure that there is justice in the legal system of a state or a nation. Lawyers make sure that their clients are meted justice when they appear before a court of law. Lawyers apply abstract legal theories and apply knowledge they have gained to help solve many legal problems that are found in our day to day lives. The role of a lawyer varies from place to place and depending on their field of practice. Lawyers are controlled and governed by law societies within their area of jurisdiction. For a lawyer to practice after attaining a law degree, he has to be admitted to a bar.

Many lawyers in almost all countries are self-employed, meaning that they have set up their own legal practices and run their own legal firms. They may be partners or in solo ownership of the legal practice. In most countries, the formal qualification for one to become a lawyer is a four year degree and a few more months or years of study in a law school, then one sits for a bar examination that one has to pass before one can be admitted to the bar. Law schools and universities that offer law degrees only take top of the cream students and this makes the law field very competitive as one has to do very well in class work to be admitted to a law school.

With the current trend of things in the job market, competition for jobs is very high and a lawyer who wants to do well in the law industry has to have exceptional performance to be able to cut a niche for him, in the industry. The advantage with lawyers is that all human beings have to be affected by the legal system in one way or the other. This gives the lawyers a lot of job and business opportunities. The law industry has a lot of fields ranging from civil, criminal, commercial and also the NGO world.

Lawyers can also be known as attorneys or counselors as apart from defending clients, they also advice and counsel their clients. In the capacity of an advocate, they act as representatives for clients who have been apprehended for criminal or civil trials. Lawyers defend clients in all fields, for example in Dallas; we have Dallas personal injury lawyers who defend clients who have gotten injuries in their line of work. They do these by presenting their evidence and defending the rights of their clients. One interesting and funny thing about an advocate no matter what the client has done even if its commit first grade murder, he will still be defended. This is because in almost all countries even a murder suspect has rights and has to be defended. Accident attorney are accident lawyers and they defend victims of an accident or company being sued for a certain accident. Lawyers can act and defend victims in any field or line of work.