Becoming a qualified criminal defence lawyer at a respected law firm is an incredibly challenging task, and only the best of the best make it to the top.
Unfortunately, becoming a lawyer is only the start of the hard work criminal lawyers must put in to build a successful career. This is one of the most highly charged and emotive areas of law, and only the most level-headed and logical of individuals are suited to the task of representing those who have been charged with a criminal offence.
A single mistake could cost you your job and your reputation, and your client their freedom. Ready for that sort of pressure? If so, you could make a fantastic criminal lawyer but before you commit to the long and arduous journey towards getting your license, read on to discover 7 of the biggest challenges these experts face on a daily basis. If you reach the end and are still keen, you may have found the perfect career for you.
Challenge 1: Leaving your work at work
There is no getting away from the fact that balancing home and work life is extremely challenging for criminal lawyers. Every day you will be dealing with upsetting and potentially traumatic details and evidence and it can be difficult to switch off once you leave the office for the day. You will also almost certainly have to take calls and talk to clients outside of ‘normal’ working hours something that can be difficult to fit in with a family or social life.
Challenge 2: Getting the full picture
In order to build the best possible defence for their client and enter court or negotiations from a position of strength, it is vital that a criminal defence lawyer Glasgow access to all the details and evidence from the incident in question. Clients will often withhold information from their lawyers out of embarrassment, or only tell half truths. This only damages their cause in the long run but criminal lawyers must help them to feel at ease and impress the importance of leaving no detail out.
Challenge 3: Dealing with upset clients
Being accused of a crime isn’t exactly a nice experience, and it is understandable that a criminal lawyers’ clients are often upset and highly stressed. Defendants can be very challenging to deal with at times, especially as most have never been through this traumatic experience in the past and it takes a certain type of person to be able to keep clam in these situations.
Challenge 4: Starting your own business
Some criminal lawyers work for a large law firm, whilst others decide to start their own. If you decide to start your own criminal law firm you will have complete control over the type of clients you take on but you will also have to balance your responsibilities to your clients with trying to run a business of your own. Managing criminal cases is tough enough on its own. Add in the responsibility of paying employees, managing assets, and overseeing building expenses and you have one of the most full on challenging jobs it is possible for a lawyer to have.
Challenge 5: Dealing with public scrutiny
Criminal defence lawyers, despite being responsible for ensuring that many innocent people every year avoid conviction, have a pretty poor public reputation. Some people see the job of a criminal lawyer in Glasgow as simply trying to find a loophole to keep guilty people out of prison. However, the right to legal representation is a basic human right to which we all deserve and if you yourself ever find yourself in legal difficulty you will be incredibly relieved that it is.
Challenge 6: Coming to terms with guilty verdicts
It can take some time after the conclusion of a criminal case for a defendant to come to terms with the fact that they have been found guilty of a crime. During the course of a case criminal lawyers will get to know their clients and whilst keeping things fully professional will become invested in certain cases and people. It is not unheard of, or unusual for criminal defence lawyers to experience emotional upheaval, PTSD, depression, and other mental health difficulties over their career, and many end up switching to a less involved area of the law.
Challenge 7: Sifting through large quantities of evidence
There is often a huge amount of evidence to sort through in a criminal case and defence lawyers must shift through the trash to find the nuggets of gold that will help them build their case. A single piece of evidence can be the deciding factor in any criminal case and it takes a certain analytical mind to find it and use it in the most effective possible way.