Lawyers

People in this career often have these skills:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
• 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.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

• Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
• Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
• Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.

People in this career often know a lot about:

• 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, and 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.

People in this career often have talent in:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• 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.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• 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).
• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

People in this career often do these activities:

• Provide legal advice to clients.
• Identify implications for cases from legal precedents or other legal information.
• Interview claimants to get information related to legal proceedings.
• Represent the interests of clients in legal proceedings.
• Meet with individuals involved in legal processes to provide information and clarify issues.

• Research relevant legal materials to aid decision making.
• Prepare legal documents.
• Arbitrate disputes between parties to resolve legal conflicts.
• Supervise activities of other legal personnel.
• Negotiate purchases or contracts.
• Negotiate contracts with clients or service providers.
• Prepare documentation of legal proceedings.
• Evaluate information related to legal matters in public or personal records.
• Draft legislation or regulations.

• Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers

• Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates

• Equal Opportunity Representatives and Officers

• Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents

• Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators

• Fraud Examiners, Investigators and Analysts

• Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary

• Judicial Law Clerks

• Law Teachers, Postsecondary