A Roster of Common Law Firm Terms

November 10th, 2008

It is not only the parlance in general which confuses those not in the world of the law professions. Law entities are filled with phrases and words about their hierarchies and their tasks. The following are a few of them:

Pro bono

The actual translation for this phrase is “for the good of the public.” Pro bono refers to those hours mandated by the American Bar Association for every barrister. The American Bar Association actually requires fifty hours, but state bars suggest less than that. If a law firm gives a lot of pro bono hours, then it is more probable that this entity could be rated higher and preferred by the top students just coming into the legal profession.

Billable hours

The term “billable hours” refers to the hours of services done which get paid. Simply put, the more hours a laywer spends on the case, the bigger his or her bill becomes. Law firms are partial to new lawyers in their firm who acquire a significant amount of billable hours.

The hierarchy in a law firm

Paralegal: Paralegals have not yet passed the bar exam, but they do have the knowledge to be hired within the industry. They do legal research, legal documents, and could even give advice to clients for as long as an actual lawyer is supervising them.

Summer Associate: Interns from the law schools, usually hired for just a period of 3 months, are referred to as summer associates. Later on, if a summer associate impresses the law entity, he or she can be pulled in to work for the firm in the capacity of an associate.

Associates: These are the newly hired members of the firm. The associate is the entry-level post in a law firm.

Partners: Partners refer to the post all newbies dream of getting in the soonest time possible. If one is an equity partner, he or she owns a fraction of the company. Not just that, the lucrative thing is that the partner shares in the overall revenues made by the company.

Photo Credit : donnamarijne

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google
  • BlinkList
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • YahooMyWeb

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.