THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF LEGAL JOBS ON EARTH
LawCrossing Feature
Careers in Law Enforcement for Law Graduates – Part 1 Careers in law enforcement have always offered one of the major alternative career paths for lawyers.
There are many people, who in the midway of their
enforcement officers and your knowledge of law
careers realize that they do not actually want to
would stand you in good stead before defense
practice law in the courts. The reasons may be many
attorneys.
and differ from person to person according to their
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Your training in law school would make you ap-
individual situations, mindsets and financial conditions.
proach and execute law enforcement related
Such people either drop out of law school and
activities in a totally different manner than done
immediately face their dreams or battles of existence,
by those who do not have that law school back-
or they move their careers ahead in two principal ways.
ground. At least in most cases, unless you are up against a Sherlock Holmes type with exceptional
The first of these is going straight for alternative
talents that lead him/her to do the correct things
careers for those with a JD degree, and the second is to
instinctively.
first gain specialized experience at the courts for some
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Especially, knowledge of the law of evidence, and
time and then move on to alternative employment.
what is acceptable as evidence in court and what
There is no telling which path is better, but for those
is not, comes to great help in your career as a
without exceptional talents for law enforcement work,
law enforcement officer.
the second path offers better opportunities, and a
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If you join the police academy or related depart-
JD with relevant experience in related legal work can
ments, the mandatory tests on legal knowledge
easily land a job in law enforcement.
are easy to pass with high scores.
The advantages that a JD provides in law enforcement
Mind you, we are talking about careers in law
careers can be summed up as follows:
enforcement here and not jobs like attorney-agents working as special prosecutors in the US Attorney’s
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Knowledge of legal writing tremendously helps
Office or, for example, in charge of financial
in law enforcement work because it puts you in
investigations in the FBI. These are actually positions
a better position for all documentation includ-
that require a person to be a lawyer and have a JD.
ing affidavits, and documents related to all law
And such positions always require experience in legal
enforcement activities like searches, arrests,
work and at courts.
interceptions, and etcetera. Warrants and Title 3
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affidavits become easier to learn and implement
On the other hand, careers in law enforcement, where
not because you know how to do it, but because
being a lawyer is not mandatory, still makes a JD a
your years at law school taught you the prin-
better candidate for myriad reasons. And here’s a bit
ciples behind the drafting of such documents.
of advice. If you are really thinking of joining a law
If you are in law enforcement, and also have
enforcement career or the job of a criminal investigator,
a JD, then you are on a better level vis-à-vis
it is better to start applying at least one and a half
prosecutors than other personnel on the wit-
years before you graduate.
ness stand. Testifying can be an ordeal for law
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