A friend who recently graduated law school and passed the Bar Exam is
considering applying for a job as a staff lawyer for our state's
nonpartisan office of legislative counsel (located in the state
capitol). However, not knowing anyone who's taken such a position
before, it's very unclear exactly what this job would really entail.
Of course there are broad descriptions "selling" the job on the
legislative counsel's web site, but I am curious what the reality of
the day-to-day working situation is. I'm interested in quality of
life issues, as well as the types of actual work that somone in this
sort of position would be doing. General descriptions of the job on a
government web site won't tell me what it's really like to work there,
so I'm primarily hoping to hear from anyone who has first- or
second-hand experience with such a position.
- What sort of work does the job entail?
- How much of the job involves dealing with internal/external
politics of the state legislature as opposed to doing actual legal
work such as would be done in a private firm? Any examples? (I'm
particularly interested in this answer. I believe that the job would
end up being 85% political run-around; my friend believes that since
he'd only be dealing with the specific requests of legislative staff
[e.g., "Here's the concept of the bill we want to introduce; please
draft the language for it."], there would be virtualy no politics in
the doing of his day-to-day job.)
- Is it typical for such an employee to be expected to work long
hours every day and be at the boss's beck and call at all times, or
would that merely be an occasional requirement/expectation?
- Does the job allow time for a decent quality of life outside of
work, or would his life *be* his job?
Thanks for any insight you can provide. If this is too much/too
complex for the price, please feel free to give as brief an answer as
you see fit. Unfortunately, I can't afford to raise the price, and
*any* insight or information would be better than the none that we
have to work with right now. |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
09 Nov 2006 15:47 PST
In my experience, leg counsels write bills...that's pretty much it.
They do some research on the history/status of other laws, but most of
that is for input to a current bill-writing task.
It's an oddly non-politicized job. They're expected to be a neutral
and unbiased service for legislators, staff and committees.
Beyond that, though, I can't think of any sort of write-up that
describes the day-to-day routine of a leg counsel staffer. What sort
of input are you looking for, exactly.
pafalafa-ga
|
