Opportunities In Law
The legal profession used to be a very close-knit community. Not many women or people of any ethnic decent were seen and it was limited to those that go to law school.
The community has changed. First of all, lawyers are not the only ones practising law. The Law Society has now opened the profession to allow paralegals to practice certain types of law. Paralegals are regulated and licensed by the Law Society. They carry insurance as lawyers do and can deal with certain matters at a reasonable rate. Paralegals can be used among other things in traffic court and small claims court. The upside to choosing this route is most colleges provide a 2-3 year program that you can enter right out of high school. If you are not interested in the 7 years of university usually required for a law degree, this could be a great opportunity.
Second, and most interesting, is now law schools are multi-cultural and more women are graduating then men. The graduating classes are excellent replicas of the mosaic that exists in Canadian society.
If people were intimidated by the profession or felt that it was an “old boys club”, this is no longer the case. My advice is do not be intimidated. If law interests you, go sit in a real courtroom and watch what happens. I also suggest sitting in on a class at a local college and university, see if the material interests you.
Get a feel for what the law is really like, not just what you see on TV and decide from there. If you love it like I do, it can be a wonderfully rewarding career.