A lawyer is first and foremost a university graduate. After the baccalaureate, whether in science or literature, you need to go to law school. To qualify for the bar exam, which opens the way to training as a lawyer, you need a Master 1, which corresponds to four years of legal studies.
This requirement will allow you to graduate with a Bachelor's degree in law, the year in which you are usually required to register for the bar exam. To find a reputable establishment, you'll need to choose one of the most prestigious law schools:
- Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne,
- Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas,
- Lyon 2 University.
Entering a professional consultancy career therefore often requires leaving home to put the odds in your favor, passing the CRFPA and obtaining the CAPA.
What is the CRFPA?
The CRFPA stands for Centre Régional de Formation Professionnelle d'Avocats. It is the school for lawyers. To enter, you need to register with a law university, which organizes the exam once a year.
Each law school has an I.E.J. (Institut d'Ecole Judiciaire) to help you prepare for the exam.
What is CAPA
This is the Certificat d'Aptitude à la Profession d'Avocat, which is issued by the CRFPA you have entered, after passing the bar exam. This is when you take your oath.
Yes, access to the CRFPA is automatically open to doctoral students. If you complete 8 years of university studies and obtain your doctorate, you will have direct access to the bar school.
A lawyer who has decided to become a barrister will initially work as an employee in a law firm. It is often during their internship that they gain access to the firm that will be theirs at the start of their career.
This consulting activity will enable him to familiarize himself with the skills and missions of his new profession. It is also where he will eventually specialize.
As a member of a law firm, the young lawyer will have the opportunity to build up a client portfolio, a prerequisite for opening his or her own law firm. To succeed in this business, only hard work pays off.
Although often used in the singular, the law is vast. Lawyers specialize in many areas:
- Public law,
- Civil law,
- Criminal law,
- International law.
In each of these areas there are new specific sectors:
- Foreign law,
- Insolvency law,
- Corporate tax law,
- Etc.
The possibilities are endless. The more a lawyer specializes, the more protected he is from the competition of his colleagues.
At the start of their careers, lawyers are not rolling in gold, contrary to the image that sticks to the profession. An entry-level lawyer earns no more than 2,300 euros gross, which works out at around 1,800 euros net per month.
This is why lawyers need to specialize as soon as possible, to create their own client portfolio and keep it when they open their own law firm.
As we have said, there are many specializations. As a result of the increasingly litigious nature of society, this employment sector is not experiencing a crisis. However, some are far more lucrative than others.
While foreigners' law may be of interest because of its humanitarian nature, financially it won't bring in much for the public law lawyer who has chosen this branch of law.
On the contrary, all branches of business law (distressed company law, international business law, corporate tax law, international contract law, etc.) are areas in which those who have mastered the subject can make a lot of money.
Written by our expert Cyril SCHWASTIAK
September 26, 2022
