INSURANCE

A corporate lawyer is a lawyer who specializes in corporations law.

As of 2004, there were 67,000 corporate lawyers in the United States, working on average for 50 hours per week, with a mean starting salary of USD64,000, rising to USD93,700 after 5 years and USD139,000 after 10–15 years.

The role of a corporate lawyer is to ensure the legality of commercial transactions, advising corporations on their legal rights and duties, including the duties and responsibilities of corporate officers. In order to do this, they must have knowledge of aspects of contract law, tax law, accounting, securities law, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, licensing, zoning laws, and the laws specific to the business of the corporations that they work for.

The practice of corporate law is less adversarial than that of trial law. Lawyers for both sides of a commercial transaction are less opponents than facilitators. One lawyer (quoted by Bernstein) characterizes them as "the handmaidens of the deal". Transactions take place amongst peers. There are rarely wronged parties, underdogs, or inequities in the financial means of the participants. Corporate lawyers structure those transactions, draft documents, review agreements, negotiate deals, and attend meetings.

What areas of corporate law a corporate lawyer experiences depend from where the firm that he/she works for is, geographically, and how large it is. A small-town corporate lawyer in a small firm may deal in many short-term jobs such as drafting wills, divorce settlements, and real estate transactions, whereas a corporate lawyer in a large city firm may spend many months devoted to negotiating a single business transaction. Similarly, different firms may organize their subdivisions in different ways. Not all will include mergers and acquisitions under the umbrella of a corporate law division, for example.

Some corporate lawyers become partners in their firms. Others become in-house counsel for corporations. Others still migrate into other professions such as investment banking and teaching.

In Australia and New Zealand, a law broker is a professional that assists individuals who are searching for a lawyer. A law broker will analyze an individual's case or legal issue and provide a customized referral to an appropriate lawyer. Some common factors that a law broker will consider are a lawyer's experience level, success rate, reputation, and quality of service. A law broker will often review legal publications, court decisions, and rely upon a network of legal contacts to provide an objective, customized referral to a client.

The person who coined the term "law broker" was an Australian solicitor Dr. Yuri Rapoport. He started the world's first law broking firm "Prime Law Brokers" in 1996.

FEES

In most circumstances, a law broker does not charge a fee to a client but rather obtains a referral fee from the lawyer.

IN OTHER COUNTRIES

In North America (USA), an equivalent service is provided by lawyer referral programs, which are usually operated by Bar Associations.

A rules lawyer is a player in a game who for whatever reason attempts to use an often encyclopedic knowledge of the rules of a subject to gain an advantage, to annoy or to ingratiate himself with other players, to amuse themselves in a round of banter with others, or to test a rule's solidity. Often this term is used pejoratively, as the "rules lawyer" is seen as an impediment to moving the game forward. The use is most common in wargaming and role playing games. The term may have originated in military service, with sea lawyer (in the Navy) and "barracks lawyer" in the United States Army. Nevertheless, the habit of players to argue in a legal fashion over rule implementation was noted early on in the history of Dungeons and Dragons.