Everything You Need to Know About Civil Rights Law Jobs in 2021

Passionate about fighting for social justice and educating people about their civil rights? Browse through our list of top-rated civil rights law jobs.

Throughout the history of fighting for civil rights in this country, the related laws have evolved and now protect individuals at the federal, state, and even local level.  

Civil rights laws proclaim that all individuals should receive the same rights and equal treatment. They also prohibit discrimination in a number of different settings, including education, employment, housing, voting, and lending.

About Civil Rights Law Jobs

What exactly does a civil rights attorney do? This law practitioner’s job is to fight for the respect of the rights each individual holds as a citizen of a country. Individuals who have experienced a violation of their civil rights have the right to speak up about it and file a suit against the perpetrator. The victims can consult civil rights lawyers who then may be hired to help them right the wrong. Civil rights attorneys’ duty is to prove the infringement of rights did occur and try to secure monetary compensation for their clients in return.  

It’s essential to learn how to distinguish between civil rights and human rights and the job of a civil rights lawyer vs. a human rights lawyer. While human rights represent the freedoms one is entitled to by being alive and are thus universal, inalienable, and inherent to all people, civil rights are the liberties a person obtains by being a citizen of a particular country. Even though there’s an overlap between these two categories of rights, here’s a rough breakdown:

• Human rights include the right to life, the right to a free trial, protection from torture and slavery, the right to education, and freedom of expression. 
• Civil rights in the United States cover protection from unlawful discrimination in voting, employment, education, police services, housing, public accommodations and facilities, and federally funded programs, the right to equal protection, the right against self-incrimination, the right to due process, and the right to free speech.

What Do Civil Rights Lawyers Do?

Here’s a short civil rights law job description - these lawyers take on different types of cases in which civil rights of individuals have been violated and need to be defended according to the Constitution of the United States and the corresponding federal and state civil rights laws. For example, the job of a civil rights attorney may involve advocating for women’s rights, first amendment rights, voting rights, or disability rights. Attorneys may deal with cases involving various civil rights law violations or specialize in a certain type of civil rights.

Duties

A civil rights lawyer’s career involves spending a lot of time in the courtroom following procedures, making motions, and presenting cases with evidence and the conclusions that follow. However, there are many additional aspects to this job, such as doing in-depth research, meeting with clients in correctional institutions, interviewing victims and witnesses, filing legal briefs, filing legal appeals in courts of appeals at federal and state levels, conducting trial preparations, deciphering laws for individuals, organizations, and businesses, and negotiating settlements.

Types

Different sets of duties come with different specializations civil rights law career seekers may decide to opt for. If they choose to specialize in the rights of a specific interest group - such as religious, disability, or women’s rights - civil rights lawyers’ job will be to make sure that all individuals belonging to a given group are treated fairly.

Other civil rights attorneys, however, may focus on just one major issue, amendment, or a bill such as voting and election rights, freedom of expression, privacy act, libel, the first amendment, or the eleventh amendment. Still, regardless of the specialization a law practitioner may pursue, all civil rights attorney jobs are about making sure that each citizen is treated justly and equally.

Work Environment

Civil rights lawyers mostly work on various levels in government institutions and private law firms to create, implement, or advocate for civil rights laws. Alternatively, these law practitioners do academic research or teach other aspiring attorneys. Given that there are quite a few ways to work in this field, it’s difficult to talk about a single type of work environment. Still, most civil rights lawyer jobs are office-bound and involve spending a lot of time in the courtroom.

Injuries and Illnesses

While a career devoted to fighting for civil rights isn’t dangerous in terms of exposure to physical injuries, one of the most common problems civil rights attorneys face is burnout. Helping people whose civil rights have been violated can be stressful and emotionally draining. However, if you are driven by defying social injustice, starting a civil rights law career on a short-term basis could be a good way to see if this field of law is for you.

Work Schedules

Those thinking about starting a career in civil rights law would surely like to know how many hours these law practitioners put in every week. Typically, they have a 40-hour workweek. However, lawyers who work full-time in private law firms usually spend at least a few more hours conducting in-depth research and drafting legal documents to meet their clients’ demands.

How to Become a Civil Rights Lawyer

Before you can start applying for civil rights attorney jobs, you’ll need to go through several years of education, culminating in a Juris Doctor degree. While the law practitioner’s educational path is more or less the same for all lawyers, it also involves specialized training geared toward human and civil rights laws rather than areas such as criminal law. Much like with jobs in international law or environmental law, duties can vary greatly depending on the task at hand, meaning that there are plenty of fields of study and practice that an aspiring civil rights lawyer can go into.

Keep reading to learn more about not only educational requirements but also soft skills that’ll help you land any of the highly sought-after womens’, disability, or voting rights attorney jobs.

Education

A civil rights lawyer’s education path is similar to the ones you’d need to take if you wanted to build your career in any other type of law. 

The first step involves obtaining a bachelor's degree. While most law schools don’t require a specific field of study for admission, there are certain courses you may benefit from as an aspiring law practitioner. We suggest you opt for undergraduate studies which focus on human rights, US government, economics, public speaking, and history. 

The next step toward a civil rights lawyer’s career consists of taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). The exam tests analytical, reading, and critical-thinking skills, and aspiring law students usually take it during their junior year of undergraduate studies. 

After completing your undergraduate studies, it is time to pursue your Juris Doctor (JD) degree. Most full-time graduate law programs take three years to complete. In the first year, the courses usually focus on basic law subjects such as constitutional law, contracts, torts, and property law. During the following two years, students take elective classes and gain hands-on experience by volunteering at legal clinics and enrolling in internships. In some law schools, students get to devote more attention to preparing for jobs in civil rights law, exploring topics such as nationality and immigration law, death penalty, and American Indian law.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations

Before you can start practicing law, you must pass the required exams to obtain admission to your state’s bar association. While the format may vary slightly from state to state, the bar examination usually lasts two days. On the first day, candidates typically take the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), a six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice test covering topics related to contracts, criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, real property, evidence, and torts. State-administered examinations usually take place on the second day.

Note that you won’t be able to apply for civil rights law jobs unless you pass the bar exam, so taking enough time to prepare for it is a must.

Advancement

While attorneys working in the United States aren’t required to pursue education beyond the Juris Doctor degree, additional training can help future law practitioners develop their expertise in the civil rights field or even expand their qualification area. In some law schools, you can apply for a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in human rights or even international human rights. Designed for licensed lawyers who want to pursue jobs in civil rights, these programs usually cover a variety of legal fields such as international criminal law, humanitarian law, the law of war, and refugee law.

Not only can taking the time to specialize in a specific area of law help you earn higher pay but also increase your chances of success when applying for supervisory or high-level administrative positions. Alternatively, attorneys with business training can use the gained knowledge to start their own law firms.

Civil Rights Lawyer’s Salary

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t gather statistics for specific legal specializations such as civil rights law. However, it does provide information about how much lawyers can make in the United States. According to the BLS data, the median annual wage for attorneys was $126,930 in May 2020.

It’s important to keep in mind that civil rights lawyers’ salaries may vary widely depending on their employment locations and specialties. Still, remember that civil rights lawyers can take several jobs, and each will come with a unique set of benefits. Also, your income will likely increase over time as you gain more professional experience.

Job Outlook

Careers in civil rights law can be quite diverse. As a rule, a significant number of public service and government positions are held by law practitioners of this type. However, civil rights attorneys have a wide variety of job positions to choose from that fit their skills and specialties. Many are self-employed and conduct business either through their private practice or as partners in law firms.

We can hope for a time when there will no longer be civil rights issues. However, until all of us are treated equally, the civil rights law job outlook will remain excellent.

Job Prospects

Based on the information provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for lawyers of all specializations will keep growing by 4%, creating 32,300 new job opportunities for legal practitioners throughout the period between 2019 and 2029. However, the competition is expected to remain fierce as more job seekers graduate from law school each year. Job prospects should be better for those not opposed to relocating to wherever their services are needed.