Sims 4 Law Career Guide: Is This Career Right for Your Sim?

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Stephanie Jensen

Stephanie Jensen spent years of her childhood enjoying quality time with her Sims games. As someone who's bought way too many expansion packs, she now needs a way to work to pay for her Sims addiction. So, she spends her time teaching others about Sims!

Latest posts by Stephanie Jensen (see all)

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One of my favorite aspects of The Sims is the different jobs your Sims can work. The Law career is one of the most interesting career choices, in my opinion. The Law career branch was introduced in The Sims 2 and has since been a favorite career for Sims.

I had never actually had a lawyer Sim. All of my Sims are usually writers, though I created plenty of Sim musicians, artists, and have had a criminal or two. But after my experience with the Law career branch, I will either not consider this career again or choose different aspirations and traits.

I based my Sim on my favorite TV lawyer, Saul Goodman! Since the criminal lawyer on Breaking Bad was as sneaky and corrupt as the criminals he represented, I wanted to attempt to make a “bad” lawyer. But I feel this worked against me more than for me.

Bottom line up front: There are many reasons I didn’t like the Law career branch. Your Sim worked long hours, had assignments at home, and my Sim struggled to get a proomotion.

Law Career Timeline

Before I go into my experience with the law career branch, let’s take a good look at the timeline so you know what to expect.

Jobs 1-7

Your Sim will have to hold seven different jobs before choosing a specialty. These jobs include:

1. Process Server
2. File Clerk
3. Legal Secretary
4. Paralegal
5. Building Barrister
6. Adept Attorney
7. Promising Prosecutor

Once your Sim becomes a Paralegal, they must pass the Law Exam. They can do this on a computer, and your Sim finishes it quickly. I’m not finding information on what your Sim needs for the exam or if they can fail it. I am reading that increasing your Sim’s Logic and Charisma and Research and Debate skills may help.

One thing I noticed in the law career is it’s difficult to get a promotion, more difficult than other careers my Sims have had. Even after completing all my work and getting my skills up, my Sim had trouble advancing. He started getting irritated and discouraged by the lack of promotions. I looked around on other Sims forums, and different players said they had the same struggles. Some said they had to use cheats for their Sim to get a promotion.

Once your Sim reaches level 7, they have the choice of joining the Private Attorney or the Judge branch.

Private Attorney Branch

Your Sim will face some challenges if they choose the Private Attorney branch. Your Sim will have to become more charismatic to attract new clients and win their cases. Your Sim will also need some traits to build more friendships, such as Confidence and Funny.

Here are the jobs in the Private Attorney branch:

1.  Lead Litigator
2. Legal Eagle
3. Preeminent Partner

Judge Branch

If you decide to be a Judge, your Sim will have to focus more on the Logic skill. Here are the jobs in the Judge branch:

• Gavel Smasher
• Honorable Arbitrator
• Chief of Justice

Facts About the Law Career Branch

While there are many qualities about the law career branch that I don’t like, there are other facts that I find extremely interesting.

You Can Work From Home

An hour before your Sim has to go to work, a pop-up appears asking if your Sim is going to work or working from home. I thought this was odd, so I looked into it.

The law career is one of the few career branches where your Sim can work remotely. If you choose to work from home, your Sim will have to complete certain tasks by the time their next shift starts. Your Sim will need to access a computer to complete most tasks, though some include finding new clients. I would take my Sim to the local park to meet prospective clients.

I definitely suggest taking advantage of this feature. As I will explain later, my Sim often became tense and unhappy. Other players on Sims forums said the same thing about their Sims. When your Sim works from home, they can take breaks in between their tasks, so they’re not as stressed out.

Will Have Work Outside Office Hours

One of the biggest downsides of the Law Career branch is your Sims will need to work outside of office hours. This usually means they will have to file legal documents. Your Sim finishes it rather quickly, but they’re so stressed and tired from work I often wouldn’t make them complete these extra assignments. This is why choosing certain traits is essential, which is what I wished I knew first. I will recommend some traits below.

Skills Needed

The Law Career branch requires more skills than other career branches I played.

Your Sim will have to improve their Charisma and Research and Debate skills to excel at their job. Once your Sim reaches level 6, they must improve their Logic skill. Always keep a chess board and bookshelf in the home. While you can improve Charisma and Research and Debate by practicing your speech, your Sim will often be tense from work, and they will require more amusement. Reading and playing chess will improve their skills while keeping your Sim entertained.

Law Career Branch Unlocks

As you excel at your job and get promotions, your Sims will receive many impressive rewards that they can unlock. Here are the rewards they can earn and at which job level they earn the award.

• Legal Case Files (Rank 2)
• Chat About Scandalous Lawsuit Interaction (Rank 3)
• Very Impressive Lawyer-y Desk Chair (Rank 4)
• Offer Legal Representation Interaction and New CAS Items (Rank 5)
• Very Impressive Lawyer-y Desk (Rank 6)
• Barrister’s Bookcase (Rank 7)

When your Sim chooses a separate branch, each also has its own career unlocks.

Here are the Judge’s career unlocks:

• Visit University Law Class (Rank 8)
• Research Legal Issues (Rank 8)
• Read Pleadings (Rank 8)
• Guest Speak at University (Rank 9)
• On a Scale of 1 to Justice (Rank 10)

Here are the private unlocks for the Private Attorney branch:

• Discuss Complex Case Law (Rank 8)
• Visit University Law Class (Rank 8)
• Craft Legal Argument (Rank 8)
• Research Case Law (Rank 8)
• On a Scale of 1 to Justice (Rank 10)

Traits and Aspirations for Law Career

The traits and aspirations you choose for your Sim will affect the success of their law career. I found this out the hard way.

Recommended Aspirations

I’ll be honest. I can’t find many aspirations that I recommend for Sim lawyers. Here are a few that jump out to me:

• Fabulously Wealthy – increase your wealth by getting 5% of your household funds added to your bank account every week
• Friend of the World – easy to be friends with others since your friendships won’t decline over time
• Leader of the Pack – you can take over a club and never be overthrown
• Nerd Brain – your Sim will be very logical

Out of all of these aspirations, I think your Sim will benefit most from Friend of the World if your Sim will pursue the Private Attorney branch. Your Sim will make friends easier, resulting in more success in their practice. If your Sim enters the Judge branch, either Nerd Brain or Leader of the Pack will work best. Honestly, these aspirations don’t fully align with the law career, but these are the closest aspirations I could find to the Judge branch.

I also chose Fabulously Wealthy as a joke. Lawyers make good money, so why not have more money?

Recommended Traits

The traits you choose are the most vital. Your Sim will be tense a lot after work. On top of that, they will have more work to do after they come home from work. Your Sim should be able to stay happy and enjoy being around others to succeed in this career.

That’s why the first trait I recommend is Outgoing, whether or not your Sim decides to enter the Private Attorney branch. You’ll gain more friends and certain skills, such as Charisma, will come easier for you.

Obviously, you’ll need some smarts for the law career. That’s why I also recommend the Genius trait. The Genius trait will enhance your Logic skill. Plus, Genius Sims are more likely to stay focused.

My Experience With My Law Career Sim

As I said previously, I modeled my Sim after Saul Goodman. In case you never watched Breaking Bad or the spin-off Better Call Saul, Saul Goodman is a sneaky criminal lawyer who can manipulate the law in every way to benefit his clients.

I thought this would be a fun experiment. Saul is a great lawyer, but he’s also mischievous and sneaky. He’s an unconventional and hilarious character but is also still intelligent, ambitious, and successful. I wanted my Sim to convey these traits so he could be a Saul Goodman-esque lawyer.

Aspirations and Traits I Chose

For Saul Goodman’s Aspiration, I chose Chief of Mischief. Out of all of the Criminal Aspirations, this one seemed the most fitting. While Saul was a mean guy, he was more sneaky than anything. I thought of all of his antics on Better Call Saul while achieving some of these Aspiration Goals.

For example, one of his Aspiration Goals was clogging drains in numerous homes. I could picture Saul doing something like that if he or his lawyer partner in crime/wife, Kim Wexler, didn’t get their way!

These are the traits I chose for my Saul Goodman Sim:

• Evil
• Ambitious
• Dastardly
• Mean

Let’s start with the negative traits. With the Evil trait, your Sim will feel happiest when others around them have a negative emotion. The Mean trait is self-explanatory. These Sims love starting fights and making enemies. Dastardly is an essential trait if your Sim wants to be mean or mischievous. With the Dastardly trait, all of your Sim’s mischievous or mean interactions will be more successful. This influences them to perform more negative interactions.

I did want to include a positive trait because Saul Goodman isn’t a completely bad guy. I chose the Ambitious trait because that’s how I saw Saul. He was very hard-working and passionate about his work, always trying to get ahead.

However, this trait was the most difficult one I could choose. Saul was always in a negative mood when he didn’t get a career promotion. There were even times he was negative about not completing his work — though he was tense and would also get angry when I made him work more.

At the same time, your Sim will feel more positive when they get a job and gain career success. Saul would become confident when he succeeded, which helps your law career.

Difficulties I Faced

I faced more difficulties than this. As I said, Saul Goodman was constantly tense. What he truly loved was being mean and mischievous to others — he was unhappy in his job as a lawyer. His moodlets were often sad since he was working a job he didn’t love.

I was hoping the evil traits would inspire him to be a crooked lawyer, but the Sims don’t have that option. Instead, I recommend choosing positive traits such as Outgoing for your Sim. This way, they will be happiest when they’re around others.

How to Join the Law Career

With all of this being said, maybe you still want your Sim to join the law career. So, how do you get started? It’s easy! Click a computer or your Sim’s phone. Click “Find a Job.” Scroll down and find the Law career.

On the bottom-right corner of the screen, click the briefcase icon. Here, you will find information about your job and view your performance. You’ll also see the at-home assignments you need to complete and any skills you need to gain.

Law Degree at Sims University

Does your lawyer Sim need a law degree first? Your Sim doesn’t need a degree, but having one will help them. However, there is no law degree in the Sims. Your Sim can pursue different fields that will benefit their law career. The recommended degrees include:

• History
• Language and Literature

As you can imagine, your Sim will study historical events and people to jumpstart their careers. With the Language and Literature Degree, your Sim will learn essential skills such as writing.

So, why take the time to earn these degrees if your Sim won’t study law? As with any degree in the game, your Sim will start its career at a later level. They will also receive bonuses.

Law Career Cheats

Even though my Saul Goodman Sim was working hard and completing his assignments (for the most part), he still wasn’t receiving a promotion. I wish I had known about this promotion cheat before.

To get a promotion, click Control + Shift + C on PC and Command + Shift + C for Mac. Type “testingcheats on” and press Enter. Type “careers.promote law” and select Enter. Your Sim will receive a promotion.

FAQs

Bottom Line

I have to be honest; the Law career branch isn’t one of the best I played. My Saul Goodman Sim was always tense since Sims in this career work long hours and also have assignments at home. You also have to reach Rank 7 to choose which specific branch you want to pursue. For most career branches my past Sims have had, they usually only had to reach Rank 4 to choose.

With all of these challenges, there are benefits. For example, the pay is pretty good.

If you choose this career, I suggest giving your Sim positive traits, and it’s a good idea to also give them the Genius trait. However, I still suggest considering other career branches before choosing this one.

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