For people that have never actually studied law in the past, they may well have a rather narrow perception of the term lawyer. Here in the UK, it may well just be the fact that a lawyer is a solicitor - as simple as that.
But actually the term covers a multitude of roles of employment, from judges to working as a legal professional in Alpha HR support, the expertise of a lawyer could be called upon in many different professions.
When most students start out to become a lawyer, though, they are usually under the idea that they will become a solicitor or a barrister, once they have passed their LLB. It is when they finish this law degree and then start looking for such roles of employment that they soon realise how massively over subscribed these fields really are.
If you are seriously considering taking up a law degree in the future, it really will help for you to understand this cruel fact from the word go. If you understand that you can be a lawyer in a multitude of other jobs, this will be very helpful for you.
Some other ideas include working for the local Citizen's Advice Bureau, working in a Local Authority's legal department, or even working for The Crown Prosecution Service.
So, there are many different types of lawyer in our society. They do not all stand up in the Old Bailey and advocate on behalf of their clients - modern television tends to focus on the more glamorous fields of law and unrealistically fails to identify the other roles around.