In Russia today, more than ever, various social welfare institutions (Centers for social services, Social assistance centers for families and children, Rehabilitation centers for disabled children and their families, Centers for work with refugees and IDPs, Centers of medico-social rehabilitation of military men, etc.) require legal profile specialists, who are characterized by high professional culture and capable of effective advocacy. The article considers peculiarities of the lawyer's professional activity in social welfare institutions. It describes structural components, levels of formedness of the lawyer's professional readiness to work in social service. Didactic characteristics of the process of forming future lawyers' professional readiness to work in various types of social welfare institutions is given, and conditions providing efficiency of this process are experimentally proven.