Law as a Career Choice

What is legal practice like?

I.   Two Main Types of Law :   When most people think of lawyers, they think of the people they have seen on TV or in the movies who stand up in a courtroom and make arguments on their feet; however, there are many different kinds of way to practice law, some of which never involve going to court. There are two main types of law practiced and within those two types of practice, lawyers practice in every area of life.

Transactional Law

DESCRIPTION: Though this area of law is much less publicized on TV and in the movies, it is equally popular among lawyers. Transactional law involves transactions where a client has to interface with the law and needs a lawyer to help walk them through the legal process. Generally transactional attorneys do not go to court and are not involved in adversarial proceedings. For example, transactional work could include setting up a will or a trust, doing an adoption, or helping someone who has just invented a new product to patent it.

PROS: Transactional attorneys generally have a more predictable schedule because they are not at the mercy of court scheduling. Additionally, their work is usually not of the nature that it must be done .yesterday. so to speak. Transactional attorneys are also often thought of as the less-adversarial, competitive lawyers.people who are perhaps happier sitting at a desk, meeting with clients in non-adversarial positions, and avoiding the courtroom.

CONS: As with any field of work, those transactional attorneys who have very large and demanding clients can sometimes find themselves working as much if not more than the trial attorneys when they have a big merger or contract coming up. Another con of the transactional practice is that it does tend to be more document oriented meaning that transactional work is usually a desk-job that does not provide frequent opportunities for getting out of the office other than meeting with clients.

Litigation Law

DESCRIPTION: Litigation work involves clients who are headed to court for one reason or another whether it is a criminal charge, a lawsuit, or a divorce. Therefore, everything litigation attorneys do is in preparation for trial from interviewing witnesses to visiting accident scenes to drafting motions and arguing them before the court. However, it is important to note that these days because of the expense of trial, 95% of cases settle out of court before going to trial, so even very good private practice trial attorneys might only actually end up going to court for an actual trial a few times a year.

PROS: Litigation attorneys are generally of a more competitive nature and enjoy the adrenalin rush of arguing a motion or standing up before a jury and making an opening statement. Because preparing for trial involves a multitude of different things, litigators are often able to spend more time out of the office than a transactional attorney because they do have to meet witnesses, visit accident scenes, etc.

CONS: Litigation can be very demanding and unpredictable. The essence of it is adversarial, so there is always a party on the opposite side disagreeing over whatever the issue is. Litigation attorneys are also at the mercy of court scheduling and must accommodate their schedule accordingly even if that means missing a vacation that had been planned for 6 months. Also, when a litigation attorney is in the middle of a trial, they can often work 14-16 hours a day; after the trial they might have some time off, but the actual trial can be very demanding.

II .   Legal Specialties

General Considerations:   There are many different types of specialties within the law field. However, it is a common misconception among prelaw students that they must know before choosing a law school what they need to specialize in. Wherever a student goes to law school, they will graduate with a J.D. There are no majors in law school. The first year all students across the country take the same core legal courses. The second and third year students can take whatever courses they want to earn the credits necessary to graduate. It is generally in the first few years of practice that attorneys develop specialties rather than during law school. With the exception of intellectual property law, legal employers do not care so much about what classes a student has taken but rather what the student.s grades and general background are. Therefore, while the student might find it helpful to take courses in an area they are interested in, it will not necessarily help their marketability upon graduation.

Schools Offering Specialty Programs

As a marketing technique, many law schools (especially third and fourth tier law schools) have begun offering concentrations or certificates in certain areas of law. However, if a student asks the question, .Is it better to go to a higher-ranked school or a school offering a specialty I am interested in?   Most practitioners will tell you to go to the better school. This is for several reasons. First, as with undergraduates who change their majors many times after coming to college, so do many law students change their minds about working in a certain specialty after taking some classes in that area. Second, law school is not meant to teach students how to be a specific kind of lawyer, but to teach them how to .think like a lawyer. in any situation, which means that the skills learned in law school are transferable to any area of law. Third, many times the area that a student is interested in is so general (e.g. corporate law, criminal law, family law) that any law school will likely have several courses covering that area.

If you are very interested in working in a specific and narrow niche (e.g. sports law), it might be worthwhile to look at specialty programs; however, you will need to critique the programs very carefully and make sure that they really are offering more than what any other law schools could offer you. To find a listing of law schools that specialize in a certain subject, come visit the Prelaw Office and look at the NAPLA/SAPLA Book of Law School Lists. Unfortunately this text is not available online at this time.

Information on Specialties

Because students often know what kind of area of law they want to generally practice in but really don't know that much about it, below are links to 2-page handouts on the major areas of legal specialties that give basic information about the specialty based on phone interviews conducted with attorneys currently practicing in that field. Questions include things such as, "What is the current demand for corporate attorneys? What is an average day like for a corporate attorney? How much is the average salary for a corporate attorney?"

Bankruptcy
Communications
Constitutional
Corporate
Criminal
Environmental
Family Law
Indian Affairs
Intellectual Property
International
Military Law
Public Interest
Tax law
Sports and Entertainment
Real Estate
Wills and Estate Planning

Non-Traditional Legal Practice

Professional employment positions from previous surveys Army/Navy/Air Force/Marines/Coast Guard JAGC
Business consultant
Business planner
Chamber of commerce
Charitable associations
CIA - Special Agent
City controller
Civil service officer
Court reporting services
Dean of development, career services, admission, students, academic affairs - law school
Environmental consultant
FBI - Special Agent
Financial manager
Fulbright scholarship
Head of security
Importer
Insurance sales
Investment banker
Labor arbitrator
Legal computer research instructor
Legal journalist
Legal publisher
Librarian (law & general)
Litigation support research firm
Many federal agencies
Media consultant
Medical consultant
Motion picture industry
Music industry agent
Mystery book author
Pension fund administrator
Personnel manager; compliance officer
Political campaign manager
Private investigator
Professional translator
Public policy fellowship
Real estate sales
Record company executive
Securities broker
Senate/House committees
Senator/Representative Offices
Small business owner
Social agency administrator
Social services department
Sport management counsel
Sports writer
State/Local clerk's office
State police
Stock broker
Tax preparer
Teacher - university, community college, public schools
Teaching overseas
Television production
Trade association executive
Treasurer of corporation
United nations administrative/ management positions
https://jobs.un.org/Galaxy/Release3/vacancy/vacancy.aspx
U.S. Court Administrator
U.S. Customs service
U.S. Postal Service