Will Hot Practice Areas Today Be Lucrative in the Future?
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As if graduating from law school, finding a job, passing the bar exam, and actually learning how to practice law weren’t challenging enough for young attorneys, before long, or possibly already, they will likely need to find an area of concentration. The law is so specialized at this point, industries are so highly regulated, that doing a little bit of everything probably means you’re not going to do very much very well.
You will need to focus.
Historically, larger law firms were organized along transactional and litigation lines. From there, practice groups emerged: the energy group, or the health care group, or bankruptcy, and so on. In the era of “client-focused” practice, law firms have tended to take a more holistic approach to clients. After all, a client doesn’t just do business deals or defend against lawsuits or endure regulation by a single government entity. To that end, some lawyers are focusing more on a particular industry. Knowing the client’s business can help a lawyer serve that client better.
A young lawyer needs to consider a number of factors before committing herself to a particular legal path. Starting with the obvious, consider what your firm currently offers and whether you will need to change jobs to pursue a particular practice area. Consider your own long-term goals: Do you
have a lot of time to dedicate now to a high-stress area of the law?
Will you in the future? Do you prefer a lot of strident debate, or are you less combative and more conciliatory?
Think, too, about how your own personality may develop. Fresh out of
law school, some young lawyers are not dynamic speakers or particularly talented writers. Engage in your business for 10 years or more, though, and your skill set is likely to expand
significantly.
Think about the types of clients you might like to represent:
major corporations, individuals, large industries, labor groups, manufacturers, suppliers, small businesses,
disadvantaged people, plaintiffs, defendants. Consider your career-long commitment and how easy transitioning from one practice area to another may or may not be. Family law
might seem like a righteous pursuit for you right now, but 10 years in and thousands of interfamilial squabbles later, you could possibly be burning out on listening to couples who now hate each other bicker over who gets the antique pie rack.
Choosing to focus on a particular legal subject or on a certain industry is not a decision to be made lightly as it has very real consequences for a lawyer’s career trajectory. What sort of additional knowledge or training or certification may be necessary? How crowded is the field today, and how likely is a concentration area to be exceedingly viable in the future?
What sort of cyclical variations in the business is your focus area subject to?
Think, too, about your long-term geographical interests. Do you want to stay where you are, physically, or relocate to another area at some point? Will your career focus be transferable?
If you’re leaning toward legislative advocacy, will you be able to do that in an area that is not a national or
state capital? If you are seeking a more rural existence, how might you work telecommuting into your practice?
If your firm is rotating you among various practice groups, give each of them a good-faith go. Partners at law firms have reputations, some good, some bad, as do practice areas, some
sexy, some not. Toss any preconceived notions about a partner’s personality or a legal subject’s hotness or tedium
until you’ve given it a try. A subject you think you loathe may actually turn out to be quite fascinating, or a topic you are
drawn to could become quite dull once you get down to the nitty-gritty details (say of grinding out hundreds upon
hundreds of contracts, or wills, or other agreements). To each her own. Don’t let someone else’s interests or coolness cloud your own life choices. Pursue a well-considered path in the law.
