Who are we? Committing to a career in law is a hard enough decision on its own. Now you need to start thinking about what arena of the law most excites you so that you can pick elective courses and extracurricular activities that will contribute to more relevant education.
If you love good, hearty debate and, importantly, are not thrown by conflict or even animosity then becoming a litigator could be the perfect career for you. Are you stressed about taking on the MBE? But there comes a point where some people make a trade-off between practicing an area of law they truly love and the money offered by a higher-paying law specialty.
However, the lawyers that operate within these spheres are typically the happiest and most fulfilled. But if money is secondary to service, then you may find yourself incredibly fulfilled with a career in environmental and sustainability law, civil rights law, or animal rights law, etc. The reality of a career in law is that a stable, predictable 9-to-5 is the exception rather than the rule. You may find yourself working until 10 PM at night or over weekends, or having to skip lunch to be at a hearing.
Your job is to figure out how comfortable you are with an unstable, unpredictable work life. Having said that, there are ways to exercise control over your job. For example: government agencies tend to offer more predictable hours and demands.
Alternatively, starting a solo practice means you get to make your own rules and decide your own schedule. Take-away message: What do you need in your work life? Is it stability, predictability, control, and autonomy? Or do you thrive under pressure and in a demanding, unpredictable work environment in which you are a part of a much larger organism?
Did you know that, on average, lawyers are introverts? In fact, long hours behind a desk, alone, churning out miles of work is more the pace of a typical career in law. Many law grads choose an area of law because they like the idea of it but then become surprised, disappointed, and even depressed by the day-to-day reality of what that specialty entails. If you are interested in the differences between being a trial and appellate lawyer, check out this article.
What will happen someday when we start consistently traveling in outer space and colonizing other planets? Who would take care of laws relating to this air travel?
Two hundred years ago, no one would have imagined that we would need aviation lawyers to help with disputes about air travel. So, what might be going on up in the air two hundred years from now? The United States could look like a scene straight out of The Jetsons for all we know! It is important to realize the extent to which aviation and aerospace law involves international matters. If you have no interest in dealing with other countries, you may find it harder to get a job in this practice area.
However, there is certainly something to be said for working with a more local group to keep noisy airports from disturbing the slumber of residential areas. Did you always want to be an astronaut growing up? You may find it slightly easier to use your law degree to work in the aerospace area instead.
However, with the rather limited opportunities available in it now, you will still likely have to have a top-notch scientific background to land one of these jobs. Because this is such a niche area, you probably should take some courses in this area of law if your school offers them. If you are not already enrolled in a law school and are interested in this area, you may want to consider going to the University of Mississippi School of Law.
If you are already enrolled in a law school, your best chance to get into this practice area may be to go to the University of Mississippi Law School to get an LL. So, unless you want to go to one of the schools outside of the US with such a program, this looks like your best option. The other alternative, particularly if you want to focus on the even newer and rapidly developing area of space law, is to get an LL.
If you want to work for SpaceX, this is the way to go! Note: they only enroll students in the program per year Prospective LL. Your previous academic, extracurricular, and work experience must have shown you to be an absolute star pun intended for you to get into their space program. If you want to continue your education even further to rise to the absolute top of the space law practice area, Nebraska Law also offers a J.
Note that there are very strict entrance requirements into this program — to learn more, visit their website. One final consideration about entering this practice area is that already having a military background or having an intention to go into the military may correlate well with the type of work you may be performing.
If you want to focus on aviation law, you may consider getting a job with an airline or working for the Federal Aviation Administration FAA. You could also work for a law firm that represents pilots in FAA enforcement actions. Although a niche area, there are sufficient jobs in this area if you have a strong background. Currently, job opportunities in space law are extremely scarce.
If working for SpaceX is a dream of yours, note that at the time this was written, not a single legal position was open for the company though plenty of engineering, programming, management, and other various positions were open. Market demand for this type of legal work will likely increase dramatically in the next few years, however.
In a Tweet on July 18, , Elon Musk reported that Starhopper, a prototype of the SpaceX Mars-colonizing spacecraft, came out fine after being engulfed in flames. With the likelihood of us inhabiting Mars increasing every day with more and more sophisticated technology, there will probably be a need in the very near future for many more aviation and aerospace lawyers. You also need to be able to think outside the box about new problems and considerations that no one may have ever had to address before.
If focusing on technical aspects and small details have never been your best skills, this may not be the area for you. If STEM was always your strong suit growing up, this may be the perfect area for you. If you dislike routine and rules, great! International trade is increasingly subject to geopolitics. In the realm of international air transport, this shift has come in the form of coercive diplomacy involving civil aviation.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Federal vs. Constitution established a unique form of government involving a division of powers between the federal government and the states.
The advent of new technologies, however, has challenged the allocation of regulatory power between federal and state governments. A litany of groundbreaking technologies—steamboats, railroads, airplanes, automobiles, telecommunications, the Internet—has raised tough questions about a long-standing debate: whether a single national body of federal law or a mix of differing state laws would better advance the public interest.
Now, drone technology is poised to be one of the fastest growing industries in U. In doing so, drones raise similar questions about the appropriate balance between federal and state regulation. Overall, her advice for law students thinking about working in this practice area is to read about the issues in the industry news. A: I practice regulatory now, but previously I was general counsel for international operations of a major airline and I practiced all areas of the law.
Q: Did you practice in any other practice areas before deciding on this one? A: Challenging economics sometimes as the aviation business is tough; also regulatory work is difficult to put a value on — you often can solve a million-dollar issue with one hour of work, but you are paid only for an hour, and the value you provide to the client is so much more. You will be a happy and successful aviation and aerospace lawyer if you work for an aviation company with good people and help build it into a successful global company.
Did you know that no one can own the moon, and no one can militarize it? If the thought of the Outer Space Treaty of and the Moon Agreement of fascinates you, you should be an aviation and aerospace lawyer! There are many regulations that banks must follow; these help ensure fair and transparent banking practices. Banks have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, creating more of a need for banking lawyers.
Banking lawyers represent either a bank the one lending money or the borrower. The goal is to ensure fair and well-negotiated contracts for both parties; this means banking lawyers must be excellent communicators. If, however, regulations that reduce risk for banking customers is a fascinating area to you, read on. Having a background in finance or a related field accounting, business, tax, actuarial, economics, math may help you better understand the day-to-day work that a banking lawyer does.
However, on-the-job experience is the most important thing! Many schools offer an LL. If you are looking to focus your practice area, this may be a smart option to accelerate your career.
Most large banks hire in-house counsel, but you can also work for a law firm that provides services to banks. Another option is to work for the government creating banking laws. This is also an area of law that correlates well with lobbying if you want to represent an organization advocating for change.
You should be very detail-oriented so that you pick up on the fine print. You should also be good at communication and negotiation; you will have to frequently talk to clients and the other side.
There is also a massive amount of banking information and regulations out there, so the better you are at memorizing and analyzing large quantities of information, the better suited you are for banking law. If you prefer to be more behind-the-scenes, banking law is a good alternative to other areas of law that require more court appearances.
Plaintiffs alleged securities fraud, claiming that Wells Fargo executives inflated stock prices by claiming it had great success convincing clients to sign up for additional accounts and services. In fact, the bank created millions of accounts without customer authorization, the Los Angeles Times reports. Because pot is still illegal at the federal level, most banks will not offer services to legitimate, professionally run companies that operate in compliance with state and local cannabis laws.
As a result, most of these businesses operate on a cash-only basis, creating significant business challenges, public safety concerns and incentives to circumvent tax laws as well. Federal banking law preemption in the post-Dodd Frank world: A review of significant developments Omer. With a downturn in the economy comes more people forced to file for bankruptcy. Thus, the people who actually do better when the economy is bad are bankruptcy lawyers.
A bankruptcy lawyer may represent a person consumer bankruptcy lawyer or a corporation commercial bankruptcy lawyer ; often, lawyers choose to specialize with one or the other, but they can do both. A bankruptcy lawyer might work for a client filing for bankruptcy and assist with reducing debt load. Or, a bankruptcy lawyer may work for a creditor; in that case, the lawyer would try to get as much of the money owed as possible for the client. To read some bankruptcy laws and see whether they interest you, visit this website.
Having a strong financial background is helpful for bankruptcy law. Related backgrounds such as accounting, business, tax, actuarial, or math may also transition well. If you take a class in law school on bankruptcy, you will quickly find out whether the extensive paperwork and number-crunching involved is for you.
After you finish law school and start working in bankruptcy law, if you focus on representing people rather than companies you might want to join the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys NACBA. If you represent companies, you may want to consider joining the Commercial Law League of America. You should look to the economy to determine whether working in bankruptcy law right out of school will be profitable.
Bankruptcy lawyers are in particular demand in periods of economic decline, but there is always some demand for them. This is a small bankruptcy firm with just a couple of lawyers but many more support staff who deal with the majority of the paperwork.
In that case, you may be mainly supervising a fleet of paralegals, since they are the ones primarily working with the clients to gather necessary information for filing a case. You must be able to understand what your client needs and represent that accordingly.
If you a quick reader and are good at picking out what information is important and what is not, you may be well suited to this area. However, if you prefer more interpersonal relationship building and communication in your job, you may get bored going through financial document after financial document.
This is also a very fast-paced area, so if you prefer larger, more complex cases you may not enjoy the speed at which cases proceed. The 7th U. This area of law primarily involves paperwork. You need to know whether you are the kind of person who prefers paper or people. Those who want to work in many practice areas listed in this guide may want to be general Business and Commercial Litigators like Dustin.
A: I have a broad practice area; I practice all fields that involve business. I practice anywhere from small matters to class actions for litigation. I practice in front of state agencies. I also do transactional work and business counseling. A: No day is the same, but I typically start with emails and phone calls around 7 am.
Depending on the day, I might also start in court or on a court call. Most days are filled with meetings with clients and associates. A: Not necessarily. I usually can tell from the consults whether it is someone I want to work with. Sometimes business owners are upset by how employees take down their company with ridiculous claims, though. A: The variety; being a generalist requires that you provide a specialist approach in many different areas.
That makes it intellectually challenging and exhausting. It is also very interesting, and no day is the same. A lawyer in my firm was my mentor; I was a summer law clerk for this firm. He took me under his wing pretty early. If I had to guess… about 80 hours. A: Helping people. I work with people every day and I like helping people solve their problems. A: You should contact lawyers and have lunch with them. Just see what their day is like.
It can sort of serve as networking, but really it is just finding out more information, and people like to talk about themselves. It is stimulating when you are jumping from project to project. If you get bored easily, you would love this work. Businesses are what keep our economy going. The area of law dealing with businesses is thus as important as it is profitable.
Academics identified five elements that are the basic legal characteristics of a corporation: legal personality, limited liability, transferable shares, delegated management under a board structure, and investor ownership. Corporate law intersects with many other areas of law, such as international law, employment law, and sometimes even family law.
That is because corporations are a huge part of our lives and touch every aspect of how we operate day-to-day. An important sub-area of business law that some lawyers choose to specialize in is closely-held business law. The main difference between public corporations and closely-held companies is that public corporations have their shares traded publicly, whereas closely-held businesses do not usually have public shares.
The main disadvantage of a closely-held business is that personal factors may often influence what the company does. Internal conflicts can complicate matters for lawyers who specialize in this area.
However, if you are interested in helping family businesses with their day-to-day legal issues, this might be the area for you. A background in business or any business-related area such as marketing, accounting, finance, or economics may be helpful because it means you are already used to working with businesses.
However, any background will allow you to succeed at corporate law so long as you like to read and write — you will need to have an expansive knowledge of all of the rules and regulations concerning corporations and be able to properly advise corporations about these matters. Additionally, there is no shortage of classes or internship opportunities in this area of law. Many corporations will choose to have lawyers in-house to reduce hassle and to meet their everyday needs.
Large corporations may employ several corporate lawyers, and even smaller businesses often find it helpful to have at least one. You may also be able to start your own firm quite successfully in this area since there will be no shortage of clients. There are plenty of small firms that employ corporate lawyers. Big Law corporate lawyers make the big bucks. If you are looking for a more flexible work schedule after gaining Big Law experience, check out InCloudCounsel , which utilizes new technologies to help lawyers choose their own hours and pick their own homebase.
In sum, there is no shortage of opportunities available in corporate law. Do a quick Indeed search and you will find plenty of results that catch your interest. Big Law pays well in exchange for rough hours; law firms in usually pay better than in-house.
Problem-solving is the number one skill you should have if you work as a corporate lawyer. Realize that there will be a lot of pressure on you, as you are the one expected to help a business thrive by keeping it out of legal trouble. The ability to recognize potential problems before they actually occur or to quickly mitigate issues when they arise is essential. You will have your fair share of reading and writing as a corporate lawyer, but you will seldom be in a courtroom. After all, your goal is to keep businesses out of the courtroom!
If you love business or finance, this will be the area for you; you will be dealing with large amounts of money and complicated business transactions every day. Even in the face of hundreds of MeToo headlines revealing negative behaviors in the workplace, there has been little focus on those who have a fiduciary duty to the organizations that they oversee—the members of their board of directors. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. If one of your potential career paths was to be an entrepreneur or work in a business-related field, your skills can be put to good use as a corporate lawyer.
Litigation attorneys are also known as litigators or trial attorneys. They represent the plaintiff or defendant the whole way through the lawsuit process. There are many different areas on which you can focus litigation. Thus, you should look to other practice areas to determine what area you want to litigate.
Civil litigation encompasses all litigation that does not have criminal charges or penalties. The main reason we listed this as a practice area is that often lawyers become general litigators and will take cases in several areas.
They are really good at the whole process, from researching, to investigating, to negotiating, but they especially excel in the courtroom. If you get a thrill at being in the courtroom and want to argue before a judge frequently, you may want to consider becoming a litigator. It might not be as glamorous as the TV makes it appear, however! Litigators are known for being lawyers who work around the clock.
Litigators actually spend most of their time doing discovery work. If you would like a good article about what it means to be a litigator, you should read this article. It gives an excellent distinction between what transactional attorneys and litigation attorneys do. She has an impressive background as former U. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, where she managed over people and oversaw the litigation of many complex cases.
A: My days vary. I also do a bit of business development and networking because that is part of private practice. I sit on non-profit organization boards outside of work. Sometimes my days are very client-oriented, and sometimes my days are more business-oriented. I will often speak at events I get invited to and on panels. A: No, but I deal with people who may be involved in challenging situations and who are looking to me to resolve those situations. A: I think for me right now, my day-to-day work is interesting, challenging, and a new adventure.
I see myself as a problem solver. A: I would say on average anywhere between hours a week, but it really varies. A: I like my ability to help people resolve challenging situations. Trying to figure out how to best address a legal situation is challenging and interesting. You get out of it what you put into it, so there must be a genuine interest. Students should be prepared for research and document drafting. As lawyers gain more experience, especially in litigation, they will get to do more of the witness interviewing, client meetings, and lawyer strategy meetings.
Law students, though, play a more supportive role as they become lawyers. They should look for opportunities to get better hands-on experience — working for a government lawyer or a small firm will result in more hands-on tasks. In many ways, you can only do your best with what you have. A civil rights attorney primarily protects people from discrimination based on gender, religion, color, and many other protected statuses.
He or she may also help protect certain rights outlined in the Bill of Rights such as freedom of speech, but note that this is constitutional law, though these two areas of law often overlap and intertwine. Usually, a lawyer picks a more specific area of focus. There are many civil rights laws to be aware of, from the Civil Rights Act to Title IX and everything in between, and there are also many important cases that set legal precedent.
Civil rights are the rights to be free from unequal treatment due to protected characteristics. Civil rights lawyers deal with situations where individuals are discriminated against. Civil liberties, on the other hand, are basic rights and freedoms that were either explicitly identified in the Bill of Rights or have otherwise been determined by courts in the past couple of centuries. These rights are guaranteed, and when there is a violation of these civil liberties, Constitutional lawyers will step in.
For more information, see the section on Constitutional law. Take as many classes in civil rights law as you can and join a clinic if your school has one or find a local clinic to volunteer at. Civil rights law is such a broad area that you should try to narrow it down by taking classes in areas such as disability law or housing discrimination. Try to secure an internship within that sub-area of civil rights law. There are over 4 million members nationwide who care about our rights and protecting our freedom.
The more civil rights organizations you join and volunteer experience you have, the better your network of connections will be and the higher your chance of securing a job in the competitive civil rights law market.
There are a variety of opportunities in civil rights law. In addition to working for a law firm large or small and as the only area of focus or just one of many you could work for a non-profit organization or the government. Within the government, there are many departments that focus on various forms of discrimination.
For example, the DOJ Americans with Disabilities division takes care of those who were discriminated against for their disabilities. The U. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights deals with discrimination in school systems.
For more information, read our section about schools and education. Department of Labor, Civil Rights Enforcement deals with discrimination in the workplace.
Read our section on employment law to see if you like this area. The FBI even has a civil rights division! Additionally, if you have a passion to fight for a certain group, you could consider working for a non-profit related to that. Certain jobs within civil rights law are very competitive, but overall there is a wide array of opportunities that exist.
For more information about job opportunities in civil rights law, visit this site. Working for a government agency yields a much lower salary than private practice. You should be passionate about working with a certain group of people or focusing on a particular issue.
You should also recognize that a large portion of job opportunities are with the government. As a civil rights attorney, you will have a balance of reading, writing, researching, and speaking, but you must be capable of handling high profile cases; some civil rights cases involve a lot of publicity so you should be able to handle that with ease.
For all the information you are seeking about civil rights law, check out this guide. As many scholars have noted, these algorithms tend to have disparate racial impacts. In response, critics advocate three strategies of resistance: 1 the exclusion of input factors that correlate closely with race; 2 adjustments to algorithmic design to equalize predictions across racial lines; and 3 rejection of algorithmic methods altogether.
What if paramedics could legally choose not to give someone life support because they are trans or using drugs in a way that offends their moral code? These scenarios are possible and protected under new bills that declare individual morality and personal convictions paramount to federal and state regulations, local governance decisions and basic human rights. Department of Housing and Urban Development is circulating new rules that would make it nearly impossible for banks — or landlords or homeowners insurance companies — to be sued when their algorithms result in people of color being disproportionately denied housing.
The rule would overturn 50 years of precedent, upheld by the Supreme Court in , that permit the use of statistical analysis to identify patterns of discrimination. In a mass tort or class action, a large group of people with the same complaint of harm by the defendant are the plaintiffs.
This helps to cut down on the number of court cases because it consolidates people who have been harmed by the same problem into one lawsuit instead of many. In a mass tort, each of the individuals must prove how the defendant harmed them. In a class action, the plaintiffs are considered a group and have a class representative representing the group as a whole. There are certain criteria required for lawsuits to be considered class actions, and when cases fail to meet those criteria, mass torts often are used instead.
Some lawyers specialize in representing those in a mass tort or class action, which is why this is being listed in this guide. However, these mass tort and class actions still revolve around the subject of other practice areas so you must know what area s you want to practice before deciding whether to advertise that you specialize in class actions and mass torts.
Communication has only gotten more complicated over the years. No longer do we just have printed newspapers telling people what is happening and mailed letters as the way to communicate with each other. Attorneys specializing in communications law get to work with the ever-changing methods we use to communicate with each other, which includes radio, tv, phone, email, text, and the internet. Whenever information is exchanged using technology, there are rules and regulations to govern that use.
There are regulations having to do with what content is displayed, particularly to children. There are regulations on market share for telecommunications companies. There are regulations on how to obtain licenses to practice.
There are regulations on everything you can imagine related to communication. Communications law is very technical. If you have a background in information technologies, computer science, data technologies, communication, politics, or marketing, you may do well in communications law.
Some attorneys at the FCC write regulations, while others litigate. Administrative law judges at the FCC hear communications law cases. If you are looking for a job with the FCC, visit this page. If you have graduated from law school and want to get into communications law, consider joining the FCC Attorney Honors Program , a two-year program that will train you in all aspects of communications law.
If you want to work in a constantly changing area where new technology brings a multitude of legal issues, communications law might be for you. You must have a passion for learning about new forms of technology and how these impact our everyday communications.
The new rules will also improve emergency response for people who call from other calling platforms. As you might expect, Constitutional law concerns how to interpret and implement the US Constitution. The Constitution is what the country was built on, so this is arguably the most important area of law. It deals with the balance of power and the fundamental rights of citizens, and the Supreme Court plays an important role in shaping Constitutional law.
If reading, memorizing, and applying Supreme Court cases is a favorite hobby of yours, read on. Seriously, you should read it, read it again, and then memorize it. The Constitution is your bible if you work in Constitutional law. If you want to be a Constitutional lawyer, you should have a strong understanding of English law as well as what the Framers intended when they drafted the Constitution and founded America.
While in law school, you should join a Supreme Court litigation clinic if your school offers one. You should also join law review and do any other activity your school offers that will help set you apart. It has over 4 million members who want to protect our fundamental rights.
If you have a background in history or politics, this will transition well into constitutional law. What is most important, however, is a desire to analyze issues from the unique perspective of what this country was founded on. Realize that not all cases will be high stakes and fundamentally change the shape of the law forever, like Miranda v.
Arizona or Roe v. Many cases are in lower courts and are just everyday legal disputes but still involve constitutional issues. That being said, if you Google the biggest legal cases ever, you will be seeing Constitutional law cases. So, if you are the type of person looking for high-profile, life-changing cases that will put intense pressure on you, Constitutional law is an area that could take you there. Constitutional law is an area that most attorneys will encounter at least once because it touches on most aspects of our lives, but it is an area that not a ton of attorneys practice exclusively.
That is because it is a highly-sought-after and very competitive. Think your chances of getting a Supreme Court clerkship are slim? Well, your chances of arguing before the Supreme Court or even practicing Constitutional law are pretty slim as well. You need to be the very top of your law school class and have an outstanding background if you want high-profile Supreme Court cases.
However, some areas of law intersect with Constitutional law to a large extent, such as criminal law. Thus, having a strong understanding of Constitutional law and a willingness to practice it alongside another area can be a huge plus, since trying to go into Constitutional law exclusively can be extremely risky.
If you identify what areas of the Constitution interest you the most, you can focus on those instead. For example, if the First Amendment interests you, consider Communications law. Or, if you want to focus on the balance of power because you love politics, consider administrative law and work for a government agency.
Still think you want to focus exclusively on Constitutional law and someday will argue before the Supreme Court? There are opportunities with organizations such as the North Caroline Institute for Constitutional Law or with law schools, in addition to working for a law firm. What is perhaps most interesting about Constitutional law is seeing the intersection of past and present; as social issues change and as technology gets better, we see new problems appear before the Supreme Court and get interpreted by using a document that is over two hundred years old.
What exactly are the rights of the people? What exactly is too much government power? Back to tiny details again! Courts, the executive branch, and many scholars rely on one or both clauses as support for expansive views of presidential power, for example, to go beyond standing law to defend the nation in emergencies; to withhold documents from Congress or the courts; or to refuse to fully execute statutes on grounds of unconstitutionality or for policy reasons.
The difficulty of the question is reflected in the deeply ambivalent approach of the Supreme Court, an ambivalence matched only by the alternately xenophobic and xenophilic attitude of the American public toward immigrants.
Because the Constitution expressly limits to citizens only the rights to vote and to run for federal elective office, equality between non-nationals and citizens would appear to be the constitutional rule. If you want to have a huge impact on society and what laws and freedoms we have, Constitutional law is a good area for you.
You must also be an extremely competitive candidate to work in this area of law. According to OSHA, there are almost 6. There are many potential hazards for construction workers. They could fall from a great height, get electrocuted, get stuck between two objects, get crushed underneath an object, and more.
Anyone who has ever been to a construction site has seen the large equipment, hanging objects, and dangerous machinery. However, in addition to all of this danger, there is the potential for disputes to arise over significant construction projects. There may be disputes about contracts, workmanship claims, negligence, defects or delays, and more.
A construction litigator is either prosecuting or defending these claims. Because construction is such a huge industry in the US, there are construction attorneys who are there to help when something related to construction goes wrong.
There are many stakeholders involved in construction companies, whether it is the owner, contractor, architect, insurer, or many more. Note that some private contracts may contain a clause requiring arbitration instead of litigation, or there may be mandatory mediation before continuing to arbitration or litigation. Construction law involves many related areas. This is a good area to go into if you are extremely well-rounded.
The American Bar Associate has a Construction Litigation Committee for people who primarily practice construction law. Many students volunteer in the construction industry or find a part-time job or internship to learn more about construction law before they enter the field. Because you need to be knowledgeable about so many areas to be a construction lawyer, rather than have a certain background, the most important skill is a willingness and desire to learn and the ability to learn quickly. However, if you do have a background in construction, architecture, or engineering because of a family business or a prior job, this will be a natural transition for you.
Large construction and engineering companies will often hire in-house counsel, which will benefit you if you are interested in serving just one client and helping that business develop while keeping it out of hot water. This is also a great area of law to open up a practice in because you can help such a wide variety of clients on a variety of issues, making it very feasible to find clients.
Finally, there are plenty of opportunities available with both large and small law firms across the country. A quick Google search will reveal plenty of opportunities in this area of law.
One important thing to note, however, is that construction jobs tend to be less prevalent when the economy is in a downturn. This is an area of law where money may ebb and flow, particularly if you have a solo practice or work for a very small firm.
You may also want to consider geography and choose an area of the country that is rapidly developing and has a lot of construction projects. While you may not be able to find data on the employment of construction lawyers specifically, looking at state data on general construction workers will indicate where the most construction projects are taking place.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has data showing the states with the most construction workers employed:. However, salaries vary widely based on location. If you are looking for variety and balance in what you do, construction law might be a good area for you; many construction lawyers get to handle both litigation and transactional law. They also serve a wide variety of clients on a wide variety of issues.
Overall, construction lawyers serve as problem solvers; when something goes wrong with a big project, they are there to help. If you want to be a construction lawyer, you will need strong negotiation skills, and you need to be good at working with others.
Because alternative dispute resolution is often used in construction law, you must be able to see both sides of a story, but because litigation is also sometimes used, you need to be a fierce competitor in the courtroom. Overall, you must be well-rounded. Construction lawyers are specialists in one sense because they work in a specific industry, but they are also generalists because they need to be well-versed in many areas of law.
Aspen Ins. This article is not theoretical; it is based on experience adapting baseball arbitration concepts to construction disputes. When there is a big project involved, something always goes wrong. Your university may be able to put you in touch with alumni who went into your field of interest. Learn more about key skills and qualities you need for commercial law.
Your studies so far can help or hinder you in certain fields. If you have your heart set on one of the Magic Circle firms, you need to consider corporate and finance law — but as we said earlier, the most important thing is that you find the work interesting. Taking a more international focus could make you more attractive to the US firms, renowned for offering the highest salaries.
For those, you should focus on things the average person might need - wills and probate, conveyancing, family, personal injury, employment, immigration and criminal law. Law firms looking for graduates with your degree. At the big law firms you can expect to earn a high salary by putting in serious hours. A quick glance at a life in commercial law.
The work of corporate lawyers is affected by the economy. It offers constant work, no matter what happens to the markets.
In 15 years, do you see yourself jostling to be made partner of a major firm? Do you see yourself with your own practice? Or do you see yourself still fighting for a cause you believe in?
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