Every student who wants to be a future lawyer must be carefully and exquisitely refined in mind, body, and spirit if they want to emerge as the best in their professions.
According to Aristotle, law is reason, and it should be free from passion. It is a more formal way of saying that rules are rules, no matter how much it brings you joy or extreme sadness. We must follow the rule of law if we are to maintain order.
The legal profession has numerous branches similar to an old oak tree ranging from Family to Trade and Commerce. Now that you have successfully attended law school and it seems that the road is laid out and the destination is brighter, here are three tips on choosing your legal specialty.
Location
Most people already have an idea what kind of attorney they want to be even before going to law school. They probably live in an area where there are a lot of divorce attorneys, thus the career of being one seems to be the right move.
However, if there are already too many divorce attorneys and not enough divorces, then you might end up moving elsewhere.
Therefore it is important to know the needs of your area or the area that you’re planning to move to. Seek out a common legal issue with a few attorneys and you might just find something that would suit you practically. Are they dealing with personal injuries such as those acquired from accidents or medical malpractice such as perforated bowel negligence? Or do they deal more with workplace issues?
Know Yourself
Any law student would come across three broad areas during law school, and it is important to know with which their skill set seems to fit more naturally. The three kinds of lawyers according to those areas are as follows:
- Litigators who do a lot of research and solve issues through discovery and writing
- Corporate/transactional lawyers who, by their definition, are greatly involved in business
- Regulatory lawyers who are experts in a particular regulatory scheme and handling administrative hearings
Just by reading the descriptions, you would immediately know that each has very specific demands. You or any lawyer for that matter should really be aware of what you are capable of and passionate about before you take on any path. Make an honest self-assessment before making your decision.
Goals
Long-term goals are important for every lawyer. For better or for worse, the area that you begin will greatly define the path that you are about to take for the most part of your life so you better choose wisely. As you become more invested in the pursuit of that goal, your world changes; so do your environment, experiences, and relationships. Hence, you must really be sure if that kind of picture is the one that you envision for yourself.
Dura lex, sed lex. Being a lawyer involves dealing with a lot of facts, no matter how harsh, disturbing, or absurd they are. Each legal area has their own ways of appreciating facts and assigning a value to them. Corporate lawyers, for example, glorify hard money matters and enforce contracts to the letter. Family lawyers, for their part, might have more leeway for emotions. And they can’t just cross over. Specialization necessitates that you just stay in one specific place for a long time. Choosing that place, therefore, must not be done in haste.
