Career Options for Lawyers
What do lawyers do? Here's an
overview, based on where they are employed and
the type of specialty practiced. As you can see
there is a lot of room for specializing in a
particular area of interest and a lot of
opportunity for promoting various kinds of social
justice. Kinds of
Employment
- Private Practice (solo and with firms),
about 50% of lawyers work in Private
Practice.
- Government, including Prosecutor's
Offices, Attorney Generals, Department of
Justice (DEA, FBI, INS, Antitrust, Civil
Rights, etc.), Regulatory Agencies (e.g.,
EPA), Legislative Offices, Judges, etc.
- In-House lawyers in Corporations
- Public Interest law (i.e., non-profits
such as ACLU, NAACP, NOW, etc.).
Kinds of
Specialties
- Litigation (i.e., settling civil cases
without going to trial)
- Trial Lawyers
- Criminal Law (prosecutors and defense
attorneys)
- Family Law (child custody, divorce,
adoption, etc.)
- Corporate Financial Law (securities,
mergers, acquisitions, etc.)
- Trusts and Estates/Tax (i.e., the only
two certain things: death and taxes)
- Intellectual Property (copyrights,
patents, trademarks, licensing)
- International Law (trade, finance,
foreign courts)
- Labor Law (unions, employers, workman's
comp, etc.)
- Pension/Retirement (e.g., ERISA)
- Real Estate
- Bankruptcy
- Health Care (includes healthcare
regulations, HMOs, patient rights,
hospital finance, etc.)
- Environmental Law
- Entertainment and Sports Law
*Source: Pre-Law Companion, by
Ronald Coleman
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