Career Paths for Lawyers, Part I
Considering law school? As you think through your law school decision, it’s important to remember that – ideally – at the conclusion of law school you will take the Bar Exam in your state and become a lawyer. While writing Should I Go To Law School?, I spoke with numerous lawyers and career coaches who reminded me of the varied career options for law school graduates. Having a specific career path in mind is not important prior to entering law school. But looking at the options may inspire or bore you and, in either case, your reaction will be informative.
At a very high level, you can divide typical legal career paths into four categories: business, consumer, government and public-interest. While there are, in fact, many more career paths for lawyers, these top-level categories will give you some idea of your options. In this post, we’ll consider options for business careers.
First off, in a business-focused legal career, you will either work in at a law firm, as in-house counsel or as an individual practitioner.
Law Firms. A law firm is a company that is dedicated to providing legal services. Companies contract with law firms to assist with legal matters that arise for the company in the process of conducting business. A law firm seeks out clients (i.e. companies who need legal services) and provides legal services through staff attorneys, paralegals and legal secretaries. Large law firms may employ thousands of attorneys, while smaller firms may employ just a small team.
In-House Counsel. Some companies have their own attorneys (often in addition to working with outside law firms). In-house counsel provide legal services that affect the day-to-day running of the business. Companies may employ their own attorneys to reduce costs. If you can keep an in-house attorney busy with legal matters, it is likely cheaper to do so than engaging with a law firm. Companies may also hire attorneys because they would like to have in-house counsel who are well-versed in the company’s products, policies and culture.
Individual Practitioner. Some people provide legal services to businesses as individual practitioners. These attorneys work for themselves, often providing services to smaller businesses. Attorneys with unique backgrounds – for example in taxation, complex litigation or regulation – may work with larger businesses when their specialization and experience is required.
The work you do while practicing in one of these contexts varies dramatically. In fact, there are as many legal specializations as there are industries and types of transactions. It would be impossible to comprehensively describe the full range of legal specializations but we can look at some high-level groupings.
Transactional Law. This category describes legal services that facilitate business transactions. Think of a common example: Company A wants to buy a product or service from Company B. If this transaction costs a large amount of money or significantly impacts the business interests of A or B, lawyers may get involved. Lawyers will help negotiate and develop the legal wording for contracts that define the product or services being delivered, any guarantees that may be made about those services and remedies that may be available if the product or service fails to perform as promised. There are many, many kinds of business transactions that range from the simple to the highly complex.
Litigation. Sometimes things go wrong between companies and they sue each other. Lawsuits between companies can easily last years and cost millions of dollars. Sometimes these law suits are addressed in court, while other times they are settled after both parties understand the facts of the case and their risk in court. One way to think about the difference between transactional law and litigation is that transactional lawyers try to define the parameters of a deal. Litigators come in when the deal goes sour. Litigation may not just focus on deals gone awry, however. They could involve infringement of intellectual property rights, anti-competitive business practices and much, much more.
Employment and Labor Law. This is a category of law that involves relations between employers and their employees. This can range anywhere from negotiating contracts with labor unions to defining policies for employee handbooks. Employment law is often thought of in terms of lawsuits between employees and their former employers. For example, an employee may sue their former employer if they think they are fired due to illegal discrimination or sexual harassment.
Patent Law. This area involves protecting the intellectual property of a firm through the filing and enforcement of patents. When a company develops a new widget, they often want to protect the investment they have made in developing the widget through a patent. A patent ensures that the company has the sole rights to produce the widget within a legally-defined period of time. Patent lawyers define the scope of patents, perform research on patents and determine if other firms are infringing on their patents.
Bankruptcy Law. This is a practice area that helps companies restructure and unwind themselves from their debt when they are unable to pay their bills. This area of law is at the intersection of regulations around bankruptcy and a company’s interest in pursuing different flavors of bankruptcy.
I’ll be the the first to admit it – this sampling only scratches the surface for attorneys interested in business-oriented careers. If you want to learn more about legal careers, take a look at The Official Guide to Legal Specialties
If all of this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. As I mentioned before, few people have a strong sense of their area of specialization when starting law school (or even when they graduate). Often, specialization comes through happenstance – your first job out of law school may provide you valuable experience in a particular area of law. Your experience may lead you further down the path in that particular niche or, by contrast, may alert you to the fact that the specialization is not right for you.
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