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is all litigation the same? i mean if i get litigation experience in one field like med mal, is that transferable to other areas like commercial litigation?

They all have the same framework, generally, in that you are following the same rules of civil procedure, but that does not mean it is all transferable. For instance, it is mostly going to be complaint -> answer (and maybe counter-claim) -> discovery and depos / pre-trial hearings & motions-> summary judgment -> trial, with status conferences and other hearings/motions mixed in.

But still, although there are plenty of litigation firms (or gov't) to give you the "nuts and bolts" of litigation, the subject matter does matter a good bit. There are probably excellent personal injury or insurance defense lawyers that could try med mal cases all day long, but they may not have the experience and knowledge of some commercial litigation attorneys due to different fields and goals. Just because you have done a lot of discovery does not mean you know the subject matter to tailor your discovery or ask the right questions at a deposition to win your case.

So, to me, the short answer is that the nuts and bolts of it are transferable, especially if you have courtroom experience and depos, but it's not all the same and not necessarily transferable.

There are exceptions in everything but generally the answer is no. It is not transferable and it is very common for senior lawyers to pidgeonhole themselves.

There are similarities in all types of litigation, but in general employers will look to hire associates with X numbers of years of experience in environmental litigation or securities litigation or personal injury or white collar, etc.

If you start out in med mal, you might not get many interviews for a securities litigation position.

Like others have said, personal injury litigation will probably be closer to commercial litigation than, say, someone who does M+A or funds work, but it’s sufficiently different that employers would probably prefer hiring someone with experience to do that work. You also have to consider the size, scale, and complexity of the matter - many kinds of litigation involve tons of project management experience that you would not get in a smaller-scale litigation.

For example, there’s a world of difference between the folks who do garden variety “commercial litigation” like contracts or business torts for small or medium size companies and those who do securities, antitrust, or M+A litigation. Similarly, doing personal injury or med mal representing (or defending against) individuals is very different than doing mass tort pharma or product liability cases. In fact, I’d almost think that there would be more similarities between someone doing securities lit and mass tort lit than someone doing mass torts and medmal.