Recommend a Practice Area for Me? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Based on my background and desires, what would be a good practice area for me? The following are what I'm currently thinking about (in no particular order):

Real Estate (Land Use Development); really enjoyed my property class and did well in it
Corporate Bankruptcy; like that is a blend between transaction and litigation, also seems like a backdoor into litigation (I've been told that litigation requires high grades)
Technology Transactions
Hedge Fund Activism Defense
Data Privacy
Securities Fraud

I'm a median 1L at a t13. I came into school wanting to do litigation, but now I'm considering transactional work for job prospects. Plus, it seems interesting and we get so little exposure to that kind of work in school.

I studied English Writing in undergrad, worked in Internet marketing and sales for a couple of years. Lots of experience in theater. I am getting involved in campus leadership roles for student orgs and am writing on for journal, and of course, gunning hard to get better grades.

I'm not a math or excel whiz, but I do enjoy working with numbers, data science, and armchair economics/psychology. Though I have always gravitated towards reading and writing.

Ideally I'd work in Chicago, but I'm willing to go to any market.

[oblig.lawl.ref]

Based on my background and desires, what would be a good practice area for me? The following are what I'm currently thinking about (in no particular order):

Real Estate (Land Use Development); really enjoyed my property class and did well in it
Corporate Bankruptcy; like that is a blend between transaction and litigation, also seems like a backdoor into litigation (I've been told that litigation requires high grades)
Technology Transactions
Hedge Fund Activism Defense
Data Privacy
Securities Fraud

I'm a median 1L at a t13. I came into school wanting to do litigation, but now I'm considering transactional work for job prospects. Plus, it seems interesting and we get so little exposure to that kind of work in school.

I studied English Writing in undergrad, worked in Internet marketing and sales for a couple of years. Lots of experience in theater. I am getting involved in campus leadership roles for student orgs and am writing on for journal, and of course, gunning hard to get better grades.

I'm not a math or excel whiz, but I do enjoy working with numbers, data science, and armchair economics/psychology. Though I have always gravitated towards reading and writing.

Ideally I'd work in Chicago, but I'm willing to go to any market.

I would do some more research into those practice areas first. That's quite the range and they can vary quite a bit. Also, I don't think they do much of some of that kind of work in Chicago. That being said, there's no reason you can't do litigation. There's plenty of that everywhere and you don't need higher grades necessarily. You just won't be doing it at the Supreme Court probably.

If the "job prospects" you're referring to are like post-firm/in-house, data privacy, tech trans and general corporate are the best options. Out of those three, I think it's mostly general corporate in Chicago.

Kind of a different topic but with your grades you should also make sure to mass mail and apply to large firms in NYC. That's the best bet for landing biglaw with median grades. Also really try to do good this semester. You still have time to get above median.

[Anonymous User]

a good way to learn about this stuff is cold email alums at firms at talk to them and talk to folks at networking events about what they do. i did a lot of this during the summer last year, and its pretty helpful. also, you can spend some time looking up these practices on this site and others to figure out what they're like. (for example, at lot of real estate at big firms isn't like litigating easements, its financing deals and supporting M&A)

depending on what school you're at, lit in chicago is competitive, but its not out of reach. also, you don't have to decide on a practice area for OCI. if your worried about being all in on lit keeping you from offers, then express interest in both transactional and lit. Its totally normal for rising 2Ls to not know exactly what they want. just say you're open to both transactional and lit. of course, have some reasons why you're interested and why you're considering both.

if you're set on lit, bid NYC (and send stuff out pre OCI) and you should be competitive. Just bid NYC regardless. If there is one thing that kept people at my school (NU) from getting offers, it was bad bidding strategy (all in on chicago or DC). also, youre grades might go up, so don't sell yourself short yet.

[Anonymous User]

Based on my background and desires, what would be a good practice area for me? The following are what I'm currently thinking about (in no particular order):

Real Estate (Land Use Development); really enjoyed my property class and did well in it
Corporate Bankruptcy; like that is a blend between transaction and litigation, also seems like a backdoor into litigation (I've been told that litigation requires high grades)
Technology Transactions
Hedge Fund Activism Defense
Data Privacy
Securities Fraud

I'm a median 1L at a t13. I came into school wanting to do litigation, but now I'm considering transactional work for job prospects. Plus, it seems interesting and we get so little exposure to that kind of work in school.

I studied English Writing in undergrad, worked in Internet marketing and sales for a couple of years. Lots of experience in theater. I am getting involved in campus leadership roles for student orgs and am writing on for journal, and of course, gunning hard to get better grades.

I'm not a math or excel whiz, but I do enjoy working with numbers, data science, and armchair economics/psychology. Though I have always gravitated towards reading and writing.

Ideally I'd work in Chicago, but I'm willing to go to any market.

I would do some more research into those practice areas first. That's quite the range and they can vary quite a bit. Also, I don't think they do much of some of that kind of work in Chicago. That being said, there's no reason you can't do litigation. There's plenty of that everywhere and you don't need higher grades necessarily. You just won't be doing it at the Supreme Court probably.

If the "job prospects" you're referring to are like post-firm/in-house, data privacy, tech trans and general corporate are the best options. Out of those three, I think it's mostly general corporate in Chicago.

Kind of a different topic but with your grades you should also make sure to mass mail and apply to large firms in NYC. That's the best bet for landing biglaw with median grades. Also really try to do good this semester. You still have time to get above median.

Absolutely will apply for jobs in NYC.

[Anonymous User]

a good way to learn about this stuff is cold email alums at firms at talk to them and talk to folks at networking events about what they do. i did a lot of this during the summer last year, and its pretty helpful. also, you can spend some time looking up these practices on this site and others to figure out what they're like. (for example, at lot of real estate at big firms isn't like litigating easements, its financing deals and supporting M&A)

depending on what school you're at, lit in chicago is competitive, but its not out of reach. also, you don't have to decide on a practice area for OCI. if your worried about being all in on lit keeping you from offers, then express interest in both transactional and lit. Its totally normal for rising 2Ls to not know exactly what they want. just say you're open to both transactional and lit. of course, have some reasons why you're interested and why you're considering both.

if you're set on lit, bid NYC (and send stuff out pre OCI) and you should be competitive. Just bid NYC regardless. If there is one thing that kept people at my school (NU) from getting offers, it was bad bidding strategy (all in on chicago or DC). also, youre grades might go up, so don't sell yourself short yet.

Awesome, thanks for the advice! I'm actually at NU as well.