Future of specialized white-collar criminal defense / investigations
Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 8:30 am
What is your take on the future of white-collar criminal defense in big law? It is obviously a massively profitable practice for firms that is hard to farm out / delegate to smaller firms. The largely doc review nature, though, makes it vulnerable to disruption from people who are willing to do it for cheap--or does it? The doc review is less about responsive/non-responsive coding and more about fact development and is more high-stakes. Does that make it more immune / future proof?
The reason I am asking is I have an opportunity to transition to a white-collar defense role at my firm. I currently do mostly commercial litigation. The role is highly specialized (not just regular white-collar, but a specific area of white-collar that isn't FCPA--think healthcare, antitrust, securities, tax). I don't want to pigeon-hole myself into a super niche area, but at the same time, commercial litigators are a dime a dozen and this is an opportunity to distinguish myself as a specialist.
Sorry I can't provide more details as I am afraid of outing myself, but any thoughts are appreciated about the potential future marketability of being a white-collar specialist in a non-FCPA niche field. Exit options are obviously limited so I want to be careful. Down the line, is it pretty easy to market myself as a general white-collar criminal defense lawyer capable of doing internal investigations/FCPA work even if most of my experience is in a particular niche?
The reason I am asking is I have an opportunity to transition to a white-collar defense role at my firm. I currently do mostly commercial litigation. The role is highly specialized (not just regular white-collar, but a specific area of white-collar that isn't FCPA--think healthcare, antitrust, securities, tax). I don't want to pigeon-hole myself into a super niche area, but at the same time, commercial litigators are a dime a dozen and this is an opportunity to distinguish myself as a specialist.
Sorry I can't provide more details as I am afraid of outing myself, but any thoughts are appreciated about the potential future marketability of being a white-collar specialist in a non-FCPA niche field. Exit options are obviously limited so I want to be careful. Down the line, is it pretty easy to market myself as a general white-collar criminal defense lawyer capable of doing internal investigations/FCPA work even if most of my experience is in a particular niche?