Law jobs for trial attorneys? Forum

[buffalo_]

What kind of employment should you seek post-JD if your main concern is to go to court as much as possible? I am just curious which paths offer the best way to become an experienced trial attorney. It sounds like BigLaw litigation rarely offers associates the opportunity. Is it mostly just criminal law? And in that case do you have to go work with a DA or as a public defender to go to court?

[bdubs]

Why do you want to go to court as often as possible?

PD or DA would probably offer the most trial experience. You can go to court a lot as a litigator, but you will be arguing pretrial motions not trying cases in front of a jury (very often).

[buffalo_]

There are several factors that contribute to my interest in this.

Mainly it is because I enjoy public speaking, and always have. I find rhetorical skills to be very fun and useful to develop.

[Sgt Brody.]

bump

[ggocat]

"Trial lawyer" generally means plaintiff's personal injury. If you want civil trial work, that's your best bet. On the flip side, insurance defense.

[banjo]

Smaller, more leanly staffed firms probably offer more court experience. I have also heard of young associates at places like Boies participating in trials pretty early.

[bizzike]

Jack McCoy, is that you?

[buffalo_]

Any comments on criminal law?

[A. Nony Mouse]

What about it? You will be in court a lot. How much you're in trial as opposed to other kinds of hearings will probably depend on where you are or whether you're in state or federal court and what level of cases you're dealing with. Examining witnesses is rather different from most other forms of public speaking and requires being much more focused on the witness than on what you're doing, though - it's more of a duet than a solo performance. And the ability to be articulate in court is important but your job entails quite a great deal more than that.

(If you want a criminal law job you will generally have to start working as a DA/PD or less commonly the federal equivalent. Private criminal defense firms exist, but tend to be very small and don't often take lawyers straight out of school, though it can happen, especially if you get in a small firm that does mixed civil and criminal.)

[guano]

Keep in mind that most cases, even personal injury, insurance defense and yes, even criminal defense, do not go to trial.
My guess is that appellate attorneys would probably go to trial the most.

But, trial =/= going to court, and if it's going to court you enjoy, the answer may well be quite different

[A. Nony Mouse]

Appellate attorneys don't go to trial, dingbat, that's kind of the whole point.

As for oral argument, those don't occur as often as you'd think. Cases are often submitted on the briefs, so you write a lot but don't go into court that often. Also, private appellate work is fairly uncommon (as opposed to doing criminal appellate work as a PD/DA, where you see lots of appeals but most won't go to oral argument).

[guano]

thanks