Top Law Schools

0L here, trying to brainstorm potential practice areas. Current college senior, attending NU law in the fall.

Obviously, I'm going to try for biglaw, at least for a few years. I'm pretty interested in litigation (mock trial in high school and undergrad), but I don't know what my options are.

I triple majored in English, Classics, and Philosphy. Without a math or science background, Patent law is off the table, but what about IP? I do not speak any helpful foreign languages (some conversational Spanish, and I can read Latin and Greek).

What are some other options for someone with my background?

Ask a law student/graduate.

Construction lit and employment lit are probably your only options. In order to do criminal lit you need to speak three languages. Securities is strictly for people who have taken calc 3. And that's all the categories there are.

Moved to appropriate forum.

Hipster but Athletic wrote:Construction lit and employment lit are probably your only options. In order to do criminal lit you need to speak three languages. Securities is strictly for people who have taken calc 3. And that's all the categories there are.

POINT TAKEN lol

Since you triple majored in English, Classics, and Philosophy the obvious answer is tax controversy. The guy who said construction or employment lit was just joking.

da91392 wrote:0L here, trying to brainstorm potential practice areas. Current college senior, attending NU law in the fall.

Obviously, I'm going to try for biglaw, at least for a few years. I'm pretty interested in litigation (mock trial in high school and undergrad), but I don't know what my options are.

I triple majored in English, Classics, and Philosphy. Without a math or science background, Patent law is off the table, but what about IP? I do not speak any helpful foreign languages (some conversational Spanish, and I can read Latin and Greek).

What are some other options for someone with my background?

You don't have to figure this out for a long time. And some litigators do just general commercial litigation. It's good in some respects to be a generalist, at least early on.

da91392 wrote:0L here, trying to brainstorm potential practice areas. Current college senior, attending NU law in the fall.

Obviously, I'm going to try for biglaw, at least for a few years. I'm pretty interested in litigation (mock trial in high school and undergrad), but I don't know what my options are.

I triple majored in English, Classics, and Philosphy. Without a math or science background, Patent law is off the table, but what about IP? I do not speak any helpful foreign languages (some conversational Spanish, and I can read Latin and Greek).

What are some other options for someone with my background?

Your background will play 0 role in your legal career since you haven't done anything with a real world tie. Don't try to guess at this point. Take your required courses, start talking to practicing attorneys, attend lunch presentations at school, and keep an open mind. (Mock trial has very tie to BigLaw litigation, so the fact you like it isn't much of a predictor of whether you would like to be a litigator.)

TooOld4This wrote:

da91392 wrote:0L here, trying to brainstorm potential practice areas. Current college senior, attending NU law in the fall.

Obviously, I'm going to try for biglaw, at least for a few years. I'm pretty interested in litigation (mock trial in high school and undergrad), but I don't know what my options are.

I triple majored in English, Classics, and Philosphy. Without a math or science background, Patent law is off the table, but what about IP? I do not speak any helpful foreign languages (some conversational Spanish, and I can read Latin and Greek).

What are some other options for someone with my background?

Your background will play 0 role in your legal career since you haven't done anything with a real world tie. Don't try to guess at this point. Take your required courses, start talking to practicing attorneys, attend lunch presentations at school, and keep an open mind. (Mock trial has very tie to BigLaw litigation, so the fact you like it isn't much of a predictor of whether you would like to be a litigator.)

What this guy said. General litigation is as clean slate as you can get - most of what you'd do as a biglaw litigator has nothing to do with the underlying subject matter. Document review, writing subpoenas, legal research, deposing witnesses, etc. are the skills that you'll need, and you get those in law school (barely) and in practice. The only real exception is IP litigation, and even that you can do without a tech background (though, at least in litigation tech backgrounds are usually preferred, whereas they're required for regular patent work).

Go to all the networking receptions that firms will host throughout the year. Drink top shelf liquor for free. Talk to attorneys about their practice areas. If you meet someone you really like follow up with them over e-mail. If they're friendly, get coffee with them (bonus points if they counter with happy hour). Try to grab a mentor through one the clubs or LCLD (if you consider yourself a diverse candidate . . . note: diverse ≠ URM w/r/t to diversity programs for current law students). Go to free lunch panels that are hosted at school. When you talk about Kant and Mill on the first day of your criminal law class do not use words that people who haven't taken 60 credits/units of philosophy will not know. Congrats, and see you at NU this fall!

I'm glad a few people actually gave him some helpful answers. The snarky trolling responses from a few people (hundreds/ thousands of post megaposters, no less) are really annoying.

When I knew 0 about law school and the legal profession, I found this website really useful. You don't need to haze someone asking a question just because you have been around enough to know more than he does.

It is very difficult to get a good (read: good paying and enjoyable) job after biglaw as a biglaw litigation associate. In house positions are highly fought over. Small firm positions pay a lot less (sometimes less than 100k in major cities for biglaw associates with 5+ years of experience). Government positions are extremely rare and *very* highly fought over. It's tough.

You need connections.

You are undoubtedly at a disadvantage. There are too many law students pursuing general litigation (commercial, employment, etc.) because they lack a foundation in finance, accounting, science, etc. You're looking at areas that require no special knowledge, beyond a general legal education. Not surprisingly, there is more competition for those jobs. And as noted above there is also more competition for the better exit options.

That's not to say you can't get into securities, capital markets, antitrust, or other practice areas where a background in finance, accounting, economics, etc. might be helpful. But, it will be a little harder. This isn't talked about nearly enough.