Legal specialties Forum

[Troianii]

Which legal specialties are strong enough that there are realistic chances of landing a new legal job in that area, what does legal work in the field look like (what do they do), and which have very low salary expectations? Please, none of the crap about "don't do it for the money" - we all want legal jobs out of high school, and we all want realistic expectations. Beyond that, I leave this pretty much open - answer in regards to any specialty you like, but I'm going to put the impressions that I've gotten of a few below for review - have I heard right or been told wrong?

Maritime/Admiralty Law - I've heard these terms used pretty much interchangeably, so I've come to assume that they actually are the same thing. From what I've heard there is a ton of money in this area, but there are not many legal jobs. From what I've heard its a small market and demand is decreasing.

Real Estate Law - from what I've heard, there is good money in this, but there are essentially two jobs to do with this: first is to be the lawyer present when people sign their mortgages (some states even require a lawyer's signature), and the other is working for a corporation, but I have also heard that there's good money in it and that demand hasn't been hit as hard.

Environmental Law - from what I've heard, the supply of lawyers who focused in Environmental Law far outstrips the demand, and salaries for such lawyers are correspondingly low.

Constitutional Law - from what I've heard, supply just outstrips the tiny demand for this, in which the only real demand is for Professors and those who will argue cases before the court, but in both lawyer's need to essentially be top of their class.

Indian Law - from what I've heard, in practice it is closer to a general all-purpose legal education, and that the work is simply focused on representing or working with Tribes and their members, collectively or separately. I've also heard that the pay is very low in this area.

International Law - from what I've heard, there is a growing demand for this, and there is decent money in it.

[heythatslife]

Admiralty law is a field in steep decline (or so I have been told by the managing partner of a firm). Most of the litigation in this area comes from mishaps (ships crashing into each other, cargo lost in transit, sunk ships, etc.) but advancements in technology and shipping management practices in the last few decades have eliminated a large proportion of these incidents. I heard there used to be a number of boutiques that specialized in this field but they're mostly gone now except for a few that survive in London.

True "international law jobs" are unicorns. I get the sense that you have a nebulous idea of what international law is - it is "a body of rules established by custom or treaty and recognized by nations as binding in their relations with one another." A lot of commercial transactions or litigations will involve some international element, but "international law" per se doesn't generate a lot of work or profit, and mostly handled at the level of governments and international/intergovernmental organizations (think WTO, IMF, or EU). People think it's sexy stuff, but the supply of applicants vastly exceeds demand.

[xael]

ERISA and IP/patent stuff

but "landing a new legal job" will depend much more on your school and grades and interviewing skills and resume (in decreasing importance) than how many insurance classes you take as a 2L.

E: on review I am confused wrt the point of the question. At what point are you landing this new legal job? The only "specialty" that would matter to a law student is IP really

[viz-luv]

Salary is more closely tied to the type (mostly size) of firm doing the work, so trying to pick your employment this way seems a bit backward. I would also caution you that specialty areas can be more sensitive to people chasing any job without compelling reasons for why that area. Dedicating to a practice area will make you valuable to that area, but will more readily preclude you from other areas in your job hunt so be ready for that.
Yeah school is way more important to employment than this practice area speculation as a general rule.

Admiralty - shrinking. Realm of mid-size firms who still do other work around here.

Real estate -yeah not really what we do. You definitely would need to research this more if you were interested. Yes, some states require the lawyer at signing, but that is such a small function in commercial practice... also you should realize the big difference between residential and commercial groups. And there is a lot of room between babysitting closings and in house counsel so not sure where you got this. Big firms down to solos do this work and it will depend on the firm you are with what your tasks actually look like. Of course lit is an option, but I see the same distinctions on what kind of firm determining what kinds of cases you get.

Constitutional and international - I think you already know the answer here. Guy a few posts up had it right with what international really means vs the idea of it. You can do international work all the time in real estate for example.

Xael mentioned ip and yes that has some built in demand, but the effectiveness of it as an "in" is still tied to class rank (therefore to school rank as well). Also the type of science and degree level matter at the margins. Can be a boost though.

Our tax specialty guys/girls (work experience or made internships work for them) are doing very well employment wise. Some of their firms require them to get llms eventually; something to consider.

If you are minimizing debt and just looking to "guarantee" employment then you can open up those lower paying jobs. Immigration specialties are frantically snapped up around our school right now.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Re Indian law (not an expert, but my impression) - anything that's in the legal aid line (indigent criminal defense/legal aid) is going to be low-paid, and that will likely include any of the sort of civil-rights-y kind of Indian law stuff (land claims/religious freedom). You're right that there's much less of this than there used to be, and that most of Indian law is being a lawyer for tribes, which is like most commercial/civil lawyering, except with the addition of gaming and sovereignty issues. The big thing is which tribe you work for (whether in a firm or working directly for the tribe) - if you're working with a gas/oil rich tribe, or a tribe with significant casino income, your experience will be very different than if you're working for, say, Pine Ridge.

Like viz-luv suggested, specializing in law school can be a bit of a double-edged sword. If you have an area you're really interested in and have relevant background for (which your post kind of suggests you don't, but if you do), then specializing can make some sense, and will set you apart for that subset of jobs. The difficulty is that the more you specialize, the harder it is to convince other employers that you're interested in/qualified for *their* practice area. Taking a range of classes and getting a range of experiences makes it easier to sell yourself to a wide range of employers.

[tomwatts]

Unless you're going for PI, a specialty is something you develop 5-10 years into your career, not during law school.

In law school, you probably decide where you fall on the litigation/transactional/other divide, but that's about it.

(Unless you have a tech background and are doing patent stuff.)

[TheSpanishMain]

Unless you're going for PI, a specialty is something you develope 5-10 years into your career, not during law school.

This is my impression as well. This isn't something you really need to worry about as a 0L.

[viz-luv]

^ You can definitely make your resume stand out for particular practice areas. May not be the best strategy for getting employed, but you can do it. You take those classes, clinics, and jobs. Better idea, as you guys said is to focus on transactional or litigation to start with.
Yes this is different than specializing as a lawyer. As a law student I could show real estate, but as a lawyer I might have an office leasing specialty or something.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I agree that you don't at all need to specialize in law school - and you don't really in the sense that you don't come out of law school knowing anything much about practice anyway. But I also agree you can position yourself to specialize - coursework, internships, jobs, clinics, certificates. I'm not sure it's a good idea to do so, and I'd only suggest someone do that if they've worked in the practice area before school and went to law school as a logical extension of their interest in the field (worked in accounting --> going to law school to be a tax lawyer; worked in environmental policy --> going to law school to be an environmental lawyer). The biggest problem with trying to specialize as a student is that the vast majority of people don't have relevant experience to decide on a specialty and even even when they do they often change their mind along the way, and then can be pigeonholed.

Choosing a specialty without experience in that field based only on the perceived marketability of that speciality is really not a good idea.

Specialties are also regional. I never once heard maritime/admiralty law mentioned in my landlocked state. Labor law wasn't big either (a "right to work" state). It's better to go to school and figure out the market in that region (if looking regionally/not going to biglaw) before trying to sell yourself as something.

[Troianii]

Thanks all for the responses.

This is honestly more something I think about - can't help it. But I do realize that a specialty is usually chosen years out, but there are a few areas that do or have interested me, and so I was looking to get a better feel. IT sounded cool, but then I wasn't a science or engineering major. Indian paw sounded pretty cool, but then I want to be able to support a family comfortably. Real estate - sounded neat, but apparently I didn't know what it is - btw, would someone mind explaining to me what real estate law looks like? Because unless I missed it, one poster explained in depth what it doesn't look like. And I was particularly interested in maritime law, and have a maritime background, but I hear that field is pretty much dead so, there's that.

EDIT: wrote "I sounded cool...", but meant to say "IT sounded cool..."

[viz-luv]

Real estate is split into lit vs transactional and residential or commercial. I (3l at boutique) am in commercial transactions. Feel free to ask me any specifics you like. I don't want to jump right in if you are thinking of lit instead.

Actually maritime with experience is much more doable. You may want to reach out to some people in that area.

[Troianii]

Real estate is split into lit vs transactional and residential or commercial. I (3l at boutique) am in commercial transactions. Feel free to ask me any specifics you like. I don't want to jump right in if you are thinking of lit instead.

Actually maritime with experience is much more doable. You may want to reach out to some people in that area.

These two fields have, all in all, most interested me - real estate and maritime. Both because I have some interest (though as I said, my interests are varied), but these are areas that I have interest and there seems to be (or at least at one time I thought there was) good employment prospects. I'm very much interested in learning more about real estate residential and commerical - I'm not quite as interested in litigation. I know most young guns dream of that court room appearance they see on TV, and I don't dread it, but I don't dream about it either, so at least at this point (based on my current impressions) I'm not interested in litigation.

[A. Nony Mouse]

That was my feeling going into law school. Now I'm a litigator.

[viz-luv]

^ nice. Yeah op don't rule it out this early. You may want to use your first summer job to explore a bit. I knew I never wanted to litigate but did litigation just to make sure. But you may have to counter with a 2l school year job or clinic to head back the other way.

Ok simplifying a bit but transactional in commercial real estate is about contracts. We have a client who wants to buy, lease, or sell and possibly already has a first agreement signed (which can be fine or turn into damage control, just depends). We then go back and forth with the other side on the terms of the agreement, such as how long on notice provisions, what can be cause for termination in the inspection period, or what constitutes exclusive use. we finalize this and start the majority of the work. For leases, this process is longer but is really the whole deal, and then maintenance as issues come up. For purchases or sales, we now start (as appropriate, no new title work as seller for instance) putting together the other documents. Deeds need to be drafted, loan agreements with banks need to get done, title reviewed, corporate docs are drafted, entities formed, and so on. the list on the required items can get extensive.

We draft these documents by taking forms (our own or those agreed upon) and updating them to properly reflect the deal. Names are changed, provisions are inserted and deleted, language is tweaked, and the whole thing is reviewed until you are certain you have it all perfect, and then you review it again. Thesealocust (an amazing poster) once posted, in response to what is transactional work, one of those spot the differences picture games. Not that far off from what it is to really make a form into a good deal document.

Once all this is done, and the deal is closing, we just have our side sign the relevant pages (other side does this too) and send the whole package to the title company. When they have both sides they close. Our state doesn't need our physical presence so this may vary.

Please don't hesitate to ask anything else on this of you have questions.

As for jobs, it's not easy to say oh yes tons of jobs. Bigger firms may or may not be focusing on this work. Real estate in big firms can look like this or like a subgroup of m&a. I know getting a particular practice area in a big firm is not always the easiest and maybe you won't get this area. Mid sized boutiques that only handle this work are competitive in a different way and there are simply not tons of them. I had personal experience in property and relevant work experience that let me beat out others for the only true boutique mid size spot for 2l. Mid size specialty employers are very sensitive to "fit" and that includes the "why real estate" of why you want to work there. (This actually applies to admiralty in boutiques too. My friends chasing that had similar experiences to mine).

[NonTradHealthLaw]

IMHO, health law is one of the few areas where specialization early on may be fruitious. This isn't areas where you can dabble or crosstrain. One misfiled or missent "HIPPA" document (or any of the myriad other jargon/acronym) and your credibility is shot.