How to Narrow Down Fields of Interest Forum

[bowsandbells]

So I'm interested in like 5 different fields: Int'l Law, Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, East Asian Law, and International Arbitration. I read on other forums that Int'l law is very risky and that I should have a backup plan always. So I have 4. But I'm worried about the job prospects after law school. Do I need to narrow down my interest? Are there jobs in these fields? How do you explore 5 fields of law in 3 years? I'm aiming for T-6.

Any advice at all would be much appreciated!!!

[BigZuck]

First order of business is making sure the areas you are interested in are real, attorneys practice in them, and hopefully there is a way to actually become one of those attorneys with some reasonable degree of probability.

Like East Asian Law for example. What is that? I've literally never heard of that before.

There's something very strange about law school in that people have these ideas/expectations in their heads about what kinds of jobs exist, how attainable they are, how well schools place, etc. but oftentimes none of that is actually grounded in reality. You could blame suits/law and order/boomers but I think it's got to be a lot more complicated than that.

Anyway, drop any preconceived notions you have of what things exist and how the legal world "should be." Then do research.

What have you come up with when researching those 5 fields?

[Nachoo2019]

Just took a quick look at a Google search for "East Asian Law careers" and all that could show up was this "East Asian Law concentration" at top schools like Penn, Harvard, ect. But there are no jobs listed in East Asian Legal Studies. Please take Zuck's advice and do the research. Make sure what you want is attainable and actually gets you a job.

(See below for EALS @ HLS)
http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/eals/

[Londonbear]

Completely agree with above poster. Law school is not like college, where you can go and take concentrations that you fancy. Law school is a means to an end, specifically a job, if you last in that said job, then a career. While you do have room to take classes you're interested in, esp. in your 2L and 3L, know that the majority of the pressure that arises from law school is the pressure to secure a job, which will largely be dependent on how well you do your 1L and the school you go to.

Also I think it is jumping the gun thinking about this before you're in law school. Your first year is pretty much planned out by your school. Once you take those core classes and get a better idea of certain areas of the law, then I think you can ask yourself what classes you'd like to take. But in general, by the beginning of 2L, you should kind of narrow down to whether you want to be in academia, government, private, or public sector and whether you want to do transactional or litigation work. Instead of looking at schools with particular concentrations, go to the best school you can get into because you will have more opportunities to get these jobs, regardless of concentration.

[bowsandbells]

Completely agree with above poster. Law school is not like college, where you can go and take concentrations that you fancy. Law school is a means to an end, specifically a job, if you last in that said job, then a career. While you do have room to take classes you're interested in, esp. in your 2L and 3L, know that the majority of the pressure that arises from law school is the pressure to secure a job, which will largely be dependent on how well you do your 1L and the school you go to.

Also I think it is jumping the gun thinking about this before you're in law school. Your first year is pretty much planned out by your school. Once you take those core classes and get a better idea of certain areas of the law, then I think you can ask yourself what classes you'd like to take. But in general, by the beginning of 2L, you should kind of narrow down to whether you want to be in academia, government, private, or public sector and whether you want to do transactional or litigation work. Instead of looking at schools with particular concentrations, go to the best school you can get into because you will have more opportunities to get these jobs, regardless of concentration.

Thank you SO much! This really puts things into perspective. I am jumping the gun, but I just tend to think ahead.

[Londonbear]

Completely agree with above poster. Law school is not like college, where you can go and take concentrations that you fancy. Law school is a means to an end, specifically a job, if you last in that said job, then a career. While you do have room to take classes you're interested in, esp. in your 2L and 3L, know that the majority of the pressure that arises from law school is the pressure to secure a job, which will largely be dependent on how well you do your 1L and the school you go to.

Also I think it is jumping the gun thinking about this before you're in law school. Your first year is pretty much planned out by your school. Once you take those core classes and get a better idea of certain areas of the law, then I think you can ask yourself what classes you'd like to take. But in general, by the beginning of 2L, you should kind of narrow down to whether you want to be in academia, government, private, or public sector and whether you want to do transactional or litigation work. Instead of looking at schools with particular concentrations, go to the best school you can get into because you will have more opportunities to get these jobs, regardless of concentration.

Thank you SO much! This really puts things into perspective. I am jumping the gun, but I just tend to think ahead.

This is common to probably 90%+ of TLSers. I am that way too. But law school changes your perspective on a lot of things in such a small time period. I think before law school, I thought I read up on a lot of things about the legal profession, but after I was in law school, I realized I had absolutely NO CLUE. I thought I would love being in court and litigating, found out I absolutely hated most things about litigation. Thought I'd go and do public interest, also found out quickly I really didn't like it either. Thought I'd love international law, took one class, hated it... you get the point. So I guess my main point is, keep an open mind. You'll know when you know. You'll learn to appreciate this, one less thing to be anxious about, to plan for, to have to think about, and just roll with the punches.

[zot1]

Chances are that you will fall into an area of law because that was the job available.