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Legal Practice Areas Law is an expansive field. As such, most lawyers are specialists. If you are thinking about attending law school, then we recommend researching various practice areas to find the ones that best fit your academic strengths and background, personality and interests.There are numerous practice areas; some of the primary ones are explained below. Click to the arrows below to display information about each practice area. Corporate Law A corporate practice typically provides corporate counseling and negotiates and prepares legal documents for all types of business transactions from sales agreements to complex joint ventures and business combinations. Corporate lawyers deal with issues such as joint ventures, financing, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, securities, tax, and more. Corporate lawyers are also employed by corporations other than law firms and serve as "in-house" counsel.
For more information about corporate law, please visit: Criminal Law Criminal law is, perhaps, the most widely recognized area of law thanks to the news, movies and television shows like Law & Order. Criminal prosecutors generally work for government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels including federal enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency. The federal prosecutorial arm of the United States Attorney's Office has a Criminal Division that is separated into: Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, General Crimes Section, and Economic Crimes Section. State agencies include state bureaus and state Attorney General's Offices. Local criminal lawyers typically work for cities, counties, and nonprofit agencies. Such lawyers typically represent people facing drug charges, DUIs, and other misdemeanors and felonies.
For more information on criminal law, please visit: Employment Law Lawyers practicing employment law typically represent employers and employees in issues such as unfair labor practices, collective bargaining negotiations, representation elections, grievances and arbitrations, and strike litigation. They also counsel clients on affirmative action compliance, employee handbooks, workplace rules, and other related matters. An employment litigator represents clients on issues such as discrimination in hiring, wrongful discharge, breach of employment contract, workplace libel and slander, employee right to privacy. Some employment lawyers represent companies before administrative agencies such as state bureaus of employment, bureaus of workers' compensation, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board; others actively advise and represent clients in OSHA matters involving employee health and safety.
For more information on employment law, please visit: Entertainment/Sports Law Entertainment lawyers represent a range of clients from television and radio personalities to professional athletes to educational institutions. These lawyers typically negotiate employment agreements and player contracts. The practice involves negotiation of endorsement/marketing agreements, representing clients in grievance/arbitration proceedings, providing tax and estate planning advice, and reviewing and/or developing investment agreements. It is also common for lawyers in this practice area to handle numerous real estate transations, and manage their clients' equity interests in real estate.
For more information on entertainment law, please visit: Environmental Law Environmental lawyers typically provide regulatory advice to businesses or work for government agencies. Attorneys are also consulted to represent clients in the industrial and manufacturing industry that are scheduled for investigation and clean up in the next decade. Private parties may also be involved in disputes involving land contamination and will hire private counsel. While some environmental disputes are litigated, most are handled through the administrative process. Environmental lawyers are often involved in environmental assessments for real estate transactions and business acquisitions and divestitures.
For more information on environmental law, please visit: Intellectual Property Law This area is perhaps the fastest-growing, most lucrative area of law, where the demand for qualified lawyers exceeding the supply. The vast majority of attorneys in this field are required to have degrees in one of the hard sciences: engineering, medicine, computer science, physics, etc. IP lawyers are involved in copyright, trademark, licensing, trade secrets, and patent law. Clients are usually businesses involved in the chemical, medical and pharmaceutical, biological, mechanical, electronics, and computer technologies; some such corporations hire in-house IP counsel. Lawyers assist them in acquiring, protecting and exploiting intellectual property assets, including patent preparation, prosecution, licensing and litigation.
For more information about intellectual property law, please visit: International Law Lawyers who practice international law assist corporations or individuals that conduct business internationally or have international clients. Language skills and multi-cultural experiences are valuable assets to attorneys who choose this practice. Lawyers interested in international law typically first gain experience in transactional work, and then acquire international clients over time. Few new lawyers are able to secure a job in an exclusively international practice.
Like corporate law, international law encompasses numerous business aspects: mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other investments; international finance; international development projects; international intellectual property rights; international trade and finance; regulation of international trade; international tax matters; international government representation; litigation and regulatory compliance; international arbitration; and international real estate matters. Lawyers in an international practice can also represent individuals and families with immigration, residency, tax, estate planning, and corporate and investment legal issues that cross the boundaries of the national legal systems. For more information on international law, please visit: Tax Law Tax lawyers work in both the public and private sectors, including large accounting firms. Their clients include individuals, government bodies, private and public businesses from small family businesses to Fortune 500 corporations. Tax specialists work closely with practitioners in other practice areas. Nearly everything a lawyer does for a client has a tax consequence; the tax lawyer's goal is to maximize the preservation of assets and the positive impact on the bottom line. Tax lawyers advise clients on the tax implications of financing public and private offerings, debt instruments, equity stakes and other tax-oriented investments. Tax attorneys also provide advice to tax-exempt organizations on the tax aspects of a wide range of organizational and operational matters.
Choosing a Practice Area
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