If you are planning to attend law school, it’s important to know which area of study you want to focus on. Law practice covers a wide range of specializations and you need to know where you want to stand as an attorney later on.
With that being said, you should be able to answer this question before you apply for law school: “What type of lawyer should I be?” The list below has some of the best options. Regardless of your choice you should be able to commit to it and establish a solid career from there:
- Business Law
Corporations hire lawyers who can help them with a range of processes like setting up the corporate structure, ensuring regulatory compliance and securing copyright protection. Moreover, you can also stand as a legal advisor for small and medium enterprises wanting to change their business structure and expand to other locations.
If you have a proven background in entrepreneurship and accounting, then consider putting more effort on understanding corporate law. You also have an advantage if you attended a prestigious MBA college.
- Constitutional Law
Regardless of the country you are in, it will be your job as a constitutional lawyer to have a deeper understanding of your country’s constitution and prevent any effort to subvert it. The field of constitutional law itself is broad, covering everything from free speech to labor rights.
If you are planning to enter this area of practice, it pays to have a proven academic background in political science, economics and history.
- Civil Law
To put it simply, civil law covers disputes between persons or entities. By practicing in the field of civil law, private individuals turn to you in order to launch a complaint against other individuals or even groups that have infringed on their rights.
In this sense, you will need to have a thorough understanding of disputes involving such cases as personal injuries and the law. You need to hone your argumentative skills as a civil lawyer if you want your clients to get compensated for the damages and injuries they suffered.
- Cyber Law
Technology is changing at a rapid pace and governments struggle to keep up. While numerous cybercrime laws have been drafted in recent years, there is still a need to understand new issues as they arise.
Nonetheless, cyber lawyers are able to interpret and implement existing laws within the scope of technology, particularly the Internet and computing. You will definitely have an advantage in this practice if you took up IT and software-related courses as prerequisites.
- Family Law
When it comes to variety, family law offers a wide range of sub-specializations such as divorce, spousal rights, child custody and visitation rights, as well as domestic abuse cases. If you are going to practice in any of these areas, you should have a degree in social work.
Then again, you can still practice as an effective family lawyer if you have a strong desire to protect the welfare of children who happen to be the main victims of divorce, neglect, or abuse.
The practice of law has a lot more to offer. While you can always choose to be a “all around” lawyer, your success can only come when you double down on a specific area. From this, what type of lawyer would you want to be?