There are some areas of law which are in more demand than others. Depending on the direction of your legal career, you may want to pursue an area of law that will maintain your business for years to come.
Aside from the financial aspects of your career, you may also want to choose a career that is challenging and stimulating. If you have been wondering which area of practice to focus your legal career, here’s a good place to start.
1. Commercial Litigation
Coming in at the top of this list is commercial litigation. This type of law covers a wide range of legal services relating to the business world. A few examples include:
- Class action lawsuits
- Business Torts
- Contract cases (i.e. breaches)
- Disputes between partners/joint ventures
- Shareholder issues
- Civil RICO claims
In these cases, lawyers will either be the prosecutor or defense attorney for their clients. This area of law requires lawyers to be extraordinarily creative, possess accurate judgment, and quick to build a winning position.
Commercial litigation has some of the highest paying lawyers in the industry. It is the lawyer’s responsibility to work in favor of their clients’ needs and achieve the best results possible.
2. Real Estate Law
Real estate law is a busy area of practice involving a lot of technical requirements focused on sales and entitlements. Some of the services expected from real estate lawyers include:
- Provide legal support with the contract requiring construction and other agreements toward property development.
- Examine title, evaluate expectations, and negotiate related insurance policies.
- Sales and Acquisitions. Represent buyers and sellers and assist with contracting the acquisition and disposition of property.
- Assist with the negotiation of lease agreements.
3. Personal Injury Law
Some of the most common occurrences of personal injury claims involve car accidents and work-related accidents. However, personal injury lawyers provide services for a range of damages that occur in an individual. These cases are made whenever one person claims to have been injured by another person, business, or legal entity.
Other cases of personal injury include sexual harassment, wrongful death, and fraud.
Lawyers will provide legal services for clients that may be entitled to monetary compensation for any damages. Cases of personal injury must be evaluated by an expert attorney as some situations may be viewed as a criminal offense and require a criminal lawyer. In this case, there may not be any monetary compensation and if the accused is found guilty they may end up serving time in jail.
4. Labor and Employment Law
Labor and employment law involves complex legal support for situations occurring in the workplace. This area of law can my very complicated for employers, especially in the way it affects their employees.
The levels of law handled by these lawyers include local, state, and federal laws. When it comes to the process of law in court or mitigating cases, the outcome often has direct impacts on the lives and livelihoods of both the employees and employers.
Labor and employment laws strive to protect employment rights and wellbeing while ensuring the profitability of a business. The result of this can lead to some very complex situation that is difficult to resolve.
5. Family Law
Family law is a unique area of law that focuses on issues that occur in domestic relationships. This includes marriage, common-law, domestic partnerships, civil unions, and other related types.
It is common for family lawyers to handle cases involved the dissolution of marriages. A family lawyer will also be responsible for spousal alimony, child support, the division of assets, and other family-related liabilities. Family lawyers and divorce lawyers are often interchangeable titles.
Family lawyers have also known the handle cases involving child custody, child support, parental abduction, domestic abuse, adoption, and surrogacy.
6. Bankruptcy Law
6. Bankruptcy LawBankruptcy law not only covers situations of bankruptcy but also overlaps with some areas of corporate law and litigation. Bankruptcy lawyers are required to assess a client’s financial debt, transactional history, assets, securities, and taxes. All this information is needed to understand a clients situation and negotiate the terms of their bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy lawyers are involved with a very stressful part of the law. While this type of law applies at the commercial level, the impacts on individuals can be very consequential. Bankruptcy lawyers must have strong interpersonal skills while understanding the functions and operational side of finance.
These lawyers work with their clients to provide them with protections and amendments to their financial situation. Often debtors will be involved throughout the legal process. These debtors are used to offer a wide range of solutions for clients before having to resort to bankruptcy. The ultimate goal of bankruptcy lawyers is to establish and constructive outcome that can restore credit and financial rights.
7. Immigration Law
Immigration lawyers do more than just help immigrants become new citizens of the country they live in. Immigration law involves issues related to naturalization, visa, labor certification, deportation, fraud investigation, and political asylum.
In most cases, immigration lawyers protect their clients from deportation while offering legal advice to help them stay legally in the country. Alternatively, these lawyers offer support for obtaining the right certifications to work legally in a country by obtaining the proper visa.
8. Insurance Law
Insurance law involves cases regarding insurance policies and claims. To better understand insurance law it is critical to know the structure and terms involved:
- Policy: this is the contract outlining what an insurance company is willing to pay in the case of loss.
- Insured: this is the person who receives the benefits of the insurance policy.
- Benefits: these are the services and financial rewards an insurance company provides in the case of loss.
- Premium: this is the amount of money paid by the insured to the insurance company.
- Claim: this is a request for benefits when a situation of loss occurs.
- Coverage: these are the types of losses an insurance company provides coverage and reimbursement for.
- Insurance agent: this is a person who is licensed to sell insurance policies to someone.
Insurance lawyers handle three specific situations:
- Insurance companies are hired to represent the insured in a situation where the insured is being sued for something related to their insurance policy.
- Insurance lawyers are hired to help people with a claim against an insurance company.
- Insurance companies are hired to ensure that a company under an insurance policy is compliant with all applicable laws and regulations.