To practicing lawyers, can you help me choose a field of law in which to practice?

[fitche]

I am trying to figure out which field in which to start. I'll try anything but I'd prefer something that I MIGHT enjoy.

Please tell me what you can about the fields of:
Personal Injury
Bankruptcy
Immigration
Family law
I pick these fields because they interest me, they have openings in New York City, and I won't need a 2nd grad degree or tons of prior experience.
I'd like to have a life and work no more than 50 hours a week (avg) but in a pinch I'd work more. Tell me pros/cons, what the work is like (nice/drudgery), etc.
I'm considering Legal Services for the loan repay, hours, benefits but I'll take what I can get.

Some background on me: I'm almost forty, I graduated from law school four years ago, and I have been working as a "document review" attorney since then. Prior: I worked in janitorial, special ed, + other menial work. BA in literature and history. I'm a 1st gen. Irish-American, my family and friends aren't connected.

[caelin]

From personal experience - in worst to best order:
Family Law can be unnerving. You will be dealing with husbands and wives who want to fight for every last tea bag in a divorce and who use their own kids as tools to get even with the spouse. Clients are extremely needy, ungrateful, and fight with their attorney. According to Illinois licensing commission the family law attorney gets the most complaints filed against them. Tons of ot.

Personal Injury is number 2 on the complaints filed against them. The clients are more civilized than in family law (of course a pack of roving wild wolves also are). The biggest problmen in PI work is that you need to work volumes to get any considerable business, which of course means staff. It is a very crowded field, however, if you can get hooked up as a captive for an insurance co -- which means you handle their work for a flat fee for each case -- then you can make good money. Because so many firms go into this you may find yourself 'chasing ambulances' to get clients. Tons of ot.

Immigration is a fairly good field. Right now there is lots of work and laws keep changing so there is a lot of new items to keep the job fresh. Downside is the need for interpreters which could be an added expense for your practice. If you locate your office arround an immigration facility you will never be at a loss for clients. Reasonable hours and work.

Bankruptcy is still a good field to make money in. Even with all the changes in bankruptcy laws many people are still filing. As the housing bubble continues to bite people in the a## we will see more bankruptcies. Reasonalbe hours, work is more interesting now because of new laws.

There are other fields you may want to look at that also do not require a 2nd degree and have reasonable hours. I do employment law for employees and small businesses. There are few over 50 hour weeks. Also working as an attorney in a corporation -- human resources work --- is almost a guaranteed 40 hours. The other suggestion on this board was business law, again that would be for a corporation -- 40 hour work week.

On a personal note I was over 40 when I graduated law school. Like you no connections. I did not graduate at the top of the class, somewhere in that comfortable middle. For me a corporate job with that 40 hour work week was not an option -- had offers but hate corp life. I worked as an independant contractor in many law firms in Chicago doing differnt things for several years until I found what I really liked to do -- my own firm doing employment law. You may need to get an actual taste of these different law areas before you can find your passion. While we can tell you how these areas of law effected us, only you can judge how they hit you. Good luck.

[stein74]

Stay away from them all..go Business Law

[dana]

You are almost 40 and a fresher in the field of practicing law. Keeping that in mind, i think,bankruptcy is the best option.immigration would be interesting, i think.in your country, personal injury might have good prospect....i am not reliable to comment on that field.family law is apparently very depressing and you should opt for that if you have tha capacity of remaining indifferent in any emotional circumstances!!i have come across young advocates who were unable to continue in the family law field owing to the emotional encounters!!
however, of the list, i think, bankruptcy is the best option.
but, i should praise you that you were able to shortlist few fields as preferable ones at such a stage....most people fail to ascertain this!!
lots of luck !!

[norwyn]

Lawyers who deal with personal injury ( or tort ) tend to be the most reprehensible of the profession.

If you want to have a good social life, and not be ostracized from major sections of society, go for any of the other areas.

[honi]

Where is your passion? Personal injury... but for plaintiff or defense? Bankruptcy. Whatever floats your boat. Immigration, now that could be interesting. Family -- that can be nasty and ugly. IP is very interesting. But, you have to find what really holds your interest, or you'll hate it.

Don't get me wrong, but you don't seem like a go-getter. Looking for low hours? For that you might want to hang up your own shingle. You'll never make partner at 50 hours.

[lorimar]

What is a "document review" attorney? If you've been working as an attorney for at least four years, you should have some idea of the profession and of the practice areas you mention, and be in some position to personally seek input. In Los Angeles, it is actually rather difficult to find employment four years out of law school, in an area of law you've never practiced. I'm not saying that's the way it should be, but it does seem to be that way. One thing about all four of those areas is that they can all be practiced in solo practice, if desired. If I were going to pick an area that I actually had a chance of finding work in, it would be none of those, unless possibly the personal injury practice was high-end. (I have P.I. experience.) Personal injury typically covers a fairly broad panoply of liabilities: defective premises, product, general negligence, public entity liability, common carrier liability. Medical malpractice is usually practiced along with with other types of injury cases, or as a separate area. Of course, there is the defense side of all of those (usually funded by insurance) or the plaintiff's side. Some defense firms will take on a limited number of select plaintiffs cases (assuming, of course, no conflict of interest.) The workload and firm culture will vary from firm to firm. Generally, defense firms emphasize billable hours, with possible emphasis on client retention or acquisition. Plaintiffs firms place more emphasis on results, with some emphasis possible on client acquisition. It is easier to move from the defense side to the plaintiffs side than the other way around. By "easier", I mean in terms of finding work and overcoming the bias of employers. I'm not sure that "document review" reveals much of a proclivity toward P.I., but you know what your strengths and interests are. Good luck.

[roche]

45 years ago, I was considering the field of law. Didn't go through with that plan tho. You might remember that it is 99.837 percent of the lawyers that give all of the rest bad reputations !!!! Today, I would go into : Immigration, contract, real estate, and /or civil rights.
Uncle Wil