Whether you are seeking the assistance of a lawyer or
contemplating going to law school, there is a general confusion in the
population as to what types of lawyers are there. Some people assume that
a lawyer is a lawyer, and so any lawyer will be able to provide whatever legal
services they need. While technically this is true because a lawyer is licensed
to practice law (minus a few exceptions where further licensing is
required), the law is so vast and all-encompassing that it is impossible for a
single lawyer to effectively provide legal services across each different area
of law. Much like doctors, where there is a focus on a specific area of the
body, specific age groups, or specific types of ailments and diseases, lawyers
typically specialize in one, or a few related types of law.
Below is a list of 18 of the most common types of
lawyers (in no particular order) and brief descriptions of each lawyers’ law
practice.
Business Lawyer (also called
Corporate Lawyer)
Business law is quite broad, and business lawyers will
often deal with several areas of law discussed below, including employment,
intellectual property, and mergers and acquisitions. Sometimes these
lawyers just focus on basic business legal tasks such as forming your company,
while others are more encompassing and will work on all types of business needs
from employment issues to tax compliance. Also, some lawyers focus only on
small businesses and startups, while others focus on large enterprises.
Keep in mind that there are business transactional
lawyers and business litigation lawyers as well. The difference between
these two types of business lawyers are significant, in that business
transactional lawyers handle transactions (such as negotiating deals) and
drafting documents (such as employment agreements), while business litigation
lawyers handle your lawsuits (such as when someone sues your company for
violating the terms of a contract). Most of the time, a business transactional
lawyer will not do business litigation, and vice versa, although there are
exceptions.
Employment & Labor Lawyer
Employment & Labor lawyers are exactly as they
sound; they handle issues relating to employment. They mainly deal with
making sure businesses are complying with state and federal labor laws.
Much like corporate lawyers, there are both litigation and transactional
employment lawyers. Employment litigators are the ones who go to court to
argue when/if a business violated the terms of an employment contract or state
law, while transactional employment lawyers deal more with drafting the
employment documents themselves when an employee is being hired. Some
employment lawyers do both litigation and transactional work.
Finance & Securities Lawyer
Finance and Securities lawyers only operate in a very
specific sector of law. They tend to only deal with issues relating to
banks and individuals issuing money, or to companies selling stock. They
can also help defend clients if the IRS or SEC files a complaint against a person
or a corporation.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Lawyer (M&A)
Mergers and acquisition (M&A)
lawyers deal with the buying and selling of companies. The buying and
selling of major companies can be a very long and complex process which usually
involves a team of lawyers. M&A lawyers tend to be very well-versed
in finance and securities laws, as well as tax law, to make sure they structure
the deals, aka the purchase or sale of their client’s company, correctly.
Intellectual Property Lawyer
(IP)
Intellectual Property, or IP,
lawyers deal with anything having to do with protecting intellectual property, that is intangible
(something you can’t touch like a song or an idea) property. The three
major areas of law within intellectual property are copyright, trademark, and patent. Some IP lawyers just focus on copyright and
trademark issues, while others just focus on patent issues. Patent law is one
area that requires further licensing than just a regular law degree and also
requires a technical background (such as one in engineering, software
development, chemistry, or life sciences). Since IP laws are all very technical
and different from each other, lawyers don’t tend to handle all of these issues
(however IP law firms will have a team of lawyers who can help you with any of
them). Like most areas of law, there are normal IP lawyers and IP
litigators. The normal IP lawyers help with all the filings required to
protect your IP, while litigators are the ones who go to court to battle who
owns what IP and how much that IP protects the individual in a given dispute.
Family Lawyer
You probably could have guessed
what a family lawyer does. A family lawyer handles anything having to do
with direct family issues. Sometimes this includes estate or family
planning, but usually family lawyers handle things like divorce, custody
battles, prenuptial agreements, and other issues surrounding
marriage and children. While some only focus on divorce, most family
lawyers cover all areas of family law.
Estate Planning Lawyer
Estate planning lawyers
make sure your family dealings are all in order if/when something goes
wrong. Their tasks range from creating trusts for a child’s college fund
to drafting a will so your assets get distributed appropriately to the members
of your family when you die. However, there are instances where people do
not have a will and their assets have to go through Probate (court that decides
what happens to your assets after death if you don’t have a will). In
these instances, there is a subset of family lawyers, called Probate Lawyers,
who argue where and how those assets are distributed.
Tax Lawyer
Tax lawyers usually help businesses and individuals
comply with state and federal laws when filing their tax returns.
However, a larger proportion of these lawyers actually go to court to defend
you if the IRS audits you and you face potential jail time or significant
fines. Most individual tax lawyers also work in estate planning in some fashion
unless they work in the tax department of a large corporation.
Criminal Defense Lawyer
Criminal defense lawyers help defend people accused of
committing a crime against prosecution by the government, with the goal of
reducing their sentencing or helping them stay out of jail. The crimes
handled by criminal defense lawyers range from small offenses such as
shoplifting to more serious crimes such as DUI, drug trafficking, assault and
battery, or even murder. Many lawyers who practice criminal defense had
previous experience working on the prosecution side at the Office of the District
Attorney (DA), either while in law school or after.
Traffic Lawyer
These lawyers are usually very
high-volume lawyers in the sense that they tend to have a lot clients on a
daily basis and they only perform one or a few small tasks for each one.
Traffic lawyers will go to court on your behalf to fight traffic citations or
give you advice about whether you have a chance to get out of a speeding ticket
or violation for running a red light. Sometimes traffic lawyers are also
criminal lawyers who will fight
your DUI or DWI as well.
Personal Injury Lawyer
Personal injury (PI) lawyers are
the types of lawyers that deal with accidents and injuries of any nature.
Personal injury lawyers get involved when you are
in a car accident, a doctor misdiagnoses an illness, you had bad side effects
from a prescription drug that they didn’t warn you about, you were injured by a
defective product, and more. This is probably the most common type of attorney
that you see advertising on TV, park benches, bus stops, and everywhere else.
Their cases can lead to huge financial settlements or judgments, usually
involving insurance companies. PI lawyers work for contingency
fees, meaning they only take a percentage of the money they
recover for you in court, and it will cost you nothing if you lose. The
typical contingency fee ranges from 33%-40%. For this reason, it is
important for you to know how to choose the right personal injury lawyer, because
they all basically charge the same fee, but a good lawyer can make all the
difference when it comes to winning your case and recovering a large financial
award.
Bankruptcy Lawyer
Bankruptcy lawyers help you file
for bankruptcy or work through your bankruptcy to help you get out of debt. There are different
subsets of bankruptcy lawyers who represent the debtor (the person or company
filing for bankruptcy) and the creditor (the ones who are owed money by the
debtor and are trying to recover as much of their money as possible during the
bankruptcy). There are also lawyers who specialize in different types of
bankruptcy. The most common types are Chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyers
(Chapter 7 is when an individual or a company wants to liquidate/dissolve their
assets in order to eliminate their debts), Chapter 11 bankruptcy lawyers
(Chapter 11 is when a company [or individual within a company] wants to
restructure their debts to get back on track), and Chapter 13 bankruptcy
lawyers (Chapter 13 is a different form of chapter 11 for individuals where you
restructure your debts to get on a more affordable payment schedule, and you
can still keep most of your assets). Many bankruptcy lawyers can handle
different types of bankruptcies but some just specialize in one type of claim.
Make sure you find a bankruptcy lawyer that is familiar with handling
situations like your own.
Civil Litigation Lawyer
A civil litigation lawyer is a very general term that
encompasses many other more specific areas of law, including real estate,
employment, business, and more. Civil litigation lawyers will typically
handle any type of litigation, or lawsuit, that is non-criminal.
Therefore, anything from a landlord issue to a breach of contract is handled by
these lawyers.
Digital Media & Internet
Lawyer
The development of the Internet
opened up a whole new realm of law. Digital media and Internet lawyers focus on
all sorts of legal issues that come into play with our use of technology and
the Internet. Everything from the website terms and conditions that govern our use
of the Internet, to privacy issues, copyright laws and issues with pirating of
music and movies, and protection of children from online predators falls within
the area of digital media and Internet law. This area of law, like the industry
in which it operates, continues to evolve and change rapidly with new
technology.
Entertainment Lawyer
Entertainment lawyers deal with all sorts of
entertainment issues, mainly relating to entertainment contracts. They
draft and review licensing agreements, management contracts, contracts having
to do with royalties and any other aspect of the entertainment business you can
imagine. If you live in Los Angeles or New York, entertainment law is
popular, but becoming an entertainment lawyer is one of the hardest things to
do because of high competition. Most entertainment lawyers have previous
experience working as a different type of lawyer.
Immigration Lawyer
An immigration lawyer will help with anything relating
to bringing a family member, employee, or individual into the United States
from another country. Most immigration lawyers’ practices rely heavily on
businesses since they require employment visas in order to bring employees to
the United States from overseas. There are a plethora of forms to file
with each government entity involved and complex laws to be followed in order
to employ a non-citizen.
Legal Malpractice or
Professional Responsibility Lawyer
This is a very niche subset of lawyers, and there are
not that many that focus on these areas of law as their specialty. Legal
Malpractice or Professional Responsibility lawyers usually sue or defend
lawyers when a lawyer has violated their duties to a client (i.e. committed
malpractice) or when a lawyer needs defense against a former client who is
suing them. Lawyers, similar to doctors, accountants, government
officials, etc., have a strict set of industry specific rules they must abide
by while practicing law. When they actually violate or are accused of
violating any of these rules, professional responsibility lawyers and legal
malpractice lawyers come into play. Sometimes these lawyers are employed
before anything actually goes wrong just to make sure that what is about to be
done by a lawyer is actually allowed.
Real Estate Lawyer
Real Estate lawyers assist with any legal issues
related to real estate and property. Like business lawyers, real estate
lawyers are distinguished between transactional vs. litigation. There are also
many differences between commercial real estate and residential real estate, as
well as other types of personal property, so most real estate lawyers
specialize and focus on one of these areas. Much like business lawyers, real
estate litigators go to court to argue if a contract or purchase/sale agreement
was violated, or when a tenant or landlord breaks a law and must be handled
accordingly. Real estate transactional lawyers, on the other hand, solely
deal with the negotiation of real estate transactions and drafting documents
surrounding those negotiations.
So, now you know a little more
about what types of lawyers there are. If you are looking to hire
a lawyer, it’s important to figure out how
to find the right lawyer for your needs. Although there
are many overlapping practice areas, each type of law is different and you will
want to make sure to get a lawyer that specializes in the type of legal service
you need. Doing otherwise is risky and can create unnecessary legal problems in
the future.
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