(This resource is best combined with the Hire Law job board that helps aspiring legal professionals gain hands on experience. Explore sectors below and then use the job board to gain real world experience to continue on your legal career journey.)

It is rare that a student enters law school with a precise practice area in mind that perfectly mirrors their first actual legal job. (Exceptions to this typically occur when a student has very relevant prior industry experience, or in the case of IP, a specialized technical academic background.) This is due to a variety of factors: limited pre-law exposure to the many nuanced practice areas; market forces influencing the first legal job may be driven by employer needs as opposed to what a student wants; the geographic distribution of certain opportunities; or the recruiting approaches adopted by the types of employers within that area.

With that said, it is possible, and important, for aspiring law students to enter law school with a general sense of intentionality and purpose surrounding how they want to leverage the degree. This resource is designed to help guide students through this process. The goal is to arm students with an awareness of legal practice pathways, along with practical considerations associated with each. This can provide a structure and general paths to follow.

Take a few moments reflect on "who" you are, and "who" you want to be as a professional, before trying to figure out "what" legal employer types or practice areas to pursue. Here are some resources that reinforce why this is an important starting line.

As noted in the opening portion of this guide, identifying a specific practice area can be difficult, and instead, consider using legal employer type (also known as practice setting) as a way to meaningfully guide your legal career path. There are distinctions between legal employer types. This section is designed to help you explore which one(s) may be best for you.

Approximately 60% of the entry-level legal jobs obtained by a JD graduating class are in private practice. This singular employer type captures two very different types of legal employers: 1) large (Biglaw) and 2) small (Boutique) law firms.

Generally, large law firms are designed to meet the needs of large corporations, while small firms serve individuals and smaller businesses. Read this comparison between these two employer types, and learn more about each sector below.

Public interest and public service (government) legal careers generally constitute approximately 20% of the entry-level legal jobs. Public interest can include many practice areas from supporting the legal needs of those in poverty or protecting the environment: the common element is leveraging your JD to support marginalized populations or social causes. Public service involves working for the local, state, or federal government and covers a wide-range of practice areas from regulatory enforcement to criminal prosecution. District attorney offices prosecute criminal cases, and civil cases are handled by the state attorney general office. Government agencies (think of the "alphabet soup" EPA, SEC, FTC, DOJ, etc.) work on niche specialized regulatory matters.

1) Transactional v. Litigation

• Types of Litigation

2) Prosecutor v. Public Defender (Criminal)

3) Niche Specialties- there are many niche specialties that sound glamorous, but students may underestimate what the work actually entails or possible barriers to entering these fields. For example, students may experience frustration when learning after they arrive to law school that:

• Sports and Entertainment - often involves standard business and contract law, is competitive and may require industry experience, connections, and geographic flexibility.
• Hard IP/Patent - without a technical background, students may find it very challenging to break into "hard IP". (By contrast, for students with this background, it may make sense to focus on this area because it will make them competitive candidates.)
• International Law - this is not a singular practice area, but rather, a label that applies to many other practice areas that have cross border components. Learn more.

Consider using our AI tools to continue to explore, pursue, and do what's important to you on your legal journey.

While it is not an expectation for an aspiring lawyer early in their law school journey to know a precise practice area, and the general frameworks in parts 1-4 above should help guide law students to meaningful work and help them succeed in interviews, here are guides noting the vast range of practice areas.

• HG.org guide contains information about over 260 practice areas.
• Turco Legal has designed a guide to choosing a legal practice areas that includes overviews and practitioner interviews.