How to Choose a BigLaw Practice Area

Law students are asked about practice areas before they have practiced law. That is a strange request, so do not respond by inventing certainty.

A practice area is a category of legal work, such as M&A, commercial litigation, antitrust, restructuring, tax, or healthcare regulatory work.

Your goal before and during the summer is not to select a permanent professional identity. It is to build and test a hypothesis about the work you may enjoy.

Start with daily tasks

Practice descriptions focus on subject matter. Fit often comes from tasks.

Ask whether the work involves more:

• drafting agreements;
• legal research and briefs;
• negotiation;
• factual investigation;
• project management;
• quantitative or financial analysis;
• client counseling;
• regulatory interpretation; or
• oral advocacy.

You may love the idea of technology law and dislike the daily tasks in the specific technology practice available to you. The reverse can also happen: a subject that sounds dry may involve work you naturally enjoy.

Compare pace and predictability

Transactional work can have intense peaks around signing and closing. Litigation has court deadlines and can accelerate during discovery, motions, or trial. Regulatory practices may be steadier until a rule change, investigation, or emergency appears.

No BigLaw practice guarantees balance. Some groups are more predictable, but team, client, staffing, and market conditions matter.

Ask lawyers:

• What creates the busiest weeks?
• How far in advance do you know?
• What work arrives unexpectedly?
• Can matters be staffed around existing commitments?

"How many hours do you work?" is useful. "How much control do you have over when those hours happen?" is often better.

Notice how you like to solve problems

Transactional lawyers often help clients create something, allocate risk, and move toward agreement. Litigators work with disputes, incomplete facts, adversaries, and formal procedures. Regulatory lawyers interpret rules and help clients act under uncertainty.

These are broad tendencies. Corporate work can be contentious. Litigation can involve negotiation and long periods of cooperation. Regulatory work can become a lawsuit.

Read litigation versus transactional work, then talk to people doing the actual sub-practices available in your office.

Consider team structure

Some practices use large teams with clear layers. Others place juniors directly with partners. Some work crosses offices. Some groups rely heavily on specialists.

Think about whether you prefer:

• several matters or one enormous matter;
• a stable team or changing teams;
• formal processes or entrepreneurial staffing;
• deep specialization or variety; and
• independent drafting or constant collaboration.

The same practice can feel different across firms because staffing changes the experience.