How do you decide what type of lawyer you want to become?

I'll tell you what I considered, when I was looking at this decision (in law school):

- Which classes I enjoyed the most in law school

- What type of lifestyle I wanted to have in my profession

- What the job prospects looked like when I graduated from law school

- What type of impact I wanted to have in the world; who I wanted to represent; what types of situations I wanted to engage in

It's typically expected that while in Law School you'll be spending your summers working at a law firm or in some other professional capacity. That's a good time for you to confirm your interest, but you need to have a pretty strong hypothesis before you start that summer associate role. The tough love: law firms expect their summer associates to behave like full-time associates, and they often hire from their summer associate pool, so it's ideal to do your searching before your do your summer.

Here's an idea: consider what attracts you to being a lawyer. Where did you hear about it? What drew you to it? Did you see it on television? Do you know someone who is a lawyer? Try to isolate what excites you about it, and then come back to us with a question that includes a larger explanation of your motivations. Maybe we can advise you a little more specifically. But you need to be clear with us about what interests you about law and motivates you to make it your profession.

I took my past work experience, thought about the types of companies that I'd like to work for, ranked my favorite classes, and came up with the "technology transactions" field.

My parents were real estate brokers and reading contracts was a typical task for me when I helped in their office. After I graduated from college, I worked for a big consulting firm where I learned how to program. When I grew tired of the consulting life (lots of travel!), I went to law school. I loved my contracts and intellectual property classes, so I combined the two. After working for a really great law firm for 4 years, I went in-house to work inside a company's legal department. I love working with really smart engineers who are passionate about what they do. Through my tech trans work, I enable them to develop the amazing products that they build.

Hello Deja,

For the most part, I think it's safe to assume that most lawyers get involved in a law that they are interested in due to personal reasons. For example, if you have personal beliefs regarding immigration and the rights of immigrants, then you may want to work for immigration law. If you have an interest in criminal law and want to keep "bad guys" off the streets, then you would probably want to be a prosecutor for the District Attorney. It doesn't just stop there. There are labor laws for worker's rights, environmental laws for unlawful actions in the environment by people, family law for marriage/divorces and children and alimony rights. You should really consider where you want to make an impact in with your services, and if there's a law for it, go for it!

Good Luck.