Kutsin Law

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Practice Areas

GENERAL PRACTICE VERSUS SPECIALIZATION

Lawyers work in a wide variety of practice areas. Some who practice many different types of law are engaged in a “general practice.” Others limit themselves to a special area of the law. Lawyers in rural areas are more likely to have a general practice, while attorneys in urban areas may tend to focus on a specialized practice area.

Each state bar organization has its own rules regarding lawyer marketing, and some place limits on whether a lawyer can advertise as a “specialist.” A lawyer is always free, however, to limit his or her practice to a single area of the law.

Some lawyers handle litigation and others do not. Lawyers who regularly go to court and handle trials are known as “trial lawyers.” Lawyers who rarely go to court and handle primarily business and real estate matters are known as “transactional lawyers.”

TRIAL LAWYERS

Some of the more common areas of practice for trial lawyers are:

• Personal injury, e.g. all types of accidents
• Criminal defense
• Employment law and civil rights
• Medical malpractice and pharmaceutical cases
• Mass torts involving many victims
• Constitutional law, e.g. First Amendment law
• Environmental law
• Family law

Some trial lawyers in these practice areas may do more legal counseling than litigation. For example, many environmental lawyers help their clients to comply with state and federal regulations, and they may rarely engage in litigation.

BUSINESS LAWYERS

In many of the business and transactional areas, lawyers may handle both business and litigation work. For example, a lawyer who typically handles real estate purchases and sales may also engage in litigation of real estate cases.

Some of the more common areas of practice for business and transactional lawyers are:

• Corporate law
• Tax law
• Trusts and estates, including wills
• Real estate
• Business formation
• Trademark and intellectual property law
• Licensing and regulatory law

GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC INTEREST ATTORNEYS

Other major practice areas for lawyers are in public law and public interest law. Lawyers who work for the state or federal government may practice in almost any of the fields discussed above, but they are public employees.

Public interest lawyers may work for non-profit groups; these lawyers earn a salary, but the organization does not typically charge clients for its work.

These practice areas may include:

• Prosecuting lawyers
• Administrative agency lawyers handling regulatory matters
• Legal aid lawyers representing low-income clients, including landlord-tenant law, consumer law and family law