If you’re considering law school and a legal career, we encourage you to explore what lawyers in different areas of law do before deciding to apply. Gaining this insight can help you determine whether law school—and a legal career—aligns with your interests, skills, values, and goals.
Generally, lawyers fall into two umbrellas: (1) litigators or (2) transactional attorneys.
Large law firms hire both litigators and transactional attorneys that work in a variety of industries and specialties. Medium and smaller sized boutique firms may specialize in a particular type of legal work, such as Intellectual Property, Consumer Protection, or Entertainment Law. Depending on the legal specialty or industry the firm specializes in, they may hire more litigators or transactional attorneys to best serve their clients.
Litigators
Litigators help file and execute lawsuits. They are the ones you call when something goes wrong, and you want to sue someone. Although it looks like litigators spend all their time in court in TV shows and movies, in reality, most cases settle. This means that the parties agree to stop the lawsuit in exchange for a payment. In turn, this means that day to day, most litigators spend a lot of time conducting legal research and writing, but most litigators do not go to court often.
Most litigators are civil litigators, which means they resolve non-criminal disputes between parties, which usually involve a dispute about money or property.
Alternative dispute resolutions, which are processes for resolving disputes without going to court, is an area of increasing popularity for litigators. As a result, litigators can specialize in arbitration or mediation as well.
Transactional Attorneys
Transactional attorneys negotiate and draft contracts. In contrast to litigators, transactional attorneys are focused on helping parties avoid ending up in court. This means transactional attorneys are always trying to think ahead as to how to balance potential risks, areas of conflict, and how to do so in a way that both parties can accept.
Corporate law is the most common type of transactional law. Corporate law includes subspecialties, such as Private Equity/ Funds, Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets, and Debt Finance.
Other transactional specialties include Tax, Intellectual Property, Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits, Real Estate, Restructuring, and Derivatives. Oftentimes, transactional specialty groups also support the deal work that Corporate attorneys focus on.
Public Interest Attorneys
Another category of lawyers are public interest attorneys. Public interest attorneys are often litigators, and work for the government, non-profits, or other organizations with a special focus on justice and addressing societal challenges.
If you are interested in becoming a public interest attorney, your career path will likely look different from those pursuing private practice.
What Skills and Traits Do You Need to Be an Effective Litigation Or Transactional Attorney?
The skills and abilities of an effective attorney include being a skilled communicator, collaborator, possessing time management skills, stress management skills, being detail oriented, and having good judgment.
On the litigation side, legal writing and research skills are critical. Being familiar with the procedure of filing a lawsuit and courtroom procedures are also important. Litigation can take months and even years, so litigation attorneys generally have a longer timeline to work with.
On the transactional side, attorneys must understand the business aspects of a deal to help clients negotiate a suitable deal. As such, transactional attorneys are well-versed in finance principles and corporate governance rules. They also must possess strong negotiation skills, be able to work under extreme time pressure to close deals in a few days or weeks, and be a creative and strategic problem-solver. If you are interested in pursuing transactional law, you should consider taking basic business courses such as accounting and corporate finance to bolster your business skills.
What does a Typical Law School Career Exploration Timeline Look Like?
1L
In the first year of law school, students focus on achieving the highest grades they can, and simultaneously begin their search for their 1L summer internships. Coursework is focused on foundational topics that all law students must take.
1L Summer
Students pursue a variety of jobs during their 1L summer. Some students may conduct research for professors, others may work for the government, others may intern for a judge, some may work at a law firm, and some may work in-house (i.e., at a company).
At the same time, students will be recruiting for their 2L summer internship, which generally leads to a full-time job offer.
2L
Students now have the opportunity to select their own courses, subject to outstanding course requirements. This means that students can tailor their law school learning experience to the type(s) of law they are most interested in.
Students who have a sense based on informational interviews and work experience of what type of law they want to pursue will benefit the most from their later years in law school.
2L Summer
Students complete the internship they secured during their 1L summer. For many students, this will be an internship at a law firm. Now, some law firms select interns for specific practice groups, meaning that students are increasingly encouraged to commit to a specific type of law early on in their careers.
3L
In their last year of law school, students continue selecting courses that interest them and best prepare them for the specific type of law they will pursue upon graduation.
Students may also begin submitting paperwork for their bar application.
Bar Exam
Immediately after graduation, students begin studying for the bar exam, which they will take at the end of July.
Ways to Explore Legal Careers Before and During Law School
Informational Interviews/Coffee Chats
A great way to begin exploring what types of law are a good fit for your skills, interests, and goals, is to reach out to current law students and attorneys to learn about what their day to day looks like.
Although it may seem that lawyers deal with similar matters, there is a wide variety of clients and issues lawyers confront, depending on their specialty. We encourage you to reflect on your industry interests and the skillsets of litigators vs. transactional attorneys discussed above as a starting point.
One of the most exciting aspects of a legal career is the wide range of roles available. Building a fulfilling path in law depends on the time you invest in exploring your interests and goals.
Classes
USC offers many courses that touch upon the law. Enrolling in one or more of these courses can be a great way to get a glimpse of the types of issues and ways of thinking you will be learning in law school. Taking an undergraduate legal course can be a way to test out the waters and start thinking about what you might want to specialize in. However, it’s important to keep in mind that courses in law school will be much more complex and in-depth than undergraduate legal courses.
Examples of undergraduate legal courses at USC can be found here.
While the USC Pre-Law Advisors are not academic advisors, we highly encourage you to explore the following USC courses:
- The Legal Profession (LAW 220)
- Advanced Writing for Pre-Law Students (WRIT 340)
- Advanced Legal Writing (WRIT 440)
Throughout your law school years, courses can serve as a guiding point as to what type of legal skills and interests best suit you. If you enjoy Legal Writing and Research, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and other litigation focused courses, you may enjoy being a litigator. On the other hand, if you enjoy Corporations, Securities Regulation, tax, and Contract Drafting, you might consider being a transactional attorney.
Internships
Looking back on what internships you enjoyed as an undergraduate or law student can be a great window into what type of legal specialty and/or industry you may want to pursue. For example, if you really enjoyed working in tech, you may want to consider Intellectual Property law or Tech Transactions.
It’s important to remember that an industry, such as “Entertainment Law” or “Sports Law” are not legal specialties in and of themselves. To work in Entertainment Law, you can be a litigator who is well versed in legal writing and research, Civil Procedure, and Alternative Dispute Resolution, or you can also be a transactional deal attorney who is skilled at contract drafting and negotiation, accounting, and creating business entities.
If you’re open to a variety of specialties in law, you can consider pursuing a litigation focused internship, such as working for a judge, over one summer, and try out transactional work the next summer. You can also consider externships during the school year to gain additional work experience and exposure.
If you’re open to working in a variety of legal environments, you can consider working at a small or medium firm, and also trying a larger firm. The best work environment is a personal question, and thus requires personal exploration.
