Best Types Of Lawyers
Whether you are seeking the aid of a lawyer or considering moving to law school, there is a general confusion in the population regarding what kinds of lawyers are there. Some people assume that a lawyer is a lawyer, so any lawyer will be able to supply whatever legal services they need. While technically this is the case because a lawyer is licensed to practice law (minus a couple of exceptions in which further licensing is required), the law is so vast and all-encompassing it is impossible for one attorney to effectively provide legal services across every different area of lawenforcement. Much like doctors, where there is a focus on a specific field of the entire body, specific age groups, or specific kinds of ailments and diseases, lawyers typically specialize in one, or a few related kinds of lawenforcement. Below is a listing of 18 of the most common types of lawyers (in no specific order) and brief descriptions of each attorneys ' law practice. "
Business Lawyer (also called Corporate Lawyer)
Business law is very broad, and business lawyers will often deal with several regions of law discussed below, such as intellectual, intellectual property, and mergers and acquisitions. Occasionally these attorneys just focus on basic company legal tasks like forming your company, while some are more encompassing and will work on all sorts of business needs from employment problems to taxation compliance. Also, some lawyers focus only on small businesses and startups, but some focus on large enterprises. Keep in mind that you will find business licensed attorneys and business litigation attorneys too. The gap between these two types of business attorneys are significant, in that company transactional lawyers handle trades (such as negotiating deals) and drafting documents (like employment arrangements ), while business litigation attorneys handle your suits (such as when someone sues your employer for violating the conditions of a contract). Most of the time, a company transactional lawyer won't do business litigation, and vice versa, even though there are exceptions.
Employment & Labor Lawyer
Employment & Labor attorneys are just as they seem; they handle issues concerning employment. They mostly deal with ensuring businesses are complying with state and federal labor legislation. Much like corporate attorneys, you will find both litigation and transactional employment lawyers. Employment litigators would be the individuals who go to court to assert when/if a company violated the conditions of an employment contract or state law, whereas transactional employment lawyers deal more with drafting the employment records themselves when a employee is being hired. Some job attorneys do both litigation and transactional work.
Real Estate Lawyer
Real Estate attorneys assist with any legal issues related to real estate and property. Like company attorneys, real estate attorneys are distinguished between transactional vs. lawsuit. There are also numerous differences between commercial real estate and residential property, in addition to other kinds of personal property, therefore most property lawyers specialize and concentrate on a few of these areas. Much like business lawyers, property litigators go to court to assert whether a contract or purchase/sale arrangement was broken, or when a landlord or tenant breaks a law and has to be handled accordingly. Real estate transactional lawyers, on the other hand, solely deal with the discussion of real estate transactions and drafting documents surrounding those negotiations.
Estate Planning Lawyer
Estate planning lawyers ensure that your family dealings are all in order if/when something goes wrong. Their tasks vary from making hopes to get a child's school fund to drafting a will therefore your assets become dispersed appropriately to the members of your family if you die. But there are instances where individuals do not have a will and their assets have to go through Probate (court that decides what happens to your assets after death if you don't have a will). In these cases, there is a subset of family attorneys, called Probate Lawyers, who argue where and how those resources are distributed.
Intellectual Property Lawyer (IP)
Intellectual Property, or IP, lawyers deal with anything having to do with protecting intellectual property, which is intangible (something you may 't touch like a tune or an idea) real estate. The three major areas of law within intellectual property are copyright, trademark, and patent. Some IP lawyers just concentrate on trademark and copyright issues, while others just focus on patent issues. Patent law is one area which needs additional licensing than only a normal law degree and also requires a technical background (such as one in technology, software development, chemistry, or life sciences). Considering that IP laws are all very technical and distinct from one another, lawyers don't tend to handle all of these issues (nevertheless IP law firms will have a team of lawyers who can help you with some of these ). Like most areas of law, there are normal IP lawyers and IP litigators. The normal IP lawyers help with the filings needed to protect your IP, while litigators would be the individuals who go to court to battle who owns what IP and how much IP protects the individual in a specific dispute.
So, you now know a bit more about what types of lawyers there are. If you're looking to hire a lawyer, it's 's very important to work out how to find the right attorney for your needs. Although there are numerous overlapping practice areas, each kind of law is different and you will want to make certain to find a lawyer that specializes in the type of legal service you want. Doing otherwise is insecure and can create unnecessary legal problems in the future.