4 Different Types of Lawyers and What They Do

It’s easy to say you want to become a lawyer, but what exactly does that entail? Both people who are new to their law career journey and already-established lawyers can struggle with the particular field of law they want to specialize in, and it’s hard to figure out what that specialization might be if you don’t know what fields are available to you in the first place. Law isn’t an all-encompassing field, and to be the most successful you’ll need to focus on finding an area of expertise that not only captures your interest but fits you and your personality. To help with that, here are a few different types of lawyers and what their fields of expertise entail.

Corporate Lawyer

Other than criminal defense lawyers, corporate lawyers are probably the most well-known type of lawyer. Since businesses surround us everywhere we go, it’s expected that they’ll need lawyers tailored to their needs should things go awry. Corporate lawyers are in charge of handling intellectual property rights, employment, mergers, and acquisitions. There are two types of corporate lawyers: business litigation lawyers, who handle lawsuits against the company, and business transactional lawyers, who negotiate deals and draft documents on behalf of their clients.

Family Lawyer

Just as the name suggests, family lawyers handle any and all legal issues that have to do with families. This includes, but is not limited to, prenups, divorce, custody, and more.

Intellectual Property Lawyer

Lawyers who focus in on intellectual property deal with everything that comes with protecting a person’s intellectual property (IP) from others. There are three areas within this field that lawyers have to deal with: patent, trademark, and copyright, all of which are handled by both litigation IP lawyers and regular IP lawyers. Since these cases can get rather technical, litigation and regular IP lawyers team up to handle them—litigation IP lawyers go to court to fight for the case, while regular IP lawyers handle the paperwork that comes with protecting your IP.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

The most well-known of lawyer types is the criminal defense lawyer, who is in charge of defending people accused of crimes. The goal of criminal defense lawyers isn’t only to get their clients off the hook from punishment; rather, their goal is to reduce the sentence given to their client if they can’t keep them out of jail entirely. These lawyers handle a wide range of defenses, from petty theft to murder.