Hi! I’m graduating next year and I am extremely lucky to be currently working as admin at a firm that has all but ensured that I can stay there after the bar as an attorney. It’s a civil rights firm doing § 1983 litigation. Definitely important work, I’m really interested in it, and I love the people I work with.
A few of the attorneys are former PDs that have moved into civil - and I’ve heard from them that this is a relatively common move for people to make, but not so much in the other direction. However, I have been taking crim pro classes and I just finished a forensic evidence class that gave me a bit of an existential crisis, in that I am realizing I think I want to do crim defense in some capacity.
Is there a way for a predominantly civil rights attorney to develop a meaningful concurrent crim defense practice? Post-conviction appeals? What else?
Should I just focus on working in civil for now - and then explore moving into crim further down the line, like after I’ve been practicing for at least a few years? Or would it be better to start planning for this early on?
Or is none of this realistic at all? lol.
Appreciative of any thoughts or insight - thank you!