First year attorney still undecided on area of law and curious how I might eventually choose
30F, graduated last May and was admitted in January and working in “real estate” generally - but doing a little bit of everything right now it feels. I am not worried that I am undecided at this point. I know I’m not interested in family law or personal injury. My problem is that I feel like most other areas DO interest me. It’s not so much the area of law that I’m concerned with, and more with what the work involves. I feel like I could do any “area” in some ways. I like the law, I don’t mind the work. I used to be a frickin waitress so everything is better than that.
Some background: i am at a mid sized firm with a focus on business law/representing organizational clients, but it does a little of everything within that, commercial litigation, real estate, bank counsel, land use/zoning bankruptcy, t&e, transactions, corporate law etc. Very reasonable billables but I am struggling to decide what I want to do.
What I like: I like solving problems, I like niche legal issues that involve research/writing, I LOVE document review and/or looking through old files/records, although it’s rare I get to do it. Im very comfortable “helping out” senior attorneys and getting things past the finish line. I’ve done some different kinds of RE closings and I don’t mind it but I feel like my job in the realm of these kind of deals is just following up with people constantly, which is realistically what a paralegal could do (which I’m not above, I did some legal assistant work before law school). That’s fine to mix things up every once in awhile, and I like that I get to talk to people and advise, because I don’t think I could just draft motions all day, but transactional work is not super fulfilling for me in the long term. I do think I could become a competent transactional attorney bc I’m pretty organized, I don’t love the numbers but I understand them most of the time and can easily make spreadsheets for closing costs. We have in-house title work and I find title issues more interesting than other parts of a closing.
I guess I just feel lost. I have some friends who have needed help with re-organizing their business or needing to make a trust and I love being able to help with that, but I’m not sure I care to do that unless it’s for a friend. At the same time, I think there’s value in knowing how these things work bc I see the issues that come up in litigation down the road.
It’s like I don’t really know what I like bc I like most things and if I don’t know how to do something, I feel capable of learning pretty quickly. I’m sure most people’s advice is to not pigeonhole myself yet and keep trying different things, but is there anything I should be looking for??? How will I even know???
Right now I feel like I value getting in-person experience in court and having some variety in my different cases/assignments, and I don’t think I will be able to do that forever bc eventually this firm will want me to pick between their litigation department and their real estate/corporate law practice, so maybe this firm isn’t the right fit for me in the long run, but I understand that you are supposed to, eventually, specialize. I also think this firm values me enough that I could convince them to let me sort of make my own practice. They say it’s hard to find good associates who will stick around
If anyone read all this rambling … were you in similar position not feeling like you could choose? How/when did you know what worked for you? Am I being too picky about wanting to keep things interesting?? Is that not realistic?
I just would like to hear from other attorneys on their experience I guess.