WHAT KIND OF LAW SHOULD YOU PRACTICE...?

HELLO,

Many people make the decision to go into law school, and pursue a career in law. Some, like me, are not too sure of excatly what kind of law they would like to practice. Here are some of the most popular specializations available:

Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property (IP) law is a general category of law that deals with the acquisition and enforcement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and one that has seen tremendous growth in the past decade.

Patent Law
Patents grant an inventor a limited period of exclusive rights to a human-made invention or an improvement on an existing invention, providing the United States Patent and Trademark Office deems it worthy of both technical and legal merit. In order to become a patent attorney, you must be admitted to practice before the courts of at least one state in the U.S., and must pass the patent bar exam which allows you to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Constitutional Law
Often considered one of the most broad and involved branches of law, Constitutional law requires nothing short of a crystal-clear understanding of the U.S. Constitution in order to understand its every possible interpretation and implementation. Constitutional law draws heavily from rulings made in the Supreme Court.

First Amendment Law
Perhaps the most far-reaching amendment of the Bill of Rights, First Amendment law focuses on protecting citizens' rights to freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly against law enacted by Congress.

Criminal Law
Criminal law is probably the most visible of all of the areas of law, in terms of application to daily life and public portrayal. Criminal law revolves around governmental prosecution of anyone who is purported to have committed a criminal act, as defined by public law. In order for the state to win a criminal case, they must prove "beyond all reasonable doubt" that a crime has been committed.

Admiralty Law
Also referred to as Maritime Law, this body of law pertains to the regulation of navigation and shipping, both substantively and procedurally.

Business Law
Much as it sounds, business law deals with any aspect of the law having to do with industry and commerce--from taxes and liability to licensing and trademarking. This is an extremely wide section of the law which forks off into numerous areas of expertise, many of which themselves differ based upon the size of the business and the stage of its development.

Environmental Law
Environmental law mostly stems from a group of federal enactments passed in 1970 that forced agencies and businesses to take into account the effect of their practices on the environment, as well as setting into effect laws and standards that would protect the environment from public and private actions.

Health Care Law
Since it is primarily the state's duty to maintain public health, most heath laws and regulations are state-based, that, in turn, often pass responsibility on to governmental agencies that have been created by legislative acts.

I mentioned some of the specializations available, but there are alot more out there.
It is known that most law school students dont know which specialization they would like to practice until thier second or third of law school. So if you havent decided what you want to do yet, no worries, that is normal.

For more information on these specializations and other ones, visit the Princeton Review Website.



Until next time...