Articling at a Personal Injury Firm

[gingerbread]

Hi guys, 

This is a question for articling students or those that have some experience as lawyers under their belt.

I'm thinking to apply to work at a firm that does predominantly personal injury law (it also does real estate and wills and estates law). I'm wondering if this experience is applicable to other areas of law or if I would get pigeonholed early on in my career if I end up working in PI for 2-3 years? Is it better to set my sights on a full service firm? 

Sorry if this question seems stupid - I'm just really not sure about how much this will be a disadvantage or if it is a disadvantage at all.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to share your opinion! :) 

[Healthygarden]

Hello,

Recent grad here. My impression is that you dont really get pigeonholed into anything -- ever, especially if you're just starting your career and figuring out what you like and who you are.

You'll learn along the way and if you find out (say, by helping out on a case or by attending a seminar) that you want to venture into that area of law, then be confident that that area of law (or anything really) is learnable.

In any case, the training you get in articles is transferrable across many types of law. In the first 5 years of practice we're still learning a lot.

TL;DR no you're not pigeonholed.

Good luck!

Edited August 10, 2021 by Healthygarden

[Phaedrus]

There are a number of reasons why a person gets pigeonholed (in law or otherwise). A major factor is the natural tendency to excel in one area or another, and under other external circumstances. This is mostly hearsay, but the majority of my early-career peers working in full-service firms feel pressure to narrow their practice down to a few areas. With an intense learning curve post-law school, it's easily overwhelming to delve into too many practice areas at once. If you're accepting a breadth of files from a breadth of lawyers, your ability to manage time/prioritize is going to be pushed (and if partners see you're struggling, OR if they see you excel in one area, they're going to nudge you toward making a choice). 

The big hurdle is switching gears down the road. You will need to sacrifice competence and income to practice in an area you might know little about, and that can feel like a huge gamble. You'll almost certainly be starting from the bottom again - financially speaking - and will need to get yourself up to working competency in a short amount of time. It's not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, but it requires being "new" again and accepting the downsides that come with that. This backstep is what leads a lot of lawyers to stay in their current role, even if they don't love the area. Over time, making the switch becomes harder and harder to justify. 

For now, embrace the opportunity to work on a variety of files and practice areas. Like @Healthygarden said, figure out the areas of law that do/do not interest you and take it from there.