Practice Interests

[MyWifesBoyfriend]

As an admit, I'm far removed from this concern right now, but I am currently working in a field (as a paralegal) that I'll likely not want to do after school. 

This is more of a question for articling students and current lawyers: Why and how did you find yourself in your current field of practice? 

I'm just curious as to how current practitioners chose (or found themselves) in their field or practice. 

[ZineZ]

On 1/26/2024 at 11:09 AM, MyWifesBoyfriend said:

As an admit, I'm far removed from this concern right now, but I am currently working in a field (as a paralegal) that I'll likely not want to do after school. 

This is more of a question for articling students and current lawyers: Why and how did you find yourself in your current field of practice? 

I'm just curious as to how current practitioners chose (or found themselves) in their field or practice. 

This could be a much longer story and I'll keep parts of it a bit more vague as its easy to put the pieces together to break any semblance of anonymity for me. 

I practice Aboriginal law - with a focus on governance and issues related to natural resources/the environment. 

The way I got here is a pretty long story, but the short version is through a lot of soul searching. I used to practice in a vastly different area and always had an interest in my current field, but I didn't know if it was for me. 

I had a conversation with someone who practices in this field during my articles and it clicked. By the time the 20 or so minutes were done (it was a networking event with a weird speed dating vibe - 20 minutes with each practitioner), I was pretty convinced that I wanted to do this work. And then I spent a lot of time working to build up my skills and knowledge to get there. I got lucky. 

I can't emphasize how much I love it. This is one of those cases where the practice wasn't one I originally expected to get into, but I can't imagine doing anything else. The work is interesting, meaningful and tough. It's always evolving and I get pretty giddy about some of the work I get to do. 

I could write paragraphs about this - but as an admit, take your time. Talk to folks in different areas and then decide where you want to go. And don't hesitate to switch streams if you need to. 

[MyWifesBoyfriend]

@ZineZ great post -- how did you go about building up your skills and knowledge in that specific area of Aboriginal Law while you were articling in another field?

On 1/27/2024 at 7:40 PM, ZineZ said:

And don't hesitate to switch streams if you need to. 

This has been a source of anxiety for me. How easy is it to switch practice areas early on in your career? I know later on in your career you're typically stuck in your field of practice unless you want to start all over again. 

Edited February 8 by MyWifesBoyfriend

[WhoKnows]

On 1/26/2024 at 11:09 AM, MyWifesBoyfriend said:

As an admit, I'm far removed from this concern right now, but I am currently working in a field (as a paralegal) that I'll likely not want to do after school. 

This is more of a question for articling students and current lawyers: Why and how did you find yourself in your current field of practice? 

I'm just curious as to how current practitioners chose (or found themselves) in their field or practice. 

I'll keep some parts vague-ish, but do my best. Throughout law school, you'll hear from a lot of practitioners that they kind of just fell into their area of practice. I never really understood how that was possible, then it happened to me. 

I'm a banking lawyer. I did a major M&A transaction in articling that showed me that I like deal work - specifically the pace of it. I started practicing there and while I liked the pace and a lot of the macro stuff, I didn't love the more generalist nature of the practice or the actual legal work.

During a meeting I mentioned off hand to a partner that I was interested in financing work. Their eyes lit up - turns out the firm needed a financing associate. I got introduced to a bunch of partners, work started flowing, and it turns out it works for me. There's a good balance of transaction deal pace and heavy technical drafting and structuring I like. I get to be a respected specialist called in to solve problems which feels good. My clients pay their bills and generally speaking counter parties are sophisticated and unemotional.

It has its drawbacks (I'm not a natural morning person and it kinda requires you to be), but overall it has been a good shift. 

[ZineZ]

On 2/8/2024 at 10:15 AM, MyWifesBoyfriend said:

@ZineZ great post -- how did you go about building up your skills and knowledge in that specific area of Aboriginal Law while you were articling in another field?

This has been a source of anxiety for me. How easy is it to switch practice areas early on in your career? I know later on in your career you're typically stuck in your field of practice unless you want to start all over again. 

Sorry for not having responded, I totally missed this notification.

Some high-level notes:

• I pretty aggressively started to network in related fields and tried to learn everything I could about both practice and how they liked it. Those conversations - and my notes from them - were invaluable. And I know for a fact that they were a big reason I landed one position in particular that I loved.
• I had done relevant courses in law school, but I also also registered for every relevant CPD to build my knowledge base. 

Keep in mind that your field of practice will often have transferrable skills that apply in other places. It's not common, but neither is it uncommon, to switch your practice area. You'll see more and more of it once you're further along the line.