As a lawyer, it is impossible for you to learn everything out there.
However, you can go very far if you take up one specific area of work and focus your energy on that.
What are you going to focus on?
Irrespective of your seniority, you definitely need to target a practice area where there will be big demand in the future so that your chances of success are higher.
Then you are going to work on learning skills in that area and build a track record.
What are the practice areas where there is a high demand and very low supply?
Let me give you a few examples.
1 – Tax
Tax is my favourite area of specialisation for someone who wants to get into a law firm.
Guess why?
Because demand for tax lawyers is steadily growing.
Every big company needs tax lawyers at some point or the other, especially given that the taxman in India is known to be aggressive and tax law keeps getting more complicated.
Formalisation has led to increasing tax revenues for the government. Government is using AI at its backend to obtain financial information, leading to increased tax proceedings!
But most lawyers are afraid of tax.
It is considered a very niche practice with very few lawyers or law students showing interest in tax law.
Most think that it involves a lot of maths and stay far away from it.
This means competition in tax law is super low!
We discovered this right at the beginning of our journey in legal education, as our students who had a knack for tax law were quicker to get jobs and internships!
2 – Tech law
Another very good area of specialisation is tech law. The tech sector, as you know, is growing superfast.
Indian startups are growing really fast, and many are taking over the world. Build in India and sell to developed economies is a standard model followed by Zoho, Freshworks, Chargebee, Gupshup and several other SAAS startups.
Fintech has grown at a scorching pace. Innovative de-fi and fintech companies are going to keep a lot of finance lawyers busy!
There are more than 6000 fintech companies in India already as per Invest India. All of them have heavy duty legal work.
This is another niche with very little competition!
Do you see any law students in their 4th or 5th year, or even experienced lawyers with good knowledge of technology laws? Most people have no clue what it is about.
You may of course know about the growth of sectors like agritech, fintech, edutech etc.
Tech law work is growing in 4 distinct areas:
- Tech contracts
- Regulation of emerging tech – every emerging tech industry is either already regulated or looking at future regulation (for example drones, crypto, online media, fintech, telemedicine, e-commerce, etc)
- Data protection and privacy
- Public policy
- Disputes related to the tech industry
All other practice areas also have tech clients, whether competition, tax, or anything else.
Tech is the defining growth area of our times. There is a massive growth opportunity and headroom for growth ahead.
If you want to choose the fastest-growing area of practice, you should choose tech.
Not only would there be lots of jobs in tech law, but due to the non-availability of proper training not many lawyers know about it.
Many of them think that knowledge of the Information Technology Act would make them good tech lawyers! This is less than 1% of the work.
Outside of LawSikho, barely anyone is teaching this in any form in India although there is tremendous potential here.
#3 – Corporate transactions – investments, M&A, joint ventures
Another major area of practice is corporate transactions. The largest teams in most big law firms are in this area of work.
Money never sleeps. Deals never go out of fashion.
Whether the economy is good or bad, deals are always happening.
This is a major area of law practice for law firms, and what you hear about as “corporate law practice”.
Its growth potential is massive as venture capital and private equity investments are increasing in India. Corporate transactional lawyers are needed whether investors invest money or look for exits.
The growth of venture capital and startups is the most important factor in the growth of investment lawyering as well as M&A.
There are 4 types of work these lawyers do as well, which you will have to learn if you want to be a corporate transactional lawyer:
- Deal structuring
- Due diligence
- Documentation (contracts) and negotiation
- Deal compliance
Do you think if you learn how to do these things beforehand you can have a good shot at obtaining internships?
If you are a practising lawyer and you want to work in a law firm, you can also get opportunities to work in law firms – you need to assist domestic and international startups with such work.
#4 – IP, Media and Entertainment
What is the industry apart from tech that grew like wildfire during the pandemic?
Media and entertainment of course.
(This industry is currently 1.5 billion dollars)
IP filings, prosecution and licensing work is increasing due to formalisation and digitisation, which is accelerated by the pandemic!
Does a career as an IP, media and entertainment lawyer fascinate you? Then it is a great idea to explore as this is another area of law practice that has immense potential.
Here are the skills you need to learn to be a successful lawyer in this space:
- IP registration, prosecution and infringement action
- IP and media contracts and licensing work
- Regulatory vetting and advisory
- IP & Disputes – supplementary – they grow with business
There are other practice areas too. However, jobs in those areas are not as many as these practice areas.
We strongly suggest that you pick one of these areas and prepare yourself if you are truly interested in working in a law firm.