Types of Lawyers – The Top 10 Law

Types of Lawyers – The Top 10 Law
Practices

Created By: Cassandra White

• Whether you are seeking the assistance of a lawyer or contemplating going to law school,

there is a general confusion in the population as to what types of lawyers are there. Some
people assume that a lawyer is a lawyer, and so any lawyer will be able to provide whatever
legal services they need.

• While technically this is true because a lawyer is licensed to practice law (minus a few

exceptions where further licensing is required), the law is so vast and all-encompassing that
it is impossible for a single lawyer to effectively provide legal services across each different
area of law.

• Much like doctors, where there is a focus on a specific area of the body, specific age groups,

or specific types of ailments and diseases, lawyers typically specialize in one, or a few related
types of law.

Business Lawyer

• Business law is quite broad, and business

lawyers will often deal with several areas of law
discussed below, including employment,
intellectual property, and mergers and
acquisitions. Sometimes these lawyers just
focus on basic business legal tasks such as
forming your company, while others are more
encompassing and will work on all types of
business needs from employment issues to tax
compliance. Also, some lawyers focus only on
small businesses and startups, while others
focus on large enterprises.

Employment & Labour Lawyer

• Employment & Labor lawyers are exactly as
they sound; they handle issues relating to
employment. They mainly deal with making
sure businesses are complying with state and
federal labor laws. Much like corporate
lawyers, there are both litigation and
transactional employment lawyers.
Employment litigators are the ones who go
to court to argue when/if a business violated
the terms of an employment contract or state
law, while transactional employment lawyers
deal more with drafting the employment
documents themselves when an employee is
being hired. Some employment lawyers do
both litigation and transactional work.

Finance & Securities Lawyer

• Finance and Securities lawyers

only operate in a very specific
sector of law. They tend to only
deal with issues relating to banks
and individuals issuing money,
or to companies selling stock.
They can also help defend
clients if the IRS or SEC files a
complaint against a person or a
corporation.

Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyer (M&A)

• Mergers and acquisition (M&A)

lawyers deal with the buying and
selling of companies. The buying and
selling of major companies can be a
very long and complex process which
usually involves a team of lawyers.
M&A lawyers tend to be very well-
versed in finance and securities laws, as
well as tax law, to make sure they
structure the deals, aka the purchase or
sale of their client’s company,
correctly.

Estate Planning Lawyer

• Estate planning lawyers make sure your

family dealings are all in order if/when
something goes wrong. Their tasks range
from creating trusts for a child’s college fund
to drafting a will so your assets get distributed
appropriately to the members of your family
when you die. However, there are instances
where people do not have a will and their
assets have to go through Probate (court that
decides what happens to your assets after
death if you don’t have a will). In these
instances, there is a subset of family lawyers,
called Probate Lawyers, who argue where and
how those assets are distributed.

Tax Lawyer

• Tax lawyers usually help businesses and

individuals comply with state and federal
laws when filing their tax returns.
However, a larger proportion of these
lawyers actually go to court to defend
you if the IRS audits you and you face
potential jail time or significant fines.
Most individual tax lawyers also work in
estate planning in some fashion unless
they work in the tax department of a
large corporation.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

• Criminal defense lawyers help defend

people accused of committing a crime
against prosecution by the government,
with the goal of reducing their sentencing
or helping them stay out of jail. The crimes
handled by criminal defense lawyers range
from small offenses such as shoplifting to
more serious crimes such as DUI, drug
trafficking, assault and battery, or even
murder.

Traffic Lawyer

• These lawyers are usually very high-

volume lawyers in the sense that they
tend to have a lot clients on a daily basis
and they only perform one or a few
small tasks for each one. Traffic lawyers
will go to court on your behalf to fight
traffic citations or give you advice about
whether you have a chance to get out of
a speeding ticket or violation for
running a red light. Sometimes traffic
lawyers are also criminal lawyers who
will fight your DUI or DWI as well.

Personal Injury Lawyer

• Personal injury (PI) lawyers are the types of

lawyers that deal with accidents and injuries of
any nature. Personal injury lawyers get
involved when you are in a car accident, a
doctor misdiagnoses an illness, you had bad
side effects from a prescription drug that they
didn’t warn you about, you were injured by a
defective product, and more.

• This is probably the most common type of

attorney that you see advertising on TV, park
benches, bus stops, and everywhere else. Their
cases can lead to huge financial settlements or
judgments, usually involving insurance
companies.

Civil Litigation Lawyer

• A civil litigation lawyer is a very general

term that encompasses many other
more specific areas of law, including
real estate, employment, business, and
more. Civil litigation lawyers will
typically handle any type of litigation,
or lawsuit, that is non-criminal.
Therefore, anything from a landlord
issue to a breach of contract is handled
by these lawyers.

Thank You!