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Changing practice requires careful thought, planning

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//October 20, 2011//

Changing practice requires careful thought, planning

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//October 20, 2011//

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By Nancy Crotti
Dolan Newswires

There are at least three times in one’s career when a lawyer must choose a practice area: before graduation from law school; when the chosen practice area becomes overcrowded or business dries up; and when the practice area is no longer interesting.

Ideally, each situation will spur some self-examination, a feasibility study and a determination of how much marketing will be involved to make a change

“People need to approach it like they’re a real business,” said LaVern Pritchard, a Minneapolis lawyer who runs Pritchard Law Webs, publisher of lawmoose.com, an online Minnesota legal resource. “A real business that was going to go into some field would do a feasibility study to see if this makes sense. How many lawyers already practice in this area? Where are they located? How much business is there?”

In a 2010 Minnesota Continuing Legal Education survey of solo and small-firm lawyers, 8 percent of  262 respondents  said they would attempt to change their primary practice area in the next 12 months.

Another 10 percent said “maybe,” Pritchard reported. “You get a little indication here that things are just not 100 percent stable on various dimensions.”

The economy may have quite a bit to do with choosing a practice area. Bankruptcy law, which has been a hot field since the onset of the recession in 2008, might still look attractive but also quite crowded and about to taper off.

“If everybody gets in there and crowds it, you have to think about how to market yourself against that group of people,” said Shaun Jamison, a St. Louis Park solo practitioner who specializes in estate planning.

“When I first got out of law school it was the 1993 recession, and I picked a practice area that I was familiar with and had low entry cost,” said Jamison, who first worked in family and criminal law. “It was a good choice, plus you get a lot of practice.”

As chairman of the practice management and marketing section of the Minnesota Bar Association, he recommended that lawyers who want to change their practice mid-stream should consider their strengths, do their research and have a plan to bring in business. Law students should shadow someone in a field they’re considering to see what it’s really like day-to-day.

“There are certain personalities that work better for different practice areas,” Jamison added. “If you have a lot of trouble dealing with a certain kind of clientele, it’s not going to be a good experience.”

Roy S. Ginsburg is a Minneapolis lawyer who has made a career out of helping other lawyers figure out what type of law they should be practicing. “I want to figure out where the person’s passion is or where they think their passion is,” said Ginsburg, who refers to himself as a lawyer coach. “I’m a strong believer in, ‘You need to enjoy thoroughly and passionately what you do.’”

Once a lawyer pinpoints a passion, he or she must determine if there’s a market for that practice area and then determine if he or she has the skill set to succeed in that practice area.

“If they’re a young attorney, they may not have it,” Ginsburg said. “Then I work with that attorney to figure out to what extent you can satisfy that with CLEs.”

Another way to get experience is to do pro bono work with an organization such as the Volunteer Lawyers Network in Hennepin County. VLN offers lawyers the opportunity to volunteer in administrative, bankruptcy, civil, criminal, expungement, debtor/creditor, employment, family, housing and real estate law.

Another way to find a niche is to keep up with the news.

“There could be lots of opportunities in banking, health care and energy because Washington is doing lots of new regulations there,” Ginsburg said.

To protect themselves from entering a limited practice area or as an alert that their practice area may be changing, lawyers should also keep abreast of state legislation and Supreme Court cases. Ginsburg referred to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have limited the effectiveness of class actions in employment and consumer areas. He also said certain states have recently capped the amount of damages that juries may award plaintiffs in personal injury cases.

How long does it take to figure this out and establish a new practice area? “It depends on your skill set, how the market is going to develop and how experienced you are,” Ginsburg said. “There’s no particular time frame. It could take six months and with others it can take six years to build a practice.”

Pritchard had some final words to those looking to find the right niche. “If it’s not true to who you are, you’re never going to be good at it,” he said. “It’s better to be in tune with who you really are and get your professional life aligned around those axes.”

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