There is no shortage of private citizens and businesses in the UK, which at some point in time need a law firm. Fortunately, there are plenty to choose from. What does create a challenge is which law firm they should choose? Many of them are specialising in different areas of the law.
Newer Specialties
With all that modern technology is bringing about, it is also creating the need for new areas of law which need representation.
A good example is the legal issues which Brexit is creating. In turn, this is demanding a need for lawyers who now have to specialise in this area of law to meet the requirements. Other newer areas of law that are emerging are:
- Fintech: This is the law for the integration of finance and technology
- Drones: These are now available for public use. It means that legal issues are surfacing and lawyers have to bring themselves up to speed for this eventuality
- Surrogacy and Fertility: Thanks to the advancement of medicine, new avenues of law are surfacing
- Islamic financing
- Cybersecurity
- Transgender
And more could be added to this shortlist
Standard Specialties
There is a long list of standard specialities of law. It is unlikely that any one lawyer would be practising each of them. This is the reason that many law firms have several lawyers on staff, with each of them representing the firm with their chosen speciality. Some firms make the decision to stick with just one area of law and will still retain several lawyers if it is a busy practice. Some examples of standard specialities are:
- Criminal Law: This is a huge legal field. In many instances, it will be broken down to where lawyers specialise in one specific area of criminal law. Some of the sub specialities in this field of law are:
- Strict liability
- Fatal offences
- Personal offences
- Property offences
- Participatory offences
- Family Law: Another widespread area of law that deals with issues such as divorce, custody, and property
- Tax Law: For both personal and business entities that are having difficulties with taxes
A good portion of legal specialities is comprised of various different types of law practices that deal with a variety of business entities. Among the list of these are:
- Litigation
- Sports law
- Intellectual property law
- Insurance law
- Employment law
While these focus around business entities, there can also be private citizen involvement. This means that there will be lawyers who specialise in representing private citizens, then another collection of lawyers who represent businesses.
Deciding on a Specialty
Every lawyer goes through a standard roster of training to become a professional. Then, from there, they can extend their studies to specialise in the field which appeals to them. It is certainly not uncommon for a new lawyer to start out in one speciality, then decide to switch over to another. For example, some may start out in criminal law as a prosecutor, then transition over to the Public Defender Services, then eventually go into private practice.
Choosing a Lawyer
Those who require legal representation have to do their research and choose lawyers who apply to the case at hand. For example, if an individual person has been charged with a DUI offence, then they may want a lawyer who represents with regard to criminal law but practices this as a sub speciality.