Specialize or Generalize? Finding Your Niche in the Legal Landscape

The choice within any career path for what to become should always be dependent on a variety of factors. Personal interest, ability, training, experience, what skills for success to master and work availability are just a few of the more obvious factors, but taking the time to consider these things is an important step in carving a place for one’s abilities.

Doing so effectively is what enables the development of a niche in which to best serve the public and become successful. Here are some ways and things to think about when attempting to establish a niche in the legal landscape. 

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Legal landscape

Just as in the practice of medicine, there is the border, generalized engagement of the numerous systems and parts of the human body, so other sciences and industries maintain that spectrum of generalization to specialization. The practice of law is not immune to this. Therefore, those who practice law eventually face the choice of what segment of that spectrum of practice they fall into.

In the challenging world of establishing and building a small business, a fine line and constant measurement of the demand for specific services often determines the amount of work that is available. If starting out too specialized or narrow a focus, there may be a lack of work to be done. 

On the other hand, having to generalize a practice may cause the blurring of services with other competition in the area and thus run the risk of being lost in the crowd. Other well-established, reputable practices will very likely have a long-standing list of clients that come from referrals and past business.

The choice of whether to specialize or generalize in legal practice is almost as important as finding an accredited law school and should take many different factors into account.

Generalization

With generalization, those who operate this type of practice tend to enjoy and want to be able to service their customers in a borderless, less discriminatory practice. In this sense, they may offer legal services ranging from traffic law violations and personal injury suits to divorce and estate planning.

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Taking this approach means that there is much more knowledge to master and that continued learning will likely be a continuous factor. Some people find that stimulating, while others find that constant upkeep exhausting. 

This may be a very sound approach in a smaller community that perhaps has only a few law offices to the populous. In this regard, no matter the service being provided, there will be plenty of work to go around for years to come.

If, however, that same approach is taken in a larger, more established city, the number of competitors and their track record may impede the ability to create one’s own niche and name to grow. 

Specialization

The practice of law has become very complex and nuanced in the last decades with new technologies, services, products and policies that need to be understood. Entire new industries have grown out of the technological and financial sectors alone, and the ethics of practice means that there will usually be elements that need to be considered and protected legally.

The ever-evolving landscapes of the economy, and its interactions with social, political and international policies mean that there is a good chance a niche market will be established in the years to come. Those who are wise and savvy enough to recognize where and how the general and individual trends in overlapping industries and markets would be able to offer new, specialized services.

If done so at the right time, they might become one of the few firms that become the most respected and trusted practices handling nuanced issues.

Andrew Deen has been a consultant for startups in a number of industries from retail to medical devices and everything in between. He implements lean methodology and is currently writing a book about scaling up business.