How can you Move Into a New Practice Area, and When Should you Do It?

Getting a graduate job as a lawyer is a challenge in the first place. And if you’re fortunate enough to get a decent job, the chances are slim that it’s going to be exactly in the legal area that you’ve dreamt about since Intro to Law 101.

There are two main reasons for this:

1. Most people are just glad to have a job of any kind and will take whatever’s offered to them (or whatever practice rotations are offered), irrespective of the area of law; and
2. You probably won’t really know which legal area you might like to practice in until you’ve done it for a bit. There is, after all, a big difference between things that are theoretically awesome and things that are awesome in practice: practising law is very different from studying law.

Over time, many young lawyers find themselves yearning for a change though. Perhaps they didn’t start in their desired area, or perhaps they’ve realised what they thought they wanted to specialise in they actually really dislike practicing.

But can you realistically change practice areas? Here are three ways it might be done.

The Path of Least Resistance – a Niche or change of firm (and focus)

Some moves are harder than others, and the easiest way you can change things up is going to be through a sharper specialisation (or move to a firm with a different focus) inside your existing area.

What do we mean by that?

Often you’ll start in a fairly broad practice space, doing what needs to be done for a variety of people. You might be in “property” or “commercial litigation” or “insurance”.

These are all broad practice areas, and within them are an array of additional niche areas.

For example, “Property” might become “leases” or “hospitality/liquor licensing” or “development”.

“Commercial litigation” might become “construction litigation” or “insolvency litigation”.

You get the idea – the path of least resistance is going to be to drill down into a sub-specialisation of your existing practice area.

The other way to think about that sharper specialisation might actually involve thinking about the type of firm you are working for and therefore the clients and type of work you are doing.

For example, it might be that you are in property law in a smaller or mid tier law firm but not enjoying juggling so many files. A move to a top tier or large national law firm that will allow you to work on very big property transactions may solve your issue.

Though not moving practice area per se, the difference in practice can be stark from one firm to another.

An Internal Move

If you’re in a multi-disciplinary firm, and not presently in an area vaguely related to where you want to be, then you might be able to seek an internal move to another group.

This could be complicated to manage. The first step is going to be floating the idea with someone in power that you trust and seeing if they have any guidance for you.

If you have no real experience in the new area, then you need to appreciate what the economic impact of your request is. You’re basically asking your firm to:

1. Re-train you in a new area – meaning that you’ll become an unprofitable fee earner for a time, just like you were when you first started;
2. Let your existing group lose the benefit of your expertise and experience, and take a cultural hit as a result;
3. Spend money finding a new lawyer to fill your spot – which normally comes at considerable expense.

While these things are not insurmountable, you need to approach your request with some appreciation of the realities of what you’re asking them to do for you.

If you have established yourself as an invaluable member of the firm, then you might find them more willing to help.

But you might also face a bit of push back seeking to move internally, and it could take some time and persuasion to make it happen.

Change Firms and Change Area at the Same Time

As you’d expect, the challenge of applying for a job at a new firm in a new practice area is that you don’t have the expertise to match your seniority.

You’ll effectively be applying as a very junior solicitor in the new area unless you can demonstrate some kind of relationship between your experience and the new space you want to move to.

This means that you’ll probably have to take a pay cut.

That said, there’s some comfort for an employer hiring a lawyer who’s had experience in another area. They know, at least, that you can function in a team, work as a lawyer, and have experience serving clients. These intangible skills count for something and can’t be ignored totally.

They just have to be weighed against your lack of technical knowledge in the area, and how much training you’re going to need to come up to speed.

There are strategies you can adopt that may also increase your chances of changing practice areas. These include:

1. Moving into an area which can at least use some of your transferrable skills. For example, a recent move we helped facilitate was for a litigator who wanted to move into construction. We secured them a role in a construction team that was 50% construction litigation and 50% construction drafting. The firm was attracted to their litigation skills which were transferrable and the lawyer was interested in the construction litigation focus and on picking up the drafting skills.
2. Determining what the most in demand areas with the biggest skills shortages are, and so which law firms will be the most flexible on their requirements for their next team member. A recruiter can often help you here to determine where these demand areas currently exist.
3. Considering moving down a tier – a top tier trained lawyer may be very attractive to a mid tier or boutique law firm who are more interested in your skills and cultural fit than your technical knowledge.

When Should you Make the Move?

Probably the best sweet spot for changing areas is in the 2-3 year post admission range.

Here you:

• Have some sound legal experience and demonstrated skills that are transferable;
• Hopefully, have established yourself in a firm and can have some good references if required;
• Might have seen the other practice areas functioning, and so can make an informed decision about what you want to do; and
• At a practical level, don’t likely have massive accumulated financial obligations, and so taking a haircut on your take-home pay won’t make the decision impossible. Equally, you are not too “expensive” yet for a firm to “retrain” you.

As you wait longer, it’s going to become harder to make a dramatic change as your reputation inside your area and your income (and expenses) grow. Even then it’s not impossible, it’s just harder.

Ready to Move?

If an internal move isn’t possible for you or you are not sure how your existing technical skills might transfer and you’re looking for a change, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.  We are happy to assist you to determine what other areas you might be able to transfer to, what firms to target and hopefully help you make that transition.