Practicing law can be a very rewarding experience for a motivated individual. However, it's important to understand the reality of today's legal world. Over the past 20 years, the number of new lawyers entering the marketplace has been very high. Because of this, many legal fields are saturated. Without specialization in a certain field, it can be difficult to find a good job as a lawyer. The following guide provides tips to help you decide what type of law to practice.
Personal injury lawyers are found in many cities across the United States. These lawyers focus on helping clients who were victims of an accident, malpractice or other incident that led to a decline in health and a significant monetary loss. Personal injury lawyers and compensation lawyers are essentially the same thing; however, compensation lawyers often focus on injuries that take place while an individual is employed at a company such as this case for example.
Tax lawyers help companies navigate the legal complexities of the United States tax code. Since large companies may face millions or billions of dollars in annual taxes, lawyers in this field usually have a very high salary. However, it does require a strong financial background. An undergraduate degree in economics or business can be helpful for lawyers pursuing this field. An MBA can also be a great way to make oneself stand out from the crowd.
Mass tort is the most profitable field for attorneys. While it can be difficult to start a legal practice in this field, some mass tort cases can net lawyers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mass tort lawyers bring legal action against last businesses and companies that offer a product or service that may bring harm to the consumer. For example, many construction companies at one time used asbestos in home construction. While asbestos-based materials were thought to be harmless at one time, advances in medical research and other technologies showed that asbestos caused significant harm to human lungs.
Asbestos are a naturally-occurring mineral that can be found in many parts of the world. Due to their favorable physical properties, they were often used in the construction of homes, vehicles, ships and appliances. However, asbestos have very small fibers that can become airborne under some situations.
When these airborne fibers were breathed in by construction workers, they lodged inside the cells of the lung. Once in the lungs, they interacted with DNA molecules inside. This led to a type of lung cancer known as mesothelioma.
Many people have seem mesothelioma commercials on television. Since these cases are very profitable for lawyers, many legal firms place significant numbers of advertisements on television, radio and the Internet.
Under the original mesothelioma mass tort case of the 1980s, workers who were diagnosed with mesothelioma received billions of dollars in settlement funds. Each claimant in these cases received hundreds of thousands of dollars for himself or herself. However, a significant part of these funds were consumed by legal fees. In most cases, lawyers will take up to one-third of the total settlement price in mass tort cases. According to some estimates, the asbestos scandal of the 1980s netted lawyers in the United States over $7 billion dollars.