 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Civil Law
Criminal Law
Employment and Labor Law
Entertainment Law
Environmental Law
Family Law
Federal Indian/Tribal Law
Intellectual Property Law
International Law
Litigation
Military Law
Personal Injury
Real Estate Law
Transactional Law
Constitutional Law
Constitutional law is a type of law that governs the scope of powers and authority of governments and guarantees rights to individuals and groups. In the U.S., constitutional law may focus on the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, or a state or U.S. territory constitution. Attorneys practicing constitutional law assist their clients in asking courts to enforce and interpret these powers and rights, which include the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the freedom of the press, the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to a speedy and public jury trial, due process, and equal protection under the law.
Constitutions are often more vague than statutes and are open to different interpretations. This means that different individuals and groups have different ideas and beliefs regarding what a constitution prohibits or requires. Therefore, many lawsuits involving constitutional issues require a court to interpret a constitutional provision to determine what the constitutional text means, and if it is unclear, what the drafters of the provision intended to protect or prohibit.
Civil Law
Civil law is a very broad category of law that governs the rights and relationships between private individuals or entities, such as corporations. Civil law governs how people must act towards each other, other than laws preventing crimes, and establishes a method whereby individuals can be held accountable for wrongful conduct, such as through the payment of damages. Attorneys dealing with civil law assist clients with personal injury claims, employment claims, environmental law issues, wills, trusts, drafting contracts and resolving contract disputes, mortgages, titles, leases, and a list of other types of claims and issues that would fill many more pages.
Criminal Law
Criminal law consists of national, state, and local statutory and common laws that criminalize specific conduct or actions by individuals or entities and provide defenses to actions that would otherwise constitute a crime. These laws establish penalties for the violation of criminal laws designed to punish, to deter future criminal conduct, and to rehabilitate certain offenders. Criminal law may consist of minor crimes, such as traffic violations, or more serious offenses, such as murder, rape, burglary, robbery, assault, and manslaughter.
Unlike civil law, where litigation is often prosecuted and defended by two private parties, in a criminal case the government is one party and an individual or entity is the other party. A criminal law case is generally instituted by a complaint or indictment, which may be issued by a grand jury or by a government prosecutor depending upon the jurisdiction.
Once a criminal proceeding has been initiated, the government's case, which attempts to obtain a conviction, is presented by a prosecutor. The criminal defendant is represented by a private attorney that he or she has hired or, if he or she cannot afford an attorney, by a public defender who is appointed by the court. The Seventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees criminal defendant the right to legal counsel.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys present the facts to the trier of facts, usually a jury, and argue the law to a judge in an effort to either obtain a conviction or an acquittal (dismissal). In addition, prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys attempt to workout pleas (settlements) without a trial that will potentially have a defendant admit guilt for a reduced sentence. Once a criminal trial is completed, an appeal may be filed by the losing side in an appellate court.
In addition to representing criminal defendants in court, attorneys practicing criminal law also teach and advise
governmental agencies regarding criminal law and advise individuals and corporations regarding the requirements of the law and regarding compliance with criminal laws. Criminal attorneys may also conduct internal investigations for clients to ensure compliance with state and federal law, and to avoid a government enforcement action or prosecution.
Employment and Labor Law
Employment and labor law is a body of law that includes statutes, administrative rules and common law, and that addresses the legal rights of workers and their employers. Issues involved in employment and labor law cases might include issues and disputes regarding wages, hours, unlawful termination, child labor, workplace safety, work place injury and disease, family and related leave, pension and benefit plans, the right to unionize, regulations of and negotiations with union employees, sexual harassment, discrimination based upon race, gender, age, and disabilities, and government civil service systems.
Attorneys practicing employment and labor law might represent an individual employee, a group of employees, job applicants, a union, union employees, government workers, a large or small business or organization, a government agency, or interest groups.
Entertainment Law
Entertainment law generally consists of legal issues affecting television, films, recordings, live performances and various other aspects of the entertainment industry. A related field of law is sports law. Entertainment law may involve employment law issues, such as employment contracts between actors and studios, labor law issues affecting trade unions, and intellectual property law, such as the protection of creative works such as new songs and the collection of royalties.
Entertainment lawyers may assist their clients in negotiating contracts for a record deal or for appearing in a movie, may ensure that their songwriting client obtains the correct amount of royalties for the songs he or she has written, or may go to court to litigate many issues involving the entertainment industry, including disputes over ideas for movies or songs.
Environmental law
Environmental law consists primarily of state and federal statutes intended to protect the environment, wildlife, and land, to prevent pollution or over-cutting of forests, to save endangered species and conserve water, and to develop and follow general plans for preventing damaging practices. In addition, these laws regulate the use of natural resources and the operation of businesses that affect the environment. Some key statutes in an environmental law practice are the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.
Environmental attorneys may work for the national government, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a state or local government, a public interest or conservation group (such as the Sierra Club), individuals, or companies whose business is regulated or may affect the environment (such as construction companies, mining companies, or waste disposal companies). Environmental attorneys may help clients prepare and file for licenses and applications from the government, represent clients in administrative actions, or go to court to challenge the legality of a rule change, governmental action, or the conduct of a private individual or company.
Family Law
Family law encompasses many family and domestic related issues and subjects. Generally family law involves issues related to marriage and children. Family law often involves some of the most complicated and hotly disputed issues in the law because the items at issue, such as children and personal property, are very personal and important to clients seeking assistance from a family law attorney.
A family law attorney may be asked to advise a couple on issues related to marriage, divorce, civil unions, common law marriage, alimony, child custody and visitation, parental responsibilities, adoption, property settlement, elder law and the caring for elderly individuals and relatives. A family law attorney may be required to go to court to represent a client in an adversarial court proceeding, such as a divorce, or may focus on the negotiation and drafting of agreements and legal documents.
Federal Indian/Tribal Law
Federal Indian Law is the practice of law dealing with the unique legal status, authority, and rights of federally recognized tribal governments. This type of law addresses the relationship between and among tribal, federal, and state governments and the nature and status of tribes and their land. Issues involved in Federal Indian Law and Tribal Law include tribal courts and their lawmaking authority (including effects on non-tribal laws and land); the environmental regulation of tribal land and the ownership and use of the natural resources on tribal land; the protection of tribal religion and cultural property; water, fishing and hunting rights; casinos and economic development. In addition, Federal Indian Law includes the rights and obligations under treaties between the federal government and tribal governments, including the federal government's trust responsibilities.
Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property law encompasses a variety of legal issues concerning patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, industrial designs and many other issues. Generally, intellectual property law pertains to property rights that derive from an individual or company's creative work. For example, intellectual property law may protect a person's invention, song, script, movie, lyrics, poem, or book. Individuals create new books, works, and inventions every day. Intellectual property law protects a person's right to his or her creations so that he or she can profit from them, which in turn encourages other individuals to invent new machines or to write new songs and books, thereby benefiting society.
An intellectual property lawyer may help to obtain a trademark, copyright, or patent for an inventor or author's work or may prepare licenses and contracts that allow others to use the invention or material for a fee. In addition, an intellectual property lawyer may go to court to stop a person from wrongfully using a trademark, a patented invention or copyrighted material. Similarly, intellectual property attorneys may represent a company in suing a former employee in order to prevent him or her from using trade secrets that he or she obtained while working for that company, such as a recipe or a customer list.
International Law
International law is a broad category of law. International law may refer to the laws between nations, such as treaties, or laws governing the conduct of nations. Public international law regulates the relationship between states and international entities, regulates competing demands, and establishes the framework for predictable and agreed behavior among parties. International law may also involve the relationships and business dealings of individuals and entities that are located in or operate in different or multiple countries. For example, a U.S. based company, such as Coca-Cola, may have contractual disputes with its distributors in the United Kingdom or France that involve an analysis and application of the laws of more than one country.
An attorney practicing in international law may work for the government, such as the U.S. State Department, for a law firm, or in-house for a business that conducts business internationally. Such an attorney may be responsible for negotiating a treaty, advising the government regarding its obligations and rights under a treaty, negotiating a commercial or real estate contract, or advising a company regarding the law of a nation in which the company is or is considering conducting business. In addition, an attorney practicing international law may attempt to resolve international disputes or commercial disputes involving international law in U.S. courts, in the courts of other countries, or through international arbitration. Some subsets of international law include international human rights, humanitarian law, admiralty law, environmental law, trade law and international criminal law.
Litigation
Litigation is a very broad type of practice that involves many different types of law. Rather than being a specific type of law, litigation is more of a description of what an attorney is able and willing to do, which is to resolve disputes in court, through arbitration or mediation, or through out of court settlements. Unlike transactional law, which is focused on negotiating and structuring business deals and drafting contracts, litigation is the way many individuals and entities resolve problems after they have arisen.
Generally, litigators help resolve conflicts between different people and entities before and after they occur. Litigators handle issues that could land their clients in court: breaches of contract, fraud actions, defective products, securities-law violations, class-action lawsuits, antitrust actions, employment-related problems, white-collar crime, and the like. Other general areas of law include appellate work (litigation that occurs after a trial), criminal law, environmental and natural resources law, family and juvenile law, bankruptcy, health law, intellectual property law, international law, tax law, and civil rights law.
Military Law
Military law is a distinct legal system that governs members of the armed forces. Military law deals with issues such as military discipline and obligations of service personnel. Military law in the U.S. is controlled by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and is implemented by the Manual for Court's Martial, or by Executive Order from the President. Although military law generally applies only to members of the armed forces, it may be applied to civilian populations in a time of war, civil unrest or an emergency.
Military law is generally conducted by attorneys who are officers in the active U.S. military, the National Guard, or the reserves, although private attorneys may also practice military law, such as representing a soldier in a court martial proceeding. A person engaged in the practice of military law may prosecute or defend members of the military in criminal trials in court-martials, advise officers and soldiers regarding their responsibilities under military law, and draft and revise military law.
Personal Injury
Personal injury law is a type of tort law. Attorneys practicing personal injury law attempt to collect damages to compensate individuals who have been injured or to compensate the family or relatives of an individual who has been killed. There are many different types of ways that a person can be injured or killed. For example, a person might be injured or killed by a car wreck, by slipping on a wet floor at a supermarket, by using a defective or unsafe product, by being bit by a dog, by an airplane crash, or by heavy equipment while working at a construction site. The potential ways a person may be injured or killed are too many to name.
If a person is injured or killed because of the negligent or intentional conduct of another person or entity, then the injured person or the family of a person who has been killed may be entitled to recover damages to compensate them for their pain and suffering, their medical expenses, their mental anguish, and a loss of income. In some cases, a person may also be able to recover punitive damages that are designed to punish a wrongdoer and cause others to make safer products or to act in a safer manner. Personal injury attorneys negotiate with companies or their insurers in an effort to obtain a settlement payment for an injured person or his or her family, and file lawsuits to recover damages when a settlement cannot be reached.
Real Estate Law
Real estate law generally involves anything dealing with real property (land). Real estate law involves laws designed to determine who owns land and the buildings on it, who has a right to possess and use land or buildings, the sale and purchase of real property, landlord and tenant issues, the development of real property, and compliance with local, state or national regulations affecting the use of real property.
An attorney practicing real estate law may focus on contractual issues (transactional law) by drafting and reviewing contracts, including contracts for the sale of real property, leases, and easements that allow a person to use or travel across a particular portion of property. Some real estate attorneys may be more focused on litigation issues, such as determining the ownership of land in court, challenging or enforcing easements, seeking to allow the specific development of property or trying to prevent or alter a planned development of real property. In addition, an attorney practicing real estate law may focus on a specific type of real estate law or a related area of law, such as oil and gas or natural resources law.
Transactional Law
Transactional law, like litigation, is a broad category of law that encompasses many different types of law. Rather than being a set type of law, transactional law generally refers to the broad category of work that an attorney does. For example, a strict transactional attorney will likely focus on negotiating and preparing contracts and arranging real estate deals and is unlikely to ever litigate a case in court. Transactional attorneys deal with a wide range of business issues: corporate financing, contracts, mergers & acquisitions, bankruptcy, and the like. The goal of transactional work is to help businesses make deals and to avoid future legal problems.
