LegalJob has mentioned in Making Partner and on this blog the importance of picking a major as the first step in pursuing a legal job.  This step can open up opportunities for you when networking as you target your meetings with people who are practicing in the area you have identified and you later reference what you learned in your interviews as a way of demonstrating your sincere interest level and seriousness of purpose.

So how do you start?  What major should you pick if you have no idea what you want to do?  As mentioned in previous posts, reading a paper and watching Congress highlights the heavy activity in regulatory areas such as tax, securities, financial services, health care, intellectual property, etc.  These areas seem to have lots of job opportunities as demand is outpacing supply.

There are also some up and coming practice areas that are worth exploring. Take a look at this blog which discusses eleven hot practices areas such as digital asset planning, privacy law, nontraditional family practice, marijuana law, wine law, robotics, etc.  The author notes that each of these areas provide lots of job opportunities, staying power, are growth industries, have relative ease of entry, and have wide geographic scope.

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