Danger for a Niche Lawyer

Whether you are working at a law firm or in-house, being a niche lawyer can make you extremely valuable – but also put you in danger.  You have to weigh the pros and cons, and realize that many companies seeking in-house counsel are looking for an attorney who can handle multiple different types of matters and issues simultaneously:

“Lawyers are encouraged to have a niche, but yet niches come with dangers as well upsides.  Lawyers love niches….Niches enable a lawyer to do what they’re really good at – knowing more and more about less and less, until they get to a position where they know almost everything about the legal implications of a particular set of circumstances. This is a wonderfully secure position. Most lawyers suffer from the imposter syndrome, where they wonder how long it will be until the client realises that much of the lawyer’s knowledge is only a little more advanced than the client’s. Since knowledge is what most/many lawyers believes that they “sell” (a thought which is unpacked later in this blog), they believe they are only pretending to have great expertise – hence the imposter syndrome.  With a niche, however, they can relax when they face a client who needs their niche expertise. However, there are dangers that come with working in a niche…”

Read: The Dangers of Having a Niche at Pennington Hennessy

Photo by jfgornet