{"id":1863,"date":"2021-06-29T09:16:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T09:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/louisliaw.com\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2025-08-28T16:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T16:16:18","slug":"generalise-or-specialise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/louisliaw.com\/staging\/generalise-or-specialise\/","title":{"rendered":"Generalise or Specialise?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
As I grow in my career, my views on this subject (which is always a hot topic amongst young lawyers) are also changing.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
When I first joined the profession, I consciously chose my previous firm because of the boss that I would be working for and the fact that I would be practising general litigation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The former is a story for another day, but the latter, was because I deliberately wanted to be exposed to different areas of law and experience different areas of practice.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to lay a solid foundation for my career, in the sense that I can run any files that come into the firm (or my firm one day).<\/p>\n

Moreover, I did not have a particularly passionate area of law, and frankly am interested in all of them. So why not just look around as I search for the one?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t regret my choice at all, even to date. However, there are shortcomings to that strategy that must be acknowledged. Amongst them are:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. It\u2019s not easy to be remembered, because you\u2019re not known for any particular area of practice. When people face a certain problem, you\u2019d not be the first to come across their mind.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. It\u2019s hard to charge a premium for your services. Because a) you\u2019re not a \u201cspecialist\u201d by perception, and b) you\u2019re not the \u201cspecialist\u201d by substance i.e. you don\u2019t necessarily know things that other lawyers don\u2019t know.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  3. Mastery is hard, the upward cycle where you have a constant feedback loop is hard to create. This is not the same for lawyers who specialise. For example, Intellectual property lawyer \u2192 does IP work \u2192 gets asked IP questions \u2192 improves knowledge on IP \u2192 gets interviewed on IP\u2192 improves knowledge on IP \u2192 gives good IP answers and advice \u2192 gets more IP work \u2192 improves knowledge on IP \u2192 gets known for IP work \u2192 gets more interviews and questions on IP \u2192 improves knowledge on IP \u2192 gets more IP work, and the positive cycle repeats.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. You become too expensive for what you can offer,thus making you less employable. For example, when you want to join another firm in your 4th year, while you may be a decent lawyer, you don\u2019t have any particular expertise to offer to a new firm; you can do anything but you\u2019re not a master in anything. So why should the new law firm hire you instead of grooming their own pupil or 2nd-year associate? On the other hand, we often see a 3rd year or 4th year associate who is specialised in an area of law, i.e. banking litigation leaving his firm, to join another firm as their junior partner\/head of banking litigation. This associate has a unique skill set to offer to a firm, and which will widen the practice of the firm.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  5. You can\u2019t leverage on your partners If everyone in your law firm does general litigation, everyone is in effect competing against each other, let alone cross-selling and cross-referring of work. On the other hand, if you\u2019re a specialist in a big law firm, and your 5 other partners are also specialists, each of you can refer to your partner a file that you have no expertise but your partner does.\u00a0 This means if that 5 of you have 100 loyal clients each, you\u2019re looking not at 100 but 500 potential clients as a result of cross-referral.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019m sure there are other advantages but let\u2019s digest these for now.<\/p>\n

    Of course, this is not to say that having a general practice is bound to fail, of course not. There are so many successful and respectable general practitioners out there. In fact, many top counsel of the country do not specialise in an area of law.<\/p>\n

    These points are just for your consideration, particularly if you\u2019re a pupil \/ young lawyer, who feel you\u2019re at a crossroad in need of some guidance.<\/p>\n

    However, these are the reasons, amongst others, that I begin to believe in specialisation, and thus my focus on Employment and Industrial Relations Law. To know my areas of practice, please visit Areas of Practice.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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