What a great article. What about someone like me who graduated from law school a few years ago, practiced in a nonprofit agency, and now works for the federal government doing quasi legal work dealing w/ contract negotiations, modifying, and drafting legal documents? is there a niche for me? I live in OK and I’ve been trying to get a job in the federal government as an attorney in acquisitions law for years, but to no avail. My background before law school was in special education. Any advice? I really enjoy helping those who can’t help themselves.

I enjoyed your article immensely! It is very positive and encouraging. I am a third year law student and I am preparing to take a bar, but I am not sure where. In terms of practicing, did you select your area based on your law school classes ? And what influenced you the most?

Sorry I am so late in responding to your comment. Just wanted to say that with all those areas you can narrow the niche by determining what types of people/businesses you will serve. I am pretty sure Chigozie is a Nigerian name (please correct me if I’m wrong – I spent some time in Lagos), so maybe with immigration you could focus on immigration law for people from Nigeria or even West Africa. However, I still think that is a bit broad. It may be better to focus on immigration for Nigerians emigrating to the US for education purposes. You could possibly create relationships with colleges in the US, who attract international students from West Africa as referral sources. I think that would be very appealing to foreign students trying to navigate the US immigration system. I have several good friends from Nigeria who attended school here and many of them would have loved to have such a resource.

Hope that helps!

One way to narrow franchise law is to focus on particular types of franchises. Something that comes to mind is franchises related to children such as after school centers, like Kumon, or art and/or music businesses for children. To narrow it even further, you could focus on Mompreneurs who are interested in purchasing or already own a franchise. Or Mompreneurs who want to franchise their kid-focused business. That is quite narrow and would be very appealing to those covered by the niche. That’s just one example, but I hope that helps you see how you can narrow down your practice areas to be really exciting to the folks in your niche.

There is no denying, when fully and properly used, the niche practice concept is an unbeatable way to develop a practice. It provides structure around which a lawyer can engage in a coherent marketing campaign where each message builds and reinforces. This is much better than a “try anything once” approach. A niche practice is a smart, satisfying practice.

But what of a lawyer that has a bit of a practice and does not want to let go of that work? There are still lawyers who like general practice. They like being a community leader who can take care of the needs of their friends and neighbors. I am advocating that lawyers can apply the benefits of thinking in “niche” to any practice. In other words, one can have a general practice, yet have many “niches.” I grant I am using the concept broadly and some might say wrongly, but let’s think creatively.

Let’s say I represent driving while impaired clients. On review of my clientele I see two clusters of clients. There is one group of young men “hell raisers” who like to party after they get their paycheck (after a hard work week who does not want to celebrate in some way?). The second group is of middle aged drivers who often are ticketed after drinking too much at an office party. The first group feels picked on by the cops and wants to fight back. The second group is embarrassed and does not want the word to get back to their job where they could miss a promotion etc. They want the matter to go away quickly and quietly. It is very clear that my marketing message to each group will be very different. I can have pages on my website that cater to each population – a mini website. I can have separate blogs supporting each.

All the best,
Jim

Thanks for your comments and compliments! I agree that attorneys can definitely establish more than one niche, however, we often have trouble coming up with even one niche. Hopefully, this method will help young lawyers discover 1 or more niches that they could practice in. Having different websites or blogs tailored to different niches is definitely a possibility and a strategy that has worked for several lawyers. For example, Sam Glover of Lawyerist has two blogs/websites for his two niche: http://thegloverlawfirm.com.