Tom Kane at Legal Marketing Blog recently listed one of the secrets to small firm success is the establishment of a niche practice. Whether as part of a firm, on your own, and whether practicing in an office tower or a tree house, it is still be best way to market your practice. It is also one of the most enjoyable ways to practice law. You only have to learn all there is to know about a limited area. You can be the big fish in a small pond.
The question has always been, especially for recent law school graduates, how to find such a niche. It is kind of like playing musical chairs. The question is really, how do you find the empty chair? I have said look around you. Law is the invisible stuff that is all around us. What in life, in the news, or in what is happening around you, spark your interest?
Forget for a moment, you might not know anything about it. You always have to start somewhere. And,
the beautiful thing about a niche is that you can start to research it in its most basic form.
I have demonstrated this before in other areas, but the area that interested me today was election law. Can you be an election lawyer? It is not that there are not attorneys that practice in this area, but do they stand out? Can you, as a result, cause yourself to standout.
The Texas primary system has problems. The Nevada caucuses were contested. Other elections are contested all of the time. There are redistricting issues. Candidates fail to qualify or get on the ballots all of the time. Tom delay, for example, got out of his re-election race after his party chose him to run in the general election, and the Republican Party could not replace him because he did not get out because of ineligibility. Who can forget Bush v. Gore. Sometimes people and companies, and groups just need advice. This ca be a national practice. Can you give advice?
My point is can you see this as something that is right for you?
So, I got on my trusty computer to find such an attorney, and I find barely anything. That is a good sign for trying to start a successful niche practice.
Martindale does not even list election law as a category. Find Law list attorneys all over the place, but visiting their websites, nobody mentions the practice area. They are mainly criminal defense attorneys.
Google "election lawyer" and you will get Election Law Blog, but it is run by Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. A great resource but his interest is more academic. And, most of the rest of the site on Google are news stories.
ElectionLaw.Com, ElectionLawyer.Com, ElectionAttorney.Com, CampaignLaw.Com refer you to those general catchall sites that do not amount to anything helpful.
Better yet, VoteLawyer.Com, VoteAttorney.Com, CampaignLawyerBlog.Com, VoterLawyer.Com, and ElectionLawyer.Net, among others, are still available as of the publishing of this post.
A trip around the Internet will tell you that Paul Lehto is one of the specialist that people turn to when elections go wrong. He is mentioned in news stories and he has some books out. But, he does not have any great web presence. You do not go to Barnes & Noble generally to find an attorney. You go to the web.
Like this niche idea? Interested in elections? Take this idea and run with it. Consider it my gift to you. My plate is full.
How to start? Well, first reserve an appropriate name and start a blog. That is dirt cheap to do. Follow and track all of the relevant cases and news stories coming out on elections, campaign irregularities, contests, voting problems. The point of the Google search is that you will eventually be found. And, the blog allows you to figure out every thing there is to know. It gives you a chance to think through the issues and to explore your new found area.
The point is that by looking around -- looking at what is right in front of you every day -- I have found an empty chair that can be filled. I am suggesting you can empty chairs every day if you are looking for a niche. Just look around you. Test your theory online. Find the chair, test it and fill it.
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