I am telling you, if you want to find inspiration and want to discover what practice area or niche law practice that might just interest you and make your career, you just have to look around and ask questions. Explore the Internet some. Then find others that are doing what you want to do. Pull the relevant codes or laws governing the area. Look up a few cases. And, start taking notes notes.
One example, I was watching a real estate auction on TV. I got to thinking that auctions involve legal transactions. Auctions are a process of buying and selling goods by offer them up for bid, taking bids and then selling the item to the winning bidder. It is the method for determining the value of a commodity that has an undetermined or variable price.
But, there has to be agreements to sell a good, buying a good, closing or consummating the sale, who has responsibility for storing the good before and after the sale.
You see, you thought being a judge was the only profession involving a gavel.
There are car auctions, real estate auctions are becoming popular, estate auctions, tax sales, foreclosures, and sites like EBay. Heck, auctions or auctioneers must encounter intellectual property law, advertising law, real estate law, and any number of other areas. With all of this comes concerns, precautions and problems that have to be resolved. Who gets to do that? My guess is lawyers.
People who sell at auction and people who buy at auction must get sideways with each other and the auctioneer is in the middle if all. Property has to be lost and damaged. Auctioneers must have licensing problems and grievance actions, similar to lawyers. People do not go through with their bid.
So, I get online and low and behold I find that, for example, Beers Mallers Backs & Salin in Indiana maintains a auction law practice area. Yet there are not a lot of websites and blogs on this subject. That sounds like opportunity.
My point is the same, however. The idea and possibility of a niche legal practice (especially one that you can run out of your home on a shoe string budget) are everywhere. Just conjure them up and then investigating the possibility, starting with the Net.
This would be a good niche for a lawyer to pursue. The auction industry has little resources to assist them in matters that may arise. Auctioneers have to know about all kinds of laws, to insure we keep ourselves, as well as our clients protected from the mammoth bureaucracies that continue to grow like fungus. There was one attempt by the State Auctioneers Association to have a compilation of all the laws put into a book, but it is over 3 years old and doesn't cover the many changes in the auction laws alone, much less any other laws that may have been revised.
I recently had to file suit for a breach of contract, stemming from an auction. There does not seem to be any lawyers that are familiar with the laws governing auctions. Fortunately, I found one that was willing to work with me and "learn" as we go. So far, I am happy with the efforts put forth. However, once this case runs its' course, this attorney will probably be one of the pioneers in the field of auction law.
Posted by: Jim | May 12, 2008 at 01:52 AM
Nice post and helpful to take out the good information about Auction Law.
LLCS
Posted by: lucas law center | July 02, 2009 at 01:40 AM