Introduction
It's so prevalent that it's now a pop culture joke: the person who doesn't know what to do with his/her life picks law school. While some people unquestionably do choose law school as a means to prolonging a critical life decision, others go to law school because of a deep, life-long drive to become a lawyer.
This article is for everyone in between those two extremes: those who are intrigued by the prospect of law school, although they perhaps never felt that soul-stirring longing to be an attorney, but at the same time, who are not merely seeking to avoid making a decision about what they want to be when they "grow up."
Personality and Skills of a Lawyer
Many coaches and consultants break down types of lawyers into just two camps -- transactional and litigation. While those are useful categories, to be sure, these labels simply don't tell the whole story of being an attorney. But they are a good starting point, so let's take a look at the differences between them.
Transactional attorneys spend their time reviewing and drafting documents, by and large. They help negotiate and set up contracts, leases, securities transactions, sales, and other documents. They can also be trust and estate lawyers, helping individual clients arrange for business and wealth succession after death or in the event of incapacity. What they don't do is litigate, usually. As a result, many see transactional attorneys as typically possessing a certain kind of personality or mindset; they're seen as detail-oriented, possibly introverted, meticulous and precise.
Litigators, on the other hand, spend their days engaged with other people and in court. They file and conduct lawsuits, or defend their clients against those who bring lawsuits, and then try the cases before judge or jury. They are typically seen as more extroverted, verbally expressive, somewhat flamboyant or dramatic.
Are these generalizations fair or accurate? Perhaps; more likely, they are true in some instances, and equally untrue in others. Rather than taking your cue from other people's perceptions of what certain lawyers are "like," why not instead decide for yourself what sort of legal career appeals to you, if any, and then learn how to maximize your individual skills and traits to increase your chances of success in that environment?