Nichè Practice or Specialisation is increasingly becoming a norm among Lawyers in Nigeria. Technological and Socio-economic changes in the Legal landscape in the past 15years have introduced or renewed some independent areas of practice that couldn’t have sustained any lawyer who wanted to simply depend on a nichè area.
Now many things are possible and more possible is the fact that the opportunities available in some of these areas of practice can be harnessed by both young and old lawyers fairly with less emphasis on age and experience.
Below are some of them:
1. Entertainment Law: This is the most young Lawyer friendly nichè. Infact, many clients prefer younger lawyers to represent them in entertainment contracts. This could be because , sometimes, entertainment lawyers are expected to deliver these briefs outside the office and it is easier to move younger lawyers around. Another reason may be the demography of people in entertainment especially music who are more likely to hire their contemporaries who understand social trends.
2. Tech Law: Tech is big now and most businesses today ride on tech. Young people are driving start ups. Young people work more in tech. The demography of people in this sector greatly influences how they hire lawyers. Many startups start with little or no money using familiar lawyers in their initial stage. This familiar lawyers are young lawyers who are believed to be more tech savvy and accessible at the early stage of these businesses.
3. Intellectual Property: This aspect of practice has been there for a very long time. However, technological trends now make it easy for young people to become founders and the rise in Entrepreneurship by young people continues to keep this niche relevant.
This is one of the areas where lawyers are hired to advice irrespective of their age in practice. This and the registration of businesses provide entry points for young lawyers to retain and grow with businesses that will pay them well when they become successful.
4. Venture Capital and Private Equity: Yes! Young lawyers can play fairly on this field. It used to be the exclusive reserve of top commercial law firms in the times of brick and mortar corporations. This is usually the third stage of most startups after setting up businesses and launching them. Many startups target venture capitalists and later Private Equity organisations in their scaling plan. Young CEOs or founders most times don’t have reservations working with young lawyers unlike in areas like litigation where age is believed to be important. Young lawyers who are vast in these areas can compete favourably representing startups owned by young people in drafting VC and PE contracts .
5. Data Protection & Privacy Law: This is another young lawyer friendly area of practice that discriminates less on age and experience. This area became big few years ago as social media and tech became an integral part of our lives.
Many countries and blocs are drawing up privacy laws to safeguard users of these new technologies that most times control massive data of users. Both young lawyers and old ones are learning to adapt to this area of practice at the same time. Younger lawyers are mostly employed in-house to underake compliance . An increasing number of younger lawyers are being hired to defend or institute privacy issues arising mostly from social media.
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