I work at a small general practice law firm. Despite that description, I am No familiar with all areas of law. There are dozens of areas of law, some broad in scope and others very specific. Some law firms choose to practice in limited areas of law, while others, like the one I work for, practice in multiple areas of law. There are advantages and disadvantages to each law firm model; however, I prefer working in general practice firms because they provide diversity every day. Forrest Gump famously said, “…life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” The same goes for general practice law firms.

Unfortunately, “general practice” is commonly confused with, well, almost all. Friends and family ask me questions about all kinds of law that is fine, fine, and fine, except when I tell them I have no idea because I have never worked in that area of ​​law before. They are almost always flabbergasted when I don’t know anything of substance about copyrights, patents, bankruptcies, or the dozens of other legal areas I haven’t been able to work in (yet). People seem to assume and/or believe that once someone starts working in the legal field, they are automatically given knowledge of all things legal, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

In addition to not knowing everything about law, I also don’t know everything about the following legal things:

1. All legal procedures;

2. All Latin terms;

3. All laws/statutes/rules/codes;

4. All lawyers/judges;

5. All current events related to the legal field; and,

6. Over and over again, ad nauseam (<---see what I did there?).

While it pains me to admit it, I really don’t know everything. Google is my best friend, me!

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