Join Niche Bar Associations to Enrich Your Legal Practice
Society seems to be getting more diverse every day. If you're not convinced, just check out the array of bar associations in your area. You'll find that there's a bar association or committee for practically every geographic location, ethnicity, and legal practice area you can imagine.
Did you know there's even a National Cannabis Bar Association? That's right, a bar association dedicated to cannabis! Formed recently by a group of San Francisco-based lawyers (no surprise there, right?), the association seeks to bring the legal marijuana manufacturing sector into the mainstream.
Pot isn't your thing? That's okay. You can still experiment with getting high by joining the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association.
Why Join a Niche Bar Association?
Like any other bar association, niche and local bar associations offer benefits such as: mentoring, networking, CLE opportunities, and possibly even job opportunities. If you identify with a minority group, you may benefit on a more personal level by connecting with others who share similar life experiences as you.
Niche bar associations can especially benefit solo practitioners looking to specialize in a specific area of the law. By focusing on a specialized area and niche marketing to a specific type of client, you can stand out among your peers. Given the stiff competition in the legal market, it's important to have some unique knowledge base or skill set to offer your potential clients.
Niche Committees in Local Bar Associations
You may already belong to a bar association or two, in which case you may not be excited at the prospect of joining any more. If that's the case, you can still take advantage of the niche market mentality by joining a committee in your local bar association.
Committees can help you stay on the cutting edge of an industry. For example, if you work with biotech issues, you can join the Biotech Law Committee with the American Bar Association.
Related Resources:
- How Do Solos and Small Firms Find Low-Cost CLEs? (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
- Lawyers: How to Make Conventions, Conferences Work for You (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
- How to Respond to a State Bar Complaint (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)