You can use the following search box to locate an attorney or law firm specializing in a particular area of law, in a particular city or state. This specialized search is powered by Google. It is both powerful and comprehensive, because it seaches multiple attorney directories and thousands of law firm Web sites in a fraction of a second.
Type area of law, e.g., Corporate, Divorce; and your city, state or province, or zip/postal code.
Some legal problems lend themselves to do-it-yourself solutions. Others require more help. Knowing when to seek a professional's assistance is half the battle. One way of deciding is to consider whether other people have an interest in your legal matter. For example, let's say you want to start a new business. You can purchase a self-help law book and follow the instructions to fill out and submit the paperwork to form a new corporation or LLC. If you're doing this for yourself and there are no complexities, it's probably pretty safe to proceed on your own. But let's say there are other people involved, and questions might come up in the future that could complicate things for your new business, e.g., one of the people who starts the business with you needs to move away in a few years. They will probably want to cash out by selling their share. How will you handle this, and what if they don't agree with your plan? This is an example of where a few dollars invested in legal advice can help avoid big problems later on. A lawyer can assist you in drafting ByLaws and a document called a buy-sell agreement, that establish the rules when one of the participants dies, retires or simply wants to sell out and move on.
Lawyer jokes aside, attorneys are licensed professionals. When you consult an attorney, you are benefitting from his or her law school education and know that he or she has passed a rigorous Bar examination, prior to being licensed to practice law. You'll know how many years your attorney has practiced, in what area(s) of law, by reviewing their Web site, professional resume or curriculum vitae. And you'll be able to confirm their membership in their State Bar and, in many cases, will be able to see if they have had any discipline problems with the Sate Bar. Further, many attorneys maintain professional errors and omissions insurance and many State Bar associations maintain client recovery funds, so there will be a way for you to recover in the unlikely event your attorney makes a mistake that costs you money.
Consider carefully that you give up all these protections when you represent yourself and especially if you pay an unlicensed person (paralegal or legal document preparer) to assist you. Legally, only licensed attorneys are able to give you legal advice. Something as simple as deciding which box to check on a legal form, is giving legal advice.
Attorneys also take classes in legal ethics. In our example about starting a new business, above, we kept it simple by talking about just one attorney. But keep in mind, one lawyer can't advise both parties whose interests are adverse. So our attorney in the example can represent the business by advising its officers and/or directors (corporation), or managing members (LLC). But when the interests of an individual officer, director or member becomes distinct from the interests of the business (e.g., when an individual wants to leave and is negotiating the sale of his or her share), that individual needs to retain his own counsel because the business' attorney cannot simultaneously represent both sides.
The two most important considerations are a) Where (what jurisdiction) is the attorney licensed to practice and b) what area of law does the attorney specialize in?
Attorneys are licensed by state Bar associations. So generally, an attorney representing a client in a given state, about a matter controlled by that state's laws or dealing with people, property or occurrances within that state, must be licensed by that state. There are exceptions, such as attorneys practicing exclusively under federal law, or staff attorneys employed by government agencies. But know that you'll need to consider what state the attorney is licensed in.
Attorneys also tend to specialize in certain areas of the law because the law is so broad that it's not possible for one person to know it all. By selecting an attorney who is already experienced in the area of law where you need help, you benefit from all his or her experience focused on that one, specialized area.
An added consideration is the size of the law firm. In many cases, large law firms are more expensive than smaller ones. But larger firms are frequently better able to handle complex matters involving multiple legal areas, and larger litigation cases, where a team of lawyers and support staff are necessary to adequtely address the problem.
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