Commercial Litigation (However You Define It) Is The Perfect Way To Begin Your Legal Career

Commercial litigation provides anyone within it with unparalleled experience in the wide range of business disputes that it encompasses under its umbrella.

The wide range of cases encompassed under the umbrella of commercial litigation is exactly what makes it the perfect place to start your career.

Commercial litigation can be tough to define — even when speaking with lawyers. While home for the holidays, I met with my neighbor, a lawyer, who, after hearing that I worked in commercial litigation, replied that I hadn’t told him anything about what I do since “commercial litigation means something different everywhere.” Though he meant it as a joke, and probably didn’t realize it at the time, there is an abundance of truth in his statement.

In the few months that I’ve worked at our firm full time, I’ve learned just how broadly commercial litigation can be defined, and thus how true my neighbor’s statement was. For instance, as the newest member of our boutique trial and investigations firm specializing in commercial litigation, I’ve had the opportunity to assist my colleagues in their work on virtually every type of dispute that can arise in the business context, including (but far from limited to) breach of contract cases, partnership disputes, class actions, business torts, civil RICO claims, breach of fiduciary duty allegations, trademark infringement actions, and shareholder issues.

The variety of experiences that come with working in commercial litigation have been especially beneficial to me, a law school graduate pending admission to the bar. Indeed, my work has allowed me to gain experience in novel and exciting areas of the law and explore my strengths and weaknesses through grappling with the subject matter, which is a far better method of learning than any law school course could ever be. After all, it is one thing to read about an area of the law in the abstract, or through a seminal case in a textbook, but quite another to conduct legal research and thoroughly assess an opposing party’s arguments in order to draft an opposition argument on the same subject. The chance to truly immerse myself in a wide range of complex and rewarding areas of the law has allowed me to gain valuable feedback from my colleagues, assess my own progress, and will undoubtedly have a profound impact on my future development as a young lawyer for years to come.

While commercial litigation is tough to define, that is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, commercial litigation provides anyone within it with unparalleled experience in the wide range of business disputes that it encompasses under its umbrella. This fact makes commercial litigation work the perfect type of work for anyone in the legal field that is interested in a constantly changing variety of cases and subjects, and especially invaluable for recent law school graduates. The next time that someone asks you to define what commercial litigation means to you, just remember that its breadth is exactly what makes it the perfect practice area in which to start your legal career.


David Forrest was an attorney at Balestriere Fariello, a trial and investigations law firm which represents clients in all aspects of complex commercial litigation and arbitration from pre-filing investigations to trial and appeals. You can reach firm partner John Balestriere at john.g.balestriere@balestrierefariello.com.

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