What types of lawyers are there? (Full details please)?

Question

I know I want to do criminal justice later on in life. Now what type of lawyers are in that field? Like prosecutors??? and so forth what others are there? Also jurisdiction and just what are more type of lawyers are there? What would you call them? and what do they do? I want to be a full time lawyer that does real cases and performs in a courtroom, a private lawyer though. One that works with one party at a time. Prosecution is something that i'm looking into, so what would you call that? What type of lawyer is that?

Answer 1

Prosecutors work for the government, they are never private.

There are Federal prosecutors, State prosecutors, County prosecutors, and so on.

There are also specialized prosecutors for specific areas.  For example, the prosecutors for the Federal Trade Commission go after white collar crime.

Being a prosecutor IS NOT like it is on TV.  You spend far more time outside of a courtroom than inside one.  It's a lot of very depressing work and the pay is absolutely terrible.

EDIT:

Almost no lawyers work with one party at a time.  Most prosecutors can barely keep track of all of their cases.

ANOTHER EDIT:

Regarding your correction:

In the US, the words "lawyer" and "attorney" are pretty much interchangable.

For defense attorneys you have a few options:

1. work for the government (public defender) - you represent poor clients that cannot afford an attorney.  I did this work for 5 years and it is very very difficult and depressing, but when you have a success it makes it all worthwhile.

2. Work for a firm (associate or partner).  There are several firms that specialize in criminal law.  However, I can't think of any that specifically go after "violent" crime cases.  There would be very little money in it, unless you somehow fiind a niche law firm that defends rich violent offenders.  Not common at all.  The firm I work for has a division for white collar crime, but no one here would touch violent crimes with a ten foot pole.

3. Work on your own (solo practitioner).  Hang up a shingle and have your own office.  You'd have to get the clients yourself, meaning you would have to go down to the jails and hand out your card.  It takes a particular type of "tough cookie" to go this route.  It can also be very dangerous.  Again, I doubt there is much money in it.

Answer 2

Well, if you want to work for the prosecution in criminal cases then you would work either for the District Attorney's (D.A.) office, probably as an Assistant District  Attorney or you can work with the Attorney General's office (A.G.).

If you're working for the DA or the AG, then you are not a private lawyer, but you work for the government.  

You dont specialize in a specific field in law school unless you are working in the Admiralty Law (ocean/ship stuff) or Patent Law (dealing with patents/copyrights etc).  Basically after law school you can do any type of law that you want.  Criminal defense, AG or DA, family law, corporate defense, insurance defense, property, tax, plaintiff work or even general law that does a bit of everything.

Answer 3

You have many misconceptions about lawyers and the practice of law, so it is hard to know where to start. I suggest reading some autobiographies of famous defense lawyers. That will be a start. You can almost certainly get these at your local library.

FOR THE DEFENSE

by F. Lee Bailey

My Life in Court

by Louis Nizer

Then read some of the books in the list below.  If you don't like the idea of all this reading, then change your plans. I have met hundreds of lawyers and they all like to read.