Civil Litigation

Civil litigation is an umbrella term for the broad spectrum of disputes that could wind up in court and that are not criminal in nature. For instance, civil litigators can represent clients who are injured in a car accident or seeking a divorce, or they can represent a large corporation who claims its intellectual property has been misappropriated.

Civil litigators are often referred to as trial lawyers, but much of their work is pre-trial. Indeed, civil litigators must hone their legal skills to represent clients from the inception of the dispute until the jury verdict and beyond. As a result, litigators may also engage in appellate advocacy.

Civil litigators often represent both plaintiffs or defendants—plaintiffs being the parties who initiate a lawsuit and defendants being the parties who are sued. In some areas of civil litigation, lawyers often "pick a side" and limit their practice to representing either plaintiffs or defendants. This is common in personal injury work as well as employer-employee disputes. In other areas, such as commercial litigation, civil litigators represent either side equally.

Civil litigators can be generalists, who represent clients in a broad spectrum of legal issues, or specialists, who focus on substantive areas, such as intellectual property, tax, or employment litigation.

Litigators may work for the government, in-house counsel and corporations, or public interest organizations. Many aspiring litigators gain useful experience in the field by clerking for a trial court judge.