On Becoming an Expert, in What?

The Post-Normal Times is a column that follows trends in the legal industry, legal technologies, legal innovation, and access to legal services and offers insights into how new lawyers can turn them from agents of change into agents of opportunity. 

In my Law Practice 2050 class here at Vanderbilt, when I ask a guest speaker what advice they have for law students about entering the profession, invariably the answer includes something like “become an expert in something.” Especially given what the profession is going through these days, they say, law firms want experts, clients want experts, law schools want experts, everybody wants experts.