market for special education attorney? (Denver: lawyers, house, job market)

[vaidpa]

I am not sure in which sub-forum to post this, because I am open to a number of areas to possibly move. I am an attorney possibly looking to move to CO and get admitted on motion. I am still a fairly new attorney (2 years clerking, 4 years in private practice), but I am hoping that having some experience will help me be somewhat competitive. The majority of my practice is representing school districts in special education cases. I also do general commercial litigation, and also some trust and estate litigation. So with a couple of unique areas, I feel like I should be able to find something. I have not completely decided what my next step is going to be, but I just know that I want to change directions a bit and move to a new area, and CO is one possibility, which is why I am posting on this forum. I know it is of course desirable to have a job before moving somewhere, but that isn't always possible. I also have a M.Ed. in higher ed administration and worked in that field before I went to law school.

I have done a bit of searching and found a few threads on the legal market in general, but some of those are a bit older and didn't have a whole lot of info. I have seen mixed thoughts on whether the job market in general is good or bad in Denver or Colorado in general (I understand there is of course a lot of variation between cities).

So after all that, my question is - does anyone here have an idea of whether there are jobs in special education law in the Denver or surrounding areas? It is a field here that is seeing a big increase in cases, and I am wondering if that's the same in CO. Thanks in advance.

[Suzatlarge]

The education thing is, as you know, really a niche market . I think the odds are against your finding any really helpful information on that in a general discussion forum like this, although there's no problem with trying.

Have you searched for Colorado lawyers specializing in education? Looked up the cites for recent appellate Colorado or 10th Circuit cases on special education issues and noted the names of the firms/lawyers representing the parties? Looked to see if the Colorado Bar Association has a section for education lawyers?

Have you checked listings for openings for early-career attorneys for commercial litigation and trust/estate work?

Those would give you leads to start networking with education and/or commercial litigation lawyers both to test the market and get yourself in play if any openings pop up.

[vaidpa]

Thanks for your reply. I have done some of those things, but had not looked up court cases; that would be a good source. I'm sure that CO has an administrative law section where special ed cases are published, and I could also look that up to find cases that haven't made it to the courts. I've looked at the CO bar association listings both for attorneys and the classified section, but have not exhausted the contacts that I have found from that attorney list.

[brown_dog_us]

I would try to find out who represents the larger school districts and see if they are looking to add someone.

The job market in general is good, but not great. There are just too many lawyers! Health care seems to be the best niche.

(btw, I am not an attorney, but my wife is)

[vaidpa]

Thank you, brown dog. That helps, as I am trying to get any general sense of the job market. I am so tempted to just move out there because it is very difficult to look for a job from so far away (I'm in PA), but I know it is a big risk. I just feel like I would have a much better chance if I was actually out there already. I have $50K saved, and I would get some additional when my house sells, so I would hope I'd be able to find something before that runs out. I will do some more digging around and try to find more firm-specific info as to which represents the districts and make some contacts.

[brown_dog_us]

If you are sure you want to move to Colorado, then you need to go ahead and start your Bar application. Employers use that as one of their first reasons to cut down the number of resumes in the pile.