Which legal specialties are best for riding out depressions? Bankruptcy? IP?

[uh huh.]

I am a bankruptcy attorney, and do a lot of side work in labor law and ERISA, and between the three, I can't get out of the way of work. I've also been receiving at least two calls a day from recruiters for the last two months looking for bankruptcy attorneys. Also, the IP department of my firm is very busy right now.

[Jake_MONDATTA]

Yeah, that makes sense.  and I'll bet the american employees shipped overseas will only have jobs long enough to train the locals.  this is exactly what's happened in every other outsourceable field.  lucky for those of us in the legal profession, they'll always need a few citizens around to sign and file official documents.  otherwise there would be no reason to move everything to India like some companies have done with their R&D.

that's capitalism, i don't know why it should be surprising.

[nealric]

they'll always need a few citizens around to sign and file official documents. 

It's more than that. Outsourcing only works well with fairly routine tasks that can be performed by more or less fungible personnel assets. Clients don't want to call up Indian legal support to ask about the tax implications of their upcoming merger.

For litigation, you are going to need plenty of people to be physically present for court appearances/depos.

[Jake_MONDATTA]

"Outsourcing only works well with fairly routine tasks that can be performed by more or less fungible personnel assets."

True, but those fungible personnel assets keep becoming more and more capable, dammit all.  I happen to know of at least 5 biotech companies that have outsourced all their R&D to Bangalore.  Why wouldn't you be able to outsource most aspects of legal analysis?  The only reason I can see is that official action requires bar membership.

"Clients don't want to call up Indian legal support to ask about the tax implications of their upcoming merger."

Even if the best legal support were just inside the mouth of an active volcano, clients would want still want to go there. 

"For litigation, you are going to need plenty of people to be physically present for court appearances/depos."

True, you'll need someone who looks good and speaks well.  Everything else can be done behind the scenes and across the pond.