States sort one million lawyers and 50,000 law firms into some 65 core practice areas. In Lawyers at Work, I interview fifteen lawyers in fifteen practice areas selected to be representative of the lawyering spectrum: employment law, corporate defense, criminal prosecution, financial services, international project finance, family law, international law, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, intellectual property, entertainment, nonprofit, civil rights, trusts and estates, and civil litigation. My interviewing method has been to elicit from this ensemble of lawyers their own stories in their own words. My aim has been to get at what makes them tick: why they went into law, how they matched their personal traits and values to their chosen practice areas, how they built their careers and developed their styles of practice, how they manage the tensions between their professional and private lives, and what drives them to lawyer on. The lawyers I interviewed gave me a variety of reasons for becoming lawyers. About half of them became lawyers because of a strong family legacy in the law. One became a lawyer in spite of her family. Some found inspiring role models and others thought they would enjoy the intellectual rigor of the law. Some knew exactly what they wanted to do even before entering law school. Others stumbled into their area of expertise after leaving law school.