Some of the traditional general practice areas are no longer brought to the legal system. Agreements affecting the use of real estate are still handled by lawyers, but real estate transfers are handled entirely by nonlawyers. So are most wills, divorces, and non-capital criminal matters. As the population exploded, government control of matters affecting marriage and childbearing expanded. Only couples who are approved and licensed to have children are allowed to get married.
Divorce is a perfunctory matter controlled and supervised by the government.
Family law is now mainly concerned with defining the relationship of those individuals who live together without having children, and with filing appeals of those who have been denied permission to get married and have children or claims of parents who have violated the marriage regulations and have had their children taken away from them. Gender issues and discrimination complaints by men have increased as women, freed from domestic roles by population control, have taken over the leadership positions of almost all governments, companies, and businesses. Immigration law has become a major practice area for lawyers representing all of those individuals applying to leave the United States. Civil rights law remains an important area of practice. What was once a specialty for general practitioners, gaming law, has now become a part of the criminal law speciality.