Many private equity firms hire lawyers with corporate and private equity experience to move to the business side. Most of these roles involve a significant level of transaction management and use your legal skills, making it a great alternative career for lawyers. She also suggests getting involved in organizations associated with the job you want to have. Offer to volunteer, join a board of directors, or find a mentor who can help you gain hands-on experience before embarking on a new field. We start by creating a basis to explain why you want to leave and what is wrong with legal practice. Have you ever dreamed of working outside of traditional legal practice in another role? Maybe you studied law to practice law, but you decided you wanted to use your talents elsewhere. Or maybe you`ve experienced a change in life circumstances and would like to explore a corresponding change over the course of your career. You can even consider sticking to the traditional practice while adding non-traditional work to your plate. You`ll probably also think about how much time you`ve invested in your degree. Yes, law school was long and hurt a lot – but whether you find yourself in a legal position or not, your degree (and those three long years) is always a selling point. In fact, in each of my post-law jobs, the fact that I had a law degree was an absolute advantage.
(And Nadine Ellman, lead singer of the band Our Last Summer, says she uses her law school for contracts and copyright negotiations with producers and agents.) Or you might consider working as a contract lawyer for a few years; Even document review can help you gain basic legal skills, patience, and a sense of how to avoid common areas of litigation, which can be helpful when starting your own business. Working as a litigator can help you penetrate communication. A detailed state-to-state analysis as an employee of a law firm can lead to a career in government affairs where you need to understand and know how to research state-specific laws (and how to use or avoid them). After the financial crisis, during which several large law firms were imploded, the alternative career movement is gaining ground in the wider legal world. “The Law Society is starting to realize that not all law schools will be able to place students in law firms like they used to, so there must be other ways,” says Amy Impellizzeri, author of the upcoming Lawyer Interrupted, a guide for lawyers looking to make career changes inside or outside the law. will be published next year by the great daddy of the legal establishment, the American Bar Association. And legal career centers now occasionally refer students to sites like JD Careers Out There. A lawyer on the management team is well positioned to combine his or her keen sense of law with his or her business acumen. More than 70% of my clients are lawyers with a long legal career and promotion to legal positions at managerial level (remember: Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel or Managing Partner) and eventually left to become COO (Chief Operating Officer), CRO (Chief Risk Officer), CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) or CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and run a company.
One of the most difficult things to master is the loss of prestige that has come with the legal field. As a lawyer, you are a valuable advisor to your clients, and let`s face it, just mention that you are a trained lawyer for everyone within earshot and watch the tone of the conversation change. But if you`re considering a career change, remember that the prestige is still there. Graduating from law school and passing the bar are two great successes. The skills you learn in law school may not seem specific to a legal role, but by repositioning your strengths, you can meet the demands of so many other options. In a 2019 article on legal practice, Mark Cohen interviewed a 1L who said, “I see law as a skill. I intend to use my legal background and combine it with my passion for business, technology and politics. For me, law is not a matter of practice. If you want to take the non-legal path straight out of law school, make sure you take the courses that you think will be necessary for this career. Is technology your area of expertise? Opt for computer law or privacy courses, which are usually very tech-focused.
If artistic paths are more likely to be your speed, consider taking an entertainment rights course or an intellectual property course. Next, take an in-depth look at alternative legal careers and look at them from all angles – a list of pros and cons, salary ranges, financial planning, and additional education and education. Next, look for informative interviews with people who have left law and successfully immersed themselves in these alternative careers (talk to people who have been around for five, 10, 15, and 20 years). This way you can see the different stepping stones of this alternative career. Before you make your big exit from law, you need to know what you`re getting into and if it`s really the right alternative legal career. In the early years of my business, my LL.D. and 12 years of experience in various legal environments (including biglaw and in-house) immediately became credible when I went to a business meeting or spoke at an event. When I consulted a high-level executive or professional in external industry sectors (healthcare, technology, finance, etc.), they often wanted to work with me because they liked the fact that I was a lawyer (and former university writing professor). They saw it as a powerful lever, something we all have – and as I`ve always pointed out, it all depends on how you market it. If you`re considering moving on to another part of the legal field, there are a number of questions you should consider before you make the leap. What a job entails is usually easier in a traditional legal environment. Non-traditional work is not as clear.
The best decisions are informed. The goal is to be as knowledgeable about the job description and benefits as you are about where you are as a person and what you are not allowed to do. Once you know you`re not pursuing a legal career, deconstruct what you need to do to get from point A (law school) to point B (dream career), and then start creating a plan to get there. With this in mind, lawyers are well positioned to engage in employee relations work and use their knowledge of workforce planning, compliance, labour and labour law, related legal knowledge and conflict resolution skills.