Careers outside of law?

[sarcasticlemon]

Has anyone done any work or research in jobs outside of law? I’m wondering how someone transitions to other fields, especially for example if they don’t article/write the bar.

[Hegdis]

Not sure if you are already in law school but getting a law degree is a very expensive way to not practise law. 

[sarcasticlemon]

8 hours ago, Hegdis said:

Not sure if you are already in law school but getting a law degree is a very expensive way to not practise law. 

That’s very fair😂 but I have heard some people transitioning to other adjacent fields so I’m looking to hear their experiences!

[Diplock]

17 minutes ago, sarcasticlemon said:

That’s very fair😂 but I have heard some people transitioning to other adjacent fields so I’m looking to hear their experiences!

This is an entirely legitimate question, and it's been raised before though without any really conclusive answers. I don't have any really good information for you, but I could suggest you might refine your question in the following way. First, there are some (probably a very few) related occupations where having a law degree might be seen as a significant qualification. I'd be interested in knowing what those are myself, if only for interest's sake. Law librarians come to mind. Probably some kinds of policy work. Second, there are any number of jobs out there that don't have any specific qualifications associated with them, but nevertheless require education, analytical skills, etc. You might hear anecdotes about people who go to law school and end up doing things like that, but those same stories could apply equally to someone who got a PhD in literature and ended up in the same place. So while those stories are interesting, they probably don't tell you anything useful.

Anyway, I've found in the past those two topics tend to get muddled together and conflated, so I thought I'd point out the distinction. The reason Hegdis replied, as above, is not because legal education is not valuable for other pursuits. All education is valuable - hence the large second category of examples. But there are very few related fields for which it is specifically valuable in a targeted way - hence the small first category.

Hope that helps.

[Jaggers]

Lots of people do transition, or even take non-law jobs right out of school, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to go to law school with no intention whatsoever of practicing law. Law degrees do open some doors, but not that many. Most of those most interesting doors open once you have a law degree and some practical expertise in the legal field.

[epeeist]

12 hours ago, sarcasticlemon said:

Has anyone done any work or research in jobs outside of law? I’m wondering how someone transitions to other fields, especially for example if they don’t article/write the bar.

lifeafterlaw.com

Re the above, aimed at people with experience practicing law, not law school graduates who haven't been called. And if it becomes relevant in future, much easier (check yourself in your jurisdiction) to reinstate a license than to try to find articles or do LPP years after graduation. I have a full-time non-lawyer job (practice law PT), but moved after practising law a few years. The few people I've met (who were willing to talk about it, i.e. not a representative sample) who graduated law school and didn't get called, regretted it later.

[PePeHalpert]

One area that I've seen newly called or no longer practicing lawyers go is into investigative roles.  There are firms that conduct workplace investigations, but there are also many roles at regulatory bodies.  For example, each of the regulated health professions in Ontario are governed by a regulatory college, and those colleges routinely hire people with law degrees to work in investigations.  Sometimes a law degree is a required or preferred qualification and other times it is not, but the ability to read and interpret legislation and policy is an asset. 

[Conge]

I know lots of lawyers working in non-legal roles in companies. The following types of roles come to mind: regulatory, credit/risk management, insurance, corporate strategy, and labour/employment related jobs. However, in all cases, the persons filling these roles had practiced law in a related field.

 

[PlayALawyerOnTV]

I come from the entertainment industry.

There are a lot of producers and executives (network/studio) who come from a legal background. Like others have mentioned above, though, many of these folk practiced for a few years before moving into a legal adjacent role / opening up their own production shingle. I know several who stayed at their respective firms in an "of counsel" role while producing full-time.

I'd guess that this would be a difficult jump to make as a fresh law school graduate who didn't have significant background in the business, however. 

[Dnian]

Since you mentioned research, the route that comes to mind is academia. A decent chunk of law professors and instructors do not take the bar and never really become practitioners of the law. However, rolling the dice on an LLM or an SJD in the hopes that your academic work alone will land you a gig as a professor, is an expensive gamble. 

If you really want to do research, it would probably be a safer option to practice in whatever subfield you are most interested in for a couple years, take the bar, save a little, and then pursue an LLM/SJD (and get as much of it covered by scholarship/bursaries as possible). Alternatively, you could do the same: work for a bit, save, and then directly jump over into a research fellowship at some thinktank or policy institution. 

This will also give you the chance to see whether you actually enjoy practicing law or not. Good luck!

 

[CleanHands]

13 minutes ago, Dnian said:

Since you mentioned research, the route that comes to mind is academia. A decent chunk of law professors and instructors do not take the bar and never really become practitioners of the law. However, rolling the dice on an LLM or an SJD in the hopes that your academic work alone will land you a gig as a professor, is an expensive gamble.

This also assumes that one has close to top of the class JD grades.

[Dnian]

Just now, CleanHands said:

This also assumes that one has close to top of the class JD grades.

Good point - and further reinforces that OP should work first and gain a little bit of experience/reputation in order to make themselves a more appealing candidate for an LLM, if their grades can't already do that.

I should caveat that by saying I am actually not sure whether LLM programs will be more likely to take a candidate with 4 years relevant work experience and a B average over a third year law student with the same grades; that's just my assumption.

[Psychometronic]

Career office advisor and law firm recruitment comes to mind but the ones I know have practiced law at least some point in their careers.