More High-Value Non-Legal Careers Options For Law Students

Not all law students go on to become lawyers or work in the legal profession. But then why take the trouble of going through law school. Law School prepares you to be an attorney but there are many high-value employment sectors that value the skills that law students pick up and gladly employ them, even though they may not seem to have the right qualifications. Hence, it is important for all those students who have down the way, through law school decided that legal jobs are not their desire or forte – they will do well to remember that there are other choices out there, choices that are more lucrative and less demanding.



To concentrate on which non-legal career might work for you, you first need to analyze your own strengths, weaknesses and priorities. What exactly do you want from your new job? Is more money the motivation or the long unending hours at the law firm making you pine for more leisure time? By appraising your strong points well and honestly, you will be able to build on your past triumphs to build a new base. These are some areas of high-value careers that might interest you. Of course these are not the only choice and there are many more choices available but because of your legal background, these options seem to be more viable than most others.

Some extremely lucrative career prospects were law graduate skills will come in very handy are in jobs as:

• Entrepreneur
• Property Manager
• Corporate Trainer
• Management Consultant
• Education Consultant
• Publishing Editor

1) Entrepreneur:

New opportunities for entrepreneurs are arising. The economy is responding to the high tech and service revolution. More individuals are changing careers and working for themselves. Major job growth will take place among small companies and millions of new start-up businesses. What does this mean for you?

If you do not find a career you like, create one! Build something of your own. The creating part is often more satisfying than the end result itself. Being an entrepreneur is as much a state of mind as anything else. Believing in oneself and the ability to make it on your own is the first step in any entrepreneurial venture.

However, do not be fooled. The entrepreneur's life is not always an easy one. Every venture requires capital. Many of these start-up ventures lose money at first. If you need a steady salary with benefits, entrepreneurship may not be the right path. Try to have some money to live on until the business gets going. This also means lowering your lifestyle. If you are unwilling to do this, I suggest you avoid working for yourself.

Many times, you will have to put most of your net worth into your venture. You may find yourself asking family, friends, and business contacts to loan you money. In one sense it is best for entrepreneurs to provide as much of the initial capital as possible since by doing so they will own or keep most of the company. However, this makes the venture all the more risky. Many people cannot handle this type of risk. If you cannot, stay out of this career.

2) Property Manager:

A characteristic of the boom and bust economy will be periods of rapid job growth and periods of stagnation or negative growth. Additional office building and retail properties will answer the demand and will still be there during the lull. These properties will need to be managed regardless of whether they remain at full capacity. Property management refers to financial and operations management of physical properties for the properties' owners. The property manager may be an employee of the owner or he or she may work for a property management firm that contracts out its services. Some businesses employ property managers to locate, purchase, and develop real estate for investment purposes or for use in the operations of the business. They also dispose of property suited to their uses. The firm earns a commission on the transaction.

A property management firm may service a variety of properties like apartments, shopping centers, and office buildings. Many property managers manage a mixed portfolio of different types of buildings. Some specialize in managing one type of property. Whether they specialize or not, the property manager is responsible for everything that goes on concerning the property. This means managing such routine items such as leasing, building maintenance, and so forth. In larger buildings, specialists handle such things as leasing, renovating, and subleasing. In smaller buildings, you perform all these functions. Your knowledge of contract law and property law make a lot of these tasks much easier. Employers recognize the value of a management professional who has a thorough understanding of these relevant areas. At times, you really will get to use your legal training. Lawsuits plague owners of large properties.

Property management ultimately is people management. A good manager is only as good as the people working in the building. Everyone has to work together and it is the job of the property manager to see that they do. When things do not work, or the service is inadequate, the property manager gets blamed. The tenants receive efficient and consistent service only when everyone connected with the property works together. You spend a lot of time making sure your workers know what to do and understanding and trying to comply with the tenants' demands. The communications skills of the lawyer come in handy here. You find yourself doing a lot of persuading.

3) Corporate Trainers:

As our economy expands its service and high technology sector, so will employment. Intelligent workers with specific technical skills are the work force for the millennium. Workers have to continually develop new skills and competencies in order for their employers to remain competitive. The goal is to produce more productive, more highly motivated, and more responsible workers. Companies realize the importance of a well-trained work force and are willing to pay to have one. Creating effective workers requires training beyond that received in the typical education. In response, businesses must utilize the services of corporate trainers to devise and conduct programs for imparting these needed skills.

Corporate trainers either work for an individual company or they work for consulting firms specializing in training workers. No matter whether they come from the company or from the outside, their task is the same. They impart relevant skills on the client's work force. This takes a number of forms. They work with new employees to orient them to their jobs. They also introduce them to the policies and procedures of the company. The trainers provide all employees with the specialized skills needed for their jobs. Trainers often upgrade the skills of veteran workers by introducing new technologies and skills. Be prepared to teach a variety of skills. One week you might be reviewing the basics of mathematics for entry level workers. Next week you might conduct a word processing class for engineers. You must shift gears easily.

4) Management Consultants:

Foreign competition is causing many American companies to examine the way they run their businesses. Gone are the days when inefficient businesses could maintain market share and earn a reasonable profit. Companies are turning increasingly to management consultants to address specific problems in reducing costs, streamlining operations, or maximizing business opportunities. Your client companies range from leading edge companies wanting to stay ahead of the pack to companies hanging on the financial ropes.

Consultants advise businesses how to run their companies. Management consultants do whatever helps a client's bottom line. There are a wide range of management consulting firms specializing in helping clients with certain problems and situations. Sometimes a consultant's work involves very short-term tactical tasks like helping to launch a new product. Other times, they stay with the company to see through their recommendations on a three-year plan.

Many attorneys have successfully started their own consulting firms. They usually focus on areas like communications, effective presentations, and team building within the client organization.

5) Education Consultants:

The demand for effective training to remain competitive in the global marketplace will exacerbate the shortcomings of the traditional public school system. The private sector will fill this void by providing innovative, computer-assisted teaching packages on a host of subjects. These packaged study programs will be for all levels of learning. They will include reading, mathematics, and science. The education consultant will also teach the more exotic subjects important to specialized groups. Entrepreneurial companies will form to provide these packaged programs and professional teacher consultants. Experienced teachers, computer applications specialists, and marketers will be among the founders because they recognize the need for their products and services. These companies will also provide the teachers themselves to teach selected groups of students willing to pay for the service.

These educational consulting firms will rely heavily on marketing to introduce their products and people into the educational stream of commerce. This is where people with communications and teaching skills add value. You will interface with teachers, parents, and the students themselves as you demonstrate your learning products or teach your chosen subject. Within ten years, the teaching products you market, and perhaps help design, will be commonplace.

6) Publishing Editor:

Publishing separates into two broad areas: book publishing and periodical publishing. Book editors plan the line of books into which their publishing company invests money and staff. The publisher hopes to earn a suitable rate of return on its investment from the revenue received from sales of the book. Editors negotiate with the authors who submit manuscripts to the company. At issue are such things as royalties and future use of the material. Editors with legal training have an advantage in this area. As an editor, you are part of a team that evaluates hundreds of manuscripts looking for those very few that suit your purposes. "Will the book sell? What is the size of the readership?' These are questions you must always be asking yourself.

Once you have decided to turn a manuscript into a book, you budget the project. You are an integral part of making the final product a reality. Along the way, you may ask the writer to revise his or her manuscript. Working with authors is sometimes not easy. Your interpersonal skills will help you here. Depending upon the type of publication, you may revise many of the manuscripts yourself.

Periodical editors work much the same as book editors. Periodical editors must always be sensitive to the demands of their subscribers. Lose your subscribers and you lose your livelihood. Topics must be timely and interesting. These topics, once selected, are assigned to staff and freelance writers. Once the author submits his or her work, the editor works with production people to make the article appealing to the readers. Tight deadlines sometimes make this work stressful. This is especially true in the newspaper publishing business. However, many editors say that it is these deadlines that bring out the creativity. As with book editors, periodical editors involve themselves in a lot of rewriting. They may do some writing of their own.

If you are a lawyer or soon to be one and writing is your ambition, you do not have to go into publishing. Just start writing. Best-selling novelist, John Grisham, who authored The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and A Time to Kill, was a criminal defense attorney. The legal profession lost a fine attorney, but the world gained a wonderful writer.

Every year thousands of lawyers change their jobs. Constant downsizing and layoffs in law firms and the lessening in employment opportunities for lawyers, many more lawyers and law school students are thinking about non-legal options. Yet finding which non-legal possibilities and alternatives are available and fitting can seem like a prodigious and onerous task. The jobs enumerated above will help and assist you in your decision making. These are proven fields and lucrative careers into which many attorneys have productively shifted.