Where to Start When Searching for Alternative Careers for an Attorney?

It is quite common to see attorneys who spend a large part of their regular time in social activities and networking to support their careers as attorneys, and sometimes the shift takes place where the same social activities become the principal area of engagement where your value comes from your experience as an attorney. Many former Presidents can vouchsafe to this fact. Many of them went into politics in relation with their career as attorneys and then became politicians who were valued because of their professional legal experience.

However, since most of you who might want to shift from the career of an attorney may not be thinking of a career in politics, lets discuss some more pragmatic paths about what you should do if you are thinking of shifting from the career of an attorney.

First, do a career analysis, take stock of your strengths and weaknesses, and of what you want to do and why. This is necessary for taking definite steps. If you want to shine in a new career then you need to give all you have got into it, and regrets or a wavering attitude will do great harm to your career as a professional.

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Now, if you find your decision to leave the practice of an attorney justified then we need to take a look at all the career alternatives that you may have waiting for you and assess them each against the field of your choice. Why? Because decision can be influenced by lack of information and you need to gather as much information about alternative careers as possible before you lock your choice.

So, the next step is research. As far as online research is concerned, both for alternative careers within the field of law and outside it, you are at the right place. LawCrossing and EmploymentCrossing are great sites for information you need. In fact if your choice of career is not predetermined, then it would do you a lot of good to go through these sites and research their opportunities and articles. Also the government site run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics can provide you nice bird's eye views of almost every field of occupation.

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The other type of research is offline research, specifically through social networking and studying books. Well, I can't help you much on social networking, but where books are concerned there are some little gems that can help you along. These include:

• JD Preferred: 400+ Things You Can do With a Law Degree (Other Than Practice Law), published by Federal Reports, Inc.
• Judgment Reversed: Alternative Careers for Lawyers by Jeffrey Strausser
• The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook: More than 300 Things You Can Do With a Law Degree by Hindi Greenberg
• Alternative Careers for Lawyers, by Hillary Mantis
• What Can You Do With a Law Degree? A Lawyer's Guide to Career Alternatives Inside, Outside, & Around the Law by Deborah Arron

So, now that you have got the information, you can study almost all the career alternatives that an attorney has. I am sure there must be other great books on the subject, but these are the ones that I know of and most referred by friends.

And if you are determined to go for that alternative career, the only thing I will advice is go ahead full scale. Never do anything half-hearted, for that is sure formula for disaster.

Click here to find alternative career attorney jobs on LawCrossing.