Alternative Legal Career Transitional Strategies Self-assessment exercises can help you determine your strengths and interests, and can actually be a lot of fun and not very time consuming. For lawyers, it's especially helpful to let the creative juices flow, as you have probably been working so hard lately that you haven't had much time to reflect. (16 views)
How Can General Counsel Make Career Switches? Follow General Counsel Donald B. Mitchell's Example. If you're an attorney interested in switching from an in-house position to a law firm position (or vice versa), then read on. Below you will discover how one man made the switch, then switched back, and continues to thrive in the field today. (16 views)
Taking Up Teaching Law As A Career Students with good academic records and those who have published work that has been widely appreciated should seriously consider a career in teaching. (16 views)
Narrowing Down Your Alternative Legal Career Paths Once you have discussed potential career paths with a number of professionals, you should begin to narrow your options. An easy way to begin is to list the top five titles or occupation areas you would consider. Try to keep the areas relatively broad in scope. Eventually you will need to be specific with a tide. Early on in the process you will be much more successful in... (15 views)
What Type of New Non-Legal Career Environment Will Make You Happy? Shifting to a new career environment calls for a lot of courage conviction. Stepping out into hitherto unchartered terrain is not for the faint of heart and many would call it foolhardy. But now that you have taken the decision, ask yourself these questions to understand what your interests are and what sort of new career environment will make you happy. (15 views)
Your First Law Job Does Not Necessarily Mean Your Last One Most people change careers at least three times during their lives. Within each career, most people change jobs several times as well. Economic conditions are constantly changing. Technologies and the demands of the workplace are constantly evolving. Adaptability is the key to survival in the midst of constant change. Keep that perspective in mind as you decide what kind... (14 views)
Alternative Careers with a Joint Degree in Law You have carefully decided law school is for you. You still wonder, however, what else you might do with your legal degree besides practice law. Stories about lawyers turned medical doctors, play-wrights, or ice cream entrepreneurs abound, but these isolated anecdotes are not typical examples of the vast majority of lawyers who move out of the established bounds of... (13 views)
He Left: Was He Right? We watch our colleagues and people we know, change jobs, change firms, change practice areas, or even go to the extreme of changing careers and leaving law practice altogether. Every time I hear such a story about somebody I knew, I wonder about the reasons, and I wonder how it will work out for the person. While leaving a job or changing firms is understandable for many... (7 views)
Beginning Your Search for a Career in a Non-Legal Field By now you probably have a feeling that obtaining a non-legal position that will allow you to utilize the skills you have acquired in law school is going to require a different approach than you would use if you were seeking a position in legal practice. You are right. However, in both areas, more positions are probably lost through failure to do adequate homework than for... (6 views)
Long-Term Planning For a Successful Non-Legal Career Search Once you have tested your ideas about your job search through the networking process, you will want to put together an overall job hunting strategy. (6 views)
Back to School As a Teacher? Have you ever thought about how a vacation rejuvenates a person and his/her career? I am sure you have. But have you, as an attorney, thought of going back to school for anything else rather than for higher studies? Like joining as a teacher perhaps? (5 views)
The Non-Legal Business World Is Unchartered: Develop Contacts To Network The Maze You are sending out introduction letters with accompanying resumes. However, you are unsure whether you have covered all the opportunities. Maybe you did not notice an emerging company. Maybe another division within the target leading edge company needs someone. Do you wait to read about it in the next industry publication? There is a better way to find out what might be... (5 views)
What Counsel Jobs Entail Counsel jobs are generally among the highest paid at a law firm, as this is the senior attorney at a law firm. As a result, you will not be able to walk right into one of these jobs, as you must first prove yourself to be a good lawyer with skills in a number of areas. Counsel work is given to those with years of professional experience and a great deal of knowledge, as... (3 views)
Lawyers Finding Jobs as Coporate Secretaries Long before legally trained persons were working in the regulatory compliance area, lawyers were involved in the corporate secretarial area. Indeed, it is not uncommon that the title "Secretary" is also held by the "General Counsel." Thus, this area was one of the first to demonstrate that non-legal positions within a corporation could benefit from the attention of legally... (2 views)
Leaving Behind A Career In Law Deciding to go to law school is a risky decision that is surprisingly hard to reverse. Many people attend law school for lack of anything better to do or despite major misgivings. They do not drop out at the top schools, despite the fact that a large minority dislike law school itself. (Harvard's attrition rate is typically under 1 percent.) (2 views)