<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>What other career paths are available for J.D. holders other than working as lawyers? I don't really want to be a lawyer but am interested in law as a field of study.</p>
<p>Academia, mostly. A law degree is also a good credential to have for politics, and other government-related work. It will also help in the administrative field. You get the idea.</p>
<p>Joke:</p>
<p>"A" law students become professors. "B" Law students become practicing lawyers and litigators. "C" law students become politicians...ok...now laugh</p>
<p>Oh yeah..."D" law students go on to head FEMA. :D</p>
<p>If you graduate from an elite law school (and I mean elite), then the worlds of consulting and I-banking open up to you. That's how Robert Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury, got to where he did. He went to Yale law, worked in a law firm for a few years, then joined Goldman Sachs as a risk-arbitrage associate, eventually rising to Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner, before being named Treasury Sec. </p>
<p>One funny thing about Rubin is that he freely admits in his autobiography that he never had a well-defined reason for going to law school and he knew he didn't really want to be a lawyer. He just thought that law school would help him in his later career, although at the time he had no idea what that would be. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that the consulting firms and investment banks recruit heavily at the top law schools. I believe that for the last few years, the largest single recruiter of freshly minted Harvard Law grads has not been a law firm, but rather has been the management consulting firm McKinsey. Goldman Sachs and other top banks are also quite prominent recruiters top law schools.</p>
<p>However, keep in mind that these opportunities are generally available only at the top law schools. A no-name law school is not going to help you get into McKinsey or Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>Some law enforcement personal will get a JD to become more knowledgeable and help them advance in the field. Some people go to law school and either cannot become lawyers (because there are no job offerings, for example) or do not want to become lawyers.</p>
<p>*FBI, CIA
*government
*politics
*lobbyists
*working in-house at corporations
*some fields like insurance</p>