Other than being a "lawyer"...

Graduate School Law School
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<p>So what else can you be after law school other than just "lawyer"? Are there any government positions you can hold? Just looking for any diversity, if there is.</p>

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<p>There are many employment opportunities for lawyers other than being an actual lawyer. Your ability to branch into other fields will somewhat depend on what your educational background or work experience has been, networking, luck and initiative. But, overall, a law degree is a fairly versatile degree.</p>

<p>Here are some examples I’ve seen personally:

  • politician
  • government employee
  • legal headhunter/recruiter
  • professor
  • law school administrator/admissions/etc.
  • consultant
  • corporate executive/manager
  • agent
  • life insurance and financial advisor
  • public policy
  • law firm attorney development/recruiting/diversity managers</p>
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<p>Much of the jobs you listed can be acquired without a law degree. In fact, holding a law degree might not be at all helpful in attaining them, and in some cases might be detrimental.</p>

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<p>Flowerhead,
Your response assumes that I am recommending that the OP go to law school to obtain get one of my listed careers. I never made that suggestion. The OP asked if other careers are possible with a law degree and my answer is, of course. I have personally seen lawyers hold the positions I listed. Maybe they didn’t need a law degree in the first place, but it sure didn’t hurt.</p>

<p>You are right that many careers are possible without a law degree or any degree at all. Many millionaires/billionaires never graduated high school or college. But how does that fact help the OP or answer his/her question?</p>

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<p>That is such a bad strawman of my claim. The reason the above statement is nonsense, as you know, is that the majority of millionaires/billionaires graduated from high school or college. In the case of the professions above, except for law school administrators and legal head hunters, the vast majority of people within those professions don’t, in fact, have law degrees. Yes, even in legal recruiting. I’ve rarely met a big law firm recruiter who has a law degree. Even at the top firms.</p>

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<p>My post didn’t assume this. I was merely expounding on what you wrote. That is all.</p>

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<p>The very weird post #2 basically says “Sure, being a lawyer doesn’t CLOSE off some opportunities that you could have had anyway.” Which I’m sure was not what the OP was asking.</p>

<p>I assume that the OP was actually asking: “Is there anything for which a law degree is useful other than being a lawyer?” Generally, the answer to the OP’s question is mostly no. With the exception of a few schools in the country – Yale, Harvard, and to a lesser extent Columbia* – law schools are meant for future lawyers. You shouldn’t go there – and you certainly shouldn’t incur debt – unless you actually want to practice law.</p>

<p>*maybe Stanford, I have no idea.</p>

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<p>pretty much just lawyer. </p>

<p>the one caveat is that law firm work can lead to connections into other fields; all of the sudden, you might be dealing with the co-founder of an innovative startup on some legal issue, and then he/she offers you a business or legal position in the company because they like your work and they need to expand quickly. of course you need to be a good networker and performer to make something like that happen. </p>

<p>but there are no jobs out there saying “JD preferred” except law jobs :P</p>

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<p>Flowerhead,
So what if not every job I listed above requires a JD? Does that mean that a lawyer can’t obtain or perform those jobs as the OP asked? I don’t think the OP should go to law school if he/she doesn’t have serious interest in becoming a lawyer, but there are other fields for lawyers to enter after they tire of the law.</p>

<p>In any event, many of the jobs I listed do require a JD or it’s highly preferred. </p>

<p>The legal recruiters I’ve met have most often been ex-attorneys who burnt out or wanted career switches and they got their jobs precisely because they are ex-attorneys who are familiar with big firms. </p>

<p>Maybe not all professors have law degrees (although many do), but all law professors need law degrees.</p>

<p>Many big firm manager level positions require JDs or they are highly preferred. The attorney development manager position at my old firm required a JD as an example. </p>

<p>There are also many public policy institutes out there that a legally related. Having a JD is definitely preferred/required. A PHD wouldn’t hurt there either.</p>

<p>Then there’s other jobs where having a JD most definitely helps:</p>

<p>A majority of U.S. presidents (26) have been lawyers or went to law school. So have many other heads of state, senators, governors, reps, and mayors and governmental employees. Having a law degree from a prestigious law school is a tremendous asset to a politician. </p>

<p>9 of the current Fortune 50 CEOs are lawyers:</p>

<p>[CEO</a>, Esq. - Magazine - ABA Journal](<a href=“CEO, Esq.”>CEO, Esq.)</p>

<p>Again, maybe those 9 could have done the same thing with MBAs, but I think that their legal backgrounds helped at least a little bit.</p>

9

<p>I’m glad you wrote so much, because you’ve provided definitive proof that you have no idea what you’re talking about, so my response needn’t be more substantial than this. Thank you for saving me so much time.</p>

<p>Back to studying!</p>

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<p>Sure, but I think the question was about options for someone coming out of school. And while some of those things are options for law grads, they’re also options for a lot of people who didn’t spend $100K+ on a JD.</p>

11

<p>Sorry for the confusion guys. Essentially my question was…</p>

<p>“Are there any jobs out there that require a JD other than just being a practicing lawyer?”</p>

<p>Your responses were helpful. I’m not seriously considering law school, it’s only something I’ve been debating with myself because I want to major in philosophy, haha.</p>