What kind of professions are out there for law students who don't want to be attorneys?

Question

I am a JD candidate, and to be honest, after investing 2 years of my life in law school, I am not quite sure if law is the field I want to practice in. Are there any other former law students out there that did not end up practicing law?
(and, I don't want to just quit school, since I am almost done. I would rather just complete my degree first).

I am kind of interested in 2 different fields:

(1) compliance - can anyone give me more information in this field? and
(2) fashion law - this would probably be the only area of law that I would be interested in pursuing. There does not seem to be much information out there on the web in this field. Any ideas?

Any helpful tips and ideas would be appreciated. 10 points to the best answer!

Thanks for the suggestions so far, but I want to stay away from law. The only two areas of law that would be interesting are compliance and fashion law.

Also, Stephen - I have seen you cut and paste the same blurb on almost every legal question. While I am sorry to hear your plight and situation, your last paragraph was a enough to post as an answer. I am very well aware that there is a plethora of JD candidates and not enough jobs, but you have to fight for what you want and seems like private practice was a good step for you.

Answer 1

A job with OSHA or a private safety firm is a good idea for an attorney not wishing to actively pursue a career as a lawyer.

Another similar idea would be to get a job with the EPA or with a private environmental outfit.

Both of these jobs revolve around the accurate reading and interpretation of codes and regulations, in effect the law.

EDIT: I'm not talking about being a LAWYER in this capacity. I'm talking about being a field agent.

Another thing you should consider is getting into Human Resource Management. HR Managers deal with LOTS of compliance issues and need to be familiar with many aspects of the legal system, sometimes including EPA codes and regulations, or OSHA codes and regulations, EEOC issues, evidentiary response to sexual harassment in the workplace allegations, etc. Many companies want their HR people to have a solid legal education.

Answer 2

A lot of people with law degrees go to work in the insurance field.

Answer 3

i comprehend you may have a psychology degree and pass to regulation college. I quite have a pal who has a level in international analyze and she or he become making plans on going to regulation college. different than that i think of in basic terms any variety of political technological expertise degree. i'm particular different regulation faculties settle for different majors as long because of the fact the pre-reqs are met.

Answer 4

Immigration would be another good area.

Very few court appearances required - unless you have a client who gets denied and they choose to appeal the decision.

Basically its mostly just filing a LOT of paperwork with the immigration department.

Answer 5

I am an attorney. However, I went to a top 15 school and had mediocre grades. I found the job market to be depressing. So much time, planning, and money went into undergraduate school, I had a 4.0 GPA, and scored above the 95th percentile on the LSAT. I naively thought going to a top school their would be plenty of lucrative and exciting jobs waiting for me and I would be set to have a good quality of life. I remember sending out 300 letters one time and getting no positive response, either they said some nonsense about you are great, you have good accomplishments, but at this time we cannot offer you a position, we will keep your resume on file. I took the Bar Exam in two states wasting time studying and not earning any money. I had to move back in with my parents, fun. Meanwhile many of my friends and people that I knew from High School and College were establishing themselves in their careers and making money, gettng promotions, etc. I worked post-law school as a car salesman and a mortgage broker. Finally a family friend had a friend who was a solo attorney, I worked for him basically for free, actually it was negative because I spent money on travel, long distance phone calls, etc., still living at home with mom and dad, saddled with law school debts, the student loan people started calling wanting $$$. Eventually I left that attorney. I struggled to find another attorney job. Eventually, I got a job in 2003 at firm paying the princely sum of $25,000 per year. I moved out of my parent's house but was still subsidized by them. Dad kept threatening to cut me off, but I lived in an expensive state the cheapest place to stay I found was $1,500 a month all inclusive. My paycheck was like $430.00 a week take home. Eventually, I did go solo, it was hard, but I did make some money in real estate closings for 3 1/2 years. Now the real estate market stinks and I have no income, and I am trying to plan my next move, which may be back to my parents temporarily. I have interviewed for some associate positions and the salary range was 38k-55k, this is pretty low for somone with 5 yrs experience and a doctorate degree. My wife works at a nail salon, as a manicurist, she took a three month course and makes 50K a year. It has been an exquisitely painful road for me. In my family I am the most educated and the least financially secure. My dad makes like $350,000K engineering+MBA degree, my younger sister makes $165,000K a year psyche degree and an MBA. My conclusion, LAW SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Too many law schools fighting for tuition $$$, night programs, weekend programs, low academic standards, too many attorneys, lowering wages and limiting opportunities, compare to the AMA and ADA that insure a shortage of dentists and doctors. When I was solo it seemed like everyone was an attorney, or their cousin was an attorney, or their sister's friend was an attorney, or their brother was an attorney and so and so on, I lost a lot of business because of this. I do not think doctors and dentists face such client poaching. If you are in the top 5%, law review, and went to a good school, yes, you will probably get a good job right from the start. I would have been better off not going to College and instead picking up a trade like being an electrician. Heck, if I had all the money I wasted on education, worked at a gas station during all my non-earning years and put the money into a CD I could probably be able to retire. Looking back, if I had to do it again, if you want to through the hard work and invest the $$$ for education so it pays off you should go into healthcare. Heck their is a shortage of pharmacists and their median wage is $98,000K well above lawyers. Dentists 180,000K median and their is a shortage. Oh well this sucks but this is my life and I will deal with it, I spent my educational time and $$$, and the dye is cast.
From US News, Poor careers for 2006
By Marty Nemko
Posted 1/5/06
Attorney. If starting over, 75 percent of lawyers would choose to do something else. A similar percentage would advise their children not to become lawyers. The work is often contentious, and there's pressure to be unethical. And despite the drama portrayed on TV, real lawyers spend much of their time on painstakingly detailed research. In addition, those fat-salaried law jobs go to only the top few percent of an already high-powered lot.

Many people go to law school hoping to do so-called public-interest law. (In fact, much work not officially labeled as such does serve the public interest.) What they don't teach in law school is that the competition for those jobs is intense. I know one graduate of a Top Three law school, for instance, who also edited a law journal. She applied for a low-paying job at the National Abortion Rights Action League and, despite interviewing very well, didn't get the job.

From the Associated Press, MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A lawmaker who persuaded the Assembly to eliminate all state funding for the University of Wisconsin law school says his reasoning is simple: There's too many lawyers in Wisconsin.

From an ABA study about malpractice claims, More Sole Practicioners: There appears to be an increasing trend toward sole practicioners, due partly to a lack of jobs for new lawyers, but also due to increasing dissatisfaction among experienced lawyers with traditional firms; leading to some claims which could have been avoided with better mentoring.

New Lawyers: Most insurers have noticed that many young lawyers cannot find jobs with established firms, and so are starting their own practices without supervision or mentoring. This is likely to cause an increase in malpractice claims, although the claims may be relatively small in size due to the limited nature of a new lawyers

“In a survey conducted back in 1972 by the American Bar Association, seventy percent of Americans not only didn’t have a lawyer, they didn’t know how to find one. That’s right, thirty years ago the vast majority of people didn’t have a clue on how to find a lawyer. Now it’s almost impossible not to see lawyers everywhere you turn.

P.S. I ran into the same problem. Non-lawyer jobs thought I would quit or I was just waiting to get an attorney job. That is why I always find it odd when people talk about the many uses for a law degree, for me it was detriment and sometimes I would not list it when going for a job. I knew other classmates that worked in the tie department of a store and another one that was a waiter after law school, they probably got something better later on I hope.

Answer 6

I have been over whelmed by government and big business getting away with trampling mine and my daughter rights.

If anyone else did it they would go to prison for grand theft, murder.

I wish and pray that someone would represent people like me and my daughter.