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Career Development Office

Alternative Legal Careers

Many job opportunities exist for law graduates outside of the legal field. These are jobs that do not require a law degree, but can be enhanced because of skills learned in law school. Many of the skills learned in law school (analytical skills, advocacy, communication, research, and the ability to break down a problem into its component parts) are directly transferable into other professions.

The steps to exploring non-traditional legal careers are as follows:

  • Read the famous book entitled What Can You Do with a Law Degree by Deborah Aaron (available in any bookstore or on line at www.nalp.org) which is the best written resource in this area. Aaron’s book will familiarize you with the process of searching for and obtaining a nontraditional legal job.
  • Make an appointment with one of our career counselors so that they can help you conduct a thorough and productive analysis of yourself and your career objectives and then use this knowledge to create an individual job search plan.

For a listing of over 600 alternative legal careers and job titles, visit www.attorneyjobs.com.

The Office of Career Development Office contains additional written resources that can assist you in exploring nontraditional legal careers, including:

  • The Non-Traditional Legal Careers Report (a listing of available nontraditional legal positions throughout the United States, including positions within bar associations, businesses, the judiciary, education, government, law libraries, legal publishing, policy/legislature, public interest and international business.)
  • Alternative Legal Careers for Lawyers
  • Nonlegal Careers for Lawyers (ABA)
  • The Lawyers Career Change Handbook
  • Beyond LA Law-Break the Traditional Lawyer Mold.
  • Turning Points (ABA)
  • Judgment Reversed-Alternative Legal Careers for Lawyers.
  • Changing Jobs
  • NonTraditional Legal Career Pamphlet Series (includes pamphlets on Careers in Legal Publishing, Careers in Financial Support, Careers in Human Resources, Careers in Compliance and Regulatory Affairs and Careers in the Media.)