But once you graduate, you may decide that pursuing a traditional legal path isn’t for you. While it can be a challenging decision to make, the good news is that there are plenty of jobs in the social-impact space where your law degree can be quite useful.
Since about a quarter of law school graduates end up not practicing law, we thought we’d take a deeper dive into how to refocus your legal career.
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1. High School Teacher
Law school teaches you a lot about how our government functions, making it excellent training for a career teaching at a variety of levels. Of course, you can always teach at a law school, or even undergrad, but you may also want to consider teaching at the high-school level.
Many high schools have government, criminal justice, or other law-related courses. Some schools also have extracurricular activities focused on civic engagement, such as the Center for Civic Education’s We the People program.
If you’re interested in becoming a teacher, many states won’t require you to go back and get an education degree. To be sure, you should check with your state’s board of education or your local school district.
2. Curriculum Specialist
Likewise, if you have an interest in education but not in working in a classroom, there are options for you to work behind the scenes creating lessons rooted in law. There are plenty of nonprofit organizations that offer curriculum around a variety of social-justice areas, such as civic engagement, immigration law, and civil rights.
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Check out Teaching for Change, Street Law, and Southern Poverty Law Center, to start.
3. Legislative Analyst
This is probably the most obvious choice, especially if your desire for obtaining a law degree stemmed from an interest in public policy. Whatever your passion—environmental justice, women’s rights, immigration—there’s an organization out there advocating for change. Having a law degree will make you more competitive for these positions.
If you’d prefer to work in the public sector, there are plenty of jobs with elected officials and government agencies at all levels.
4. Nonprofit Executive Director
Running a nonprofit organization requires a fair amount of knowledge about the law. As a director, you would need to know about federal laws pertaining to nonprofit status and tax exemptions and labor and employment laws. You would also need an understanding of the legal fiduciary responsibility of a Board of Directors.
If you were someone who enjoyed learning about regulations in law school and have an interest in the nonprofit sector, this may be the direction for you. (Check out this article for more information.)
5. Therapist
If you pursue this path, you’ll likely need to obtain more education and perhaps a certification. But the skills you learned in law school will likely help you as a therapist. In law school, you were taught to be analytical and to listen to your clients, and if you’re motivated by wanting to help people, then providing therapy to them is another great option.
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Another bonus is that there’s actually an emerging field of therapists who specialize in working with stressed-out attorneys. What better training is there for helping someone who’s unhappy working as a lawyer than experience as a lawyer?
6. Foreign Service Officer
Interested in international relations? Consider pursuing a career as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department. There’s no specific degree requirement to pursue this career, but having a law degree and the knowledge about international law can certainly boost your chances.
As a Foreign Service Officer, you’ll likely utilize some of the same skills as a lawyer. You’ll research and write reports and negotiate with government officials.
Think about the skills that you learned and what you enjoyed most about law school when you’re determining where to take your career next, and see if any of these fit the mold.
This article was originally published on Idealist Careers. It has been republished here with permission.
Source: https://tholansonnha.com
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