The legal industry witnesses uncountable instances of dissatisfaction, frustration and stressful dealings everyday. Insanely high amount of workload, extra burdening hours, brainstorming over some major legal loophole, unimaginable deadlines are few of the reasons which make the apparently glamorous and elite career, depressing and stressful at times and forces a lot of professionals to leave the industry. If you have spent a substantial time and amount of your life, studying law and realize that a career in law is not at all feasible for you, then you need not worry, because you can still apply your skills and knowledge to numerous opportunities available outside the black and white legal world.
Following are a few alternative legal career options that you may like to explore for the search of a new and better career path.
Legal Consulting
If you have a sufficient time’s experience in the industry of law and dissatisfied with the same, you can switch your industry and explore really lucrative opportunities as a consultant in law firms and businesses related to legal issues. Consultants have a broad based knowledge and share their expertise on anything and everything ranging from legal marketing to strategic management to communication to legal strategy. Large scale increase in litigation and jury trials have brought forth the need for a growing range of consultants. If you have litigation experience, a jury consultant should be your alternate option to explore. Additionally, there are options such as trial presentation specialist, trial technology consultant, trial strategy consultant or legal investigator. Nurses with legal knowledge find a growing scope in the field of medical malpractice, personal injury and other matters that involve medical issues; in the form of legal nurse consultants whose work is reviewing medical records and advising attorneys on the medical issues pertaining to the case.
The emergence of digital society has brought in new and evolved opportunities for the tech-savvy legal professionals who have special interest in the digital field. Growing fields of litigation support, e-discovery and computer forensics are the fields for them. Knowledge of legal software and technology application skills coupled with insight in the field of legal field will make you a good fit for litigation support with a law firm, corporation or a legal vendor.
Legal Publishing
As a legal professional, the research, writing and editing skills that you possess are of top notch importance. Put those skills to good and effective use in the publishing industry as a professional legal publisher or editor or writer or even a web manager. The ever expanding legal industry has fuelled the growth of a diverse range of publications that cater to the needs of lawyers, paralegal experts, secretaries, litigation support personnel, court reporters etc. Every single legal profession has its own series of publications that look out for skilled writers with sufficient experience in the industry.
The Internet has also created an array of new and improved opportunities for the legal professional-turned-writer. You can share your long-earned knowledge of the law and showcase the writing skills that you possess by writing content for websites, blogs, contributing to e-newsletters or writing copy for law firm websites.
Education and Administration
Another interesting and comparatively worthy career alternative for the legal professional is a career in legal education or academic administration. While academically speaking, the pathway to the nation’s top elite law schools is pretty hard and steep, nevertheless, teaching opportunities exist in abundance in the less explored paralegal schools and legal education organisations. Legal education institutions that cater for the academic needs, hire individuals with ample legal experience to work in career guidance, career service, law libraries, admissions etc.
Dispute Resolution
The ever increasing crowd in the court proceedings and ever rising legal fees have fuelled a movement to settle certain disputes outside of the courtroom by means of negotiation, mediation and dispute resolutions. Neutral arbitrators are appointed who collaborate with the disputing parties to make them reach into a mutually agreeable consensus. Legal professionals who have a strong communication, negotiation and conflict resolution skill can find well paying jobs in this growing field of dispute resolution as mediators, conflict analysts, arbitrators or conciliators.
Banking and Finance
The banking and finance industry usually witnesses involvement of complicated legal, regulatory and compliance issues. Professionals in the legal field who have a background in finance, banking, securities and tax law can impart that knowledge, putting it to use into lucrative positions in the finance industry as escrow agents, compliance specialists, bank managers and other such positions. Also, lawyers can give legal and transactional advice to the financial institutions, corporations and the govt.
Human Resources Management
Talented and observant professionals are in high demand in law firms and corporations for the purpose of managing their legal staff and recruit fresh legal talent, who are worthy enough. Individuals with adequate experience of management, strong interpersonal skills and legal industrial knowledge can find an array of employment opportunities in the said field as law firm administrators, hiring coordinators, professional development scrutinizer, training managers and legal recruiters.
