New York Lawyer
April 17, 2001

Q:
I'm ready to leave the law. What kind of job can I get?

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A:
There is no simple answer to that question. There is no ready-made job marketplace with a big banner over the door that reads, �Give me your poor, your overstressed, your bummed out and burnt out lawyers.� However, if you look at people who have made a successful shift � and they are legion � you can discern some broad categories:

1. Occupations that draw on the generic abilities lawyers learn by being lawyers.
2. Law-related or law-like occupations.
3. Complete and total paradigm shifts.

By virtue of having completed law school and passed the bar, all lawyers are generally given full faith and credit for certain job-related strengths:

1. They must be passably intelligent.
2. They probably have decent writing and interpersonal communications skills.
3. They have been trained to size up multi-variable situations and perform competent issues analysis.
4. They are highly attuned to risks and downsides.
5. They tend to be self-reliant individual contributors who work well independently.
6. They are comfortable in project-based settings where work tends to have a continuing series of beginnings, middles, ends and success experiences.

This means that once a retread lawyer credibly spins his or her rationale for leaving law, they may be credible candidates for jobs that focus heavily assessment/situation analysis, tactical thinking, alliance-building, and oral and written persuasion. There�s a lot of land out there.

Many lawyers also succeed in roles that build on a technical skill set or knowledge base they mastered as lawyers, whether it be tax, corporate finance, regulatory law, human-resources related disciplines, etc. And many lawyers with a strong set of technical credentials either carry those skills in-house (becoming a cost center in the legal department rather than a profit center in the law firm) or, in effect, �flip to the client side� by selling those skills � but not as a lawyer. Accordingly, you see a lot of ex-employment lawyers in human resources, or transactional lawyers in venture capital, investment banking, real estate or other deal-driven vocations. You see CFO�s who once were tax lawyers and Vice Presidents of Business Development who once documented public offerings or helped structure acquisitions.

Litigators tend to have a narrower playing field, because they were focused on adversarial activity. They often are rebuffed when seeking win-win roles (either in law or outside of practice) because employers suspect they may be contentious, argumentative or non-collaborative. However, they do tend to find acceptance in roles where the focus is rational persuasion utilizing strong communication skills. Many find a home in lobbying or government relations, legislative affairs, not-for-profit advocacy, journalism (especially investigative journalism), technical writing, public relations, community relations, and making investor presentations. A very sizable number make the transition into didactic roles � teaching, delivering seminars, corporate training, management development consulting, etc.

Where you usually do not find ex-lawyers is in general management � often called �line management.� Why? People who gravitate toward line management often have a generalist mentality and a strong team-based motivational button. Many lawyers first sought law because by temperament they wanted to be specialists � to be identified by what they knew. That�s why you�ll find more ex-lawyers in corporate staff positions that build on a specific knowledge set � information technology, comp/benefits, human resources, etc.

Probably the lion�s share, however, go where their heart takes them or opportunity knocks them. They may find a cause or activity that flips their on-switch, and sheer motivation lubricates the friction of a major career change.

Some of these folks simply transfer their generic experience to a new setting; others �re-credential� themselves by acquiring a new body of knowledge and set of credentials, whether it be an executive MBA, a Ph.D. in marine biology, Novell certification, ordination as a minister or rabbi, or that certificate of achievement from the Lawn Mower Repair Institute of America.

A lot of lawyers seek and find �lifestyle occupations,� where maximizing income or career advancement is secondary to life balance, love of the outdoors, or feeding some strong personal value such as creativity, human service or artistic endeavors. Frankly, most career shifts result in at least an initial reduction in earnings. Most escapees report, however, that the benefits outweigh the costs.

Sincerely,
Douglas B. Richardson
President, The Richardson Group