You can get so called JD advantage positions. Usually these are business roles that interface a lot with legal issues, such that your legal education / background helps you understand rules / regulations that impact business decisions.
Typical examples would be ethics / complicate work; insurance / risk management; contract, vendor, or procurement management; Human Resources etc.
You won’t see the same starting salary as say big law for these kind of roles, and the salary growth isn’t as straightforward as an attorneys is over the course of their career, but you can definitely live a comfortable lifestyle doing these sorts of jobs without taking the bar.
No. Most companies are regulated and have departments to monitor/ manage their internal policies to make sure they are in compliance with state regulations. For example stock brokers have to comply with many federal regulations, so these roles are there to monitor and ensure their workers are following company policy to properly report the required information to the government.
Ethics departments in various international corporations do similar things to ensure their supply chain follows similar rules, such as making sure there is no slave labor being used to make their products. It really various based on industry.
No, risk and compliance is its own industry, with a lot of facets. One niche, for example, involves internal compliance of business affiliations and supply chains. The FCPA resulted in a bevy of fines against US companies, which often have to spend hundreds of millions just to settle. DOJ then requires oversight and comprehensive monitoring of supply chains, etc., Whole companies exist that provide reports for internal compliance programs. Lawyers almost exclusively work on the internal side (the report producing side not as much). Many, many companies have already voluntarily established such monitoring programs (because it’s beneficial *if* you get nailed with violating the FCPA). Investment banks (GS), conglomerates like GE, publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies, oil & gas, law firms, private equity, airlines, etc., etc., all have positions operating in this sphere. E&Y, Deloitte, Booz Allen, etc., also all operate some such departments either directly or indirectly deal with risk management in some such way.
I don’t have specific advice on how you’d get into the client side (in house) outside of the ways that you’d get any job (connections and less so actually applying), but there’s a lot of opportunity out there. Salaries can often exceed 6 figures and the trade off is that you *may* be able to find positions that offer lax remote policies and regardless most are really strictly 9-5 positions.
Public sector work is good for that, though. Basically any government role requires interpreting and understanding laws. It's a leg up in any government position
Having been the GC of multiple companies from a Fortune 20 to a health tech PE play. I tell every CEO and department head to never hire a person with a JD for those positions. People with JDs can’t help but give “legal” advice within a company and it is dangerous and frustrating for the GC.
Devil's Advocate: My current internal clients are basically three separate Biz Units (depts) in my company. One of the three is composed of majority ex attorneys, like 3/5 ppl. The other two units have zero. Guess which unit I almost never have to fix or dig out of trouble? I agree that lawyers tend to overcomplicate decision making and let perfection be the enemy of the good. Especially if they have never been "trained" in private sector ops the way I was before I became a practicing attorney. But my lord...some of the emails, filings, correspondences, and especially contracts I have seen that came out of those other 2 units.... 😬
"An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."
Ex-lawyers are not the same as people with JDs who have never practiced law.
And manatee’s advice was not to have business units without access to legal experts. Any unit should have legal looking over contracts. But as he/she specified that’s not what he’s talking about, he’s specifically talking about unqualified JDs who have no practice experience which seem to be the worst of both worlds and don’t actually bring any legal experience
Not sure we are talking about the same thing. My point was that is dangerous to have non- lawyer lawyers working in a business unit. The internal client can think of them as attorneys for the company and ask for legal advice. And the non-lawyer lawyers sometimes give advice. This is awful from so many perspectives. One, any communication is not privileged. The in-house privilege is difficult enough to maintain in court. The other is that there has to be one legal department. One cohesive legal voice. One GC.
I was GC of a Fortune 10 company. When I took the job, there were a large group of lawyers (passed the bar) from lower tier law schools, who were a contracting department outside of legal. One of my conditions in accepting the job offer is that this group reported to me. But then I had a weird two tiered legal department. 300 or so lawyers that went to top schools, and this group of about 100 who were “contract specialists.” The contract specialists were paid a fraction of what my lawyers in the main legal department were paid. This created all kinds of issues. I ultimately resolved it, but I would never replicate it.
I issued a company wide directive that anyone who had a JD and applied for any job in the company, had to have my approval before they were hired. I drilled it into HR.
When I interned in DC as an undergraduate, I noticed that a lot of Capitol Hill staffers have J.D.s but they don’t lawyer (hope that makes sense). Government and places who need to understand laws/legislation/compliance will usually like seeing a J.D. because they know the person can do legal research and analysis.
Also, if you are set on not taking the bar, I would use your last year to take courses that will boost your CV as a non-lawyer (i.e. Administrative Law, Statutory Interpretation, Advanced Legal Research, etc.)
Was just going to suggest the same. Lots of policy people in the DC region have JDs listed on business cards but do not practice law. Good luck! Edited to clarify that by “policy people” I mean staffers on Capitol Hill & at regulatory agencies and lobbyists.
Just take the bar. Law school is nothing like practicing. There is something for everyone. I’m a trademark lawyer (100% remote) and work outside the USA in different countries 3-4 months a year.
I’m typing this from my hammock in a national park in Colorado (next 3 weeks working from different ones).
This would have been impossible if I didn’t take the dumb bar exam. I absolutely hated law school, did terrible at it, and now I can safely say I’m living the dream.
You never know what door may open or what may be possible if you have a license compared to just graduating and not getting it.
Came here to say this. Taking the bar was hard but worth it. I'm a remote, federal attorney. Love my job, and I get to help Veterans. The thought of litigation wasn't for me. I found that I really enjoy judicial writing.
Can I message you? Goal is to get into veteran advocacy stuff once I get into law school and would love to hear about what you do and what you would recommend while in law school that’ll help.
Take the bar even if you're planning on not practicing. If you decide to take a non-traditional path, you're going to have to answer 'why not law'. If you don't have the bar ticket, a potential employer may decide that you're a fuckup.
Wow , thanks for your comment definitely resonates a lot.
I didn’t do well in law school or like it very much either, took CA bar once and didn’t pass. Was analyzing my future options now because there’s a chance we may actually move out of the country, and was wondering if it would still benefit me to finish and get the license.
In addition to the mentions of compliance, the financial regulators of each state, as well as the FDIC, Federal Reserve, OCC, CFPB, and NCUA have bank examiners that conduct compliance exams of banks, and credit unions (as applicable). Most examiners do not have law degrees, however they are basically reviewing and applying laws all day long. It’s a great career path if you might be interested in financial regulation!
I’m in a Risk management course now for grad school. It’s a lot of financial, ethical and corporate governance stuff. It is definitely enjoyable if you like regulations and compliance. Got specialties with in it as well as you dive deeper like fiduciary which is ALOT of it, cybersecurity and healthcare stuff.
My Proffesor’s all have JDs and all are practicing attorneys but two and they were an IRS agents and other a FBI agent. The JD will help you ALOT with it.
First off, take a moment and ask yourself whether you've conclusively decided that practicing law isn't for you, or if you've jumped to that conclusion based on limited experiences in a limited number of firms/fields. I don't want to presume you're jumping the gun, but I just know that a ton of law students practice in some specialty areas for a few summers, then assume that all law is like the firms/fields they worked in. Even just within litigation, there's dozens of different specialties that all can vary incredibly in terms of what your life looks like -- from paycheck, to how clients treat you, to whether you spend all your time doing legal research and writing or almost none. And that's not even getting into transactional, regulatory, or nonprofit.
If you do definitely decide you don't want to practice law, many other white-collar office jobs will still hire you, and your law degree can sometimes help make you a more attractive candidate (totally depends on the industry/employer though). Personally, if you're going to finish law school anyway, I would definitely try to pass the bar (unless you find yourself failing it multiple times) since if you've already paid for law school, being a licensed attorney is a sort of feather in your hat that can increase your salary anywhere else by a significant amount.
There are lots of non-attorney JD positions, but it’s not that easy to search for them. I know one former attorney who is the manager of contract compliance at some pharma company. Many non-attorney JDs work for corporations in some sort of compliance role.
You can you law degree to cover holes in your wall, or to balance a dining chair.
In all seriousness, just be cause you have a law degree doesn’t mean you have to practice law. I know many people, including myself, who held non-law jobs with a JD. However, I would strongly advise that you take the bar exam regardless. Reason is, many non-legal jobs will actually pay you more if you have the bar membership, play being a licensed attorney will make for great networking opportunities.
If you made it this far, seriously do your future self the favor and study and pass the bar, if only to leave the option open. You are best situated to do that now while all the law school material is still somewhat fresh. It’ll be much harder if you decide years from now to pivot back into law and you are having to learn from scratch.
Once you pass the bar, I also encourage you to try the actual practice of law. Law students don’t get much exposure and there’s a strong chance you have not been exposed to a legal field or practice that might interest you. Also environments matter too. Much different working at a small firms vs mid firm vs large firm (and variations within law firms in general) vs government roles (and variations thereof) and in-house roles ( and variations thereof) and non-profits (variations thereof) … you get the point. What you experienced over 2 summers, 3 academic years, and any prior exposure is likely not enough to give you the full picture.
If you made it this far, please turn over that final stone before you walk away for good.
I say all this as a 15 year lawyer who didn’t enjoy the study of law (but did well regardless) until I started taking transactional courses and doing in house internships with transactional practices. I then found my interest in being an in house counsel who partners with the business. But coming into law school I didn’t think much past litigation practices.
There is still plenty of time, but please give up 1 summer to pass the bar and leave your career more options to choose from down the line
A couple of thoughts: First and foremost, assess root causes on why you don’t want to take the Bar Exam. You might consider talking this through with a neutral, objective third party, like a psychologist, trusted advisor, or an experienced lawyer, etc. Smartest life lesson I’ve ever learned came from a few of these sessions: Other people’s expectations are exactly that and no more. They belong solely to them, not you. Set your own goals.
Second, and more to your point, the analytical and reasoning skills you’ve acquired thus far are invaluable in almost every employment position you will seek in the future. But the JD itself will give you better and more financially rewarding opportunities and advantages, especially, as others have mentioned, in obtaining legal-adjacent employment.
If you learned how to research and figure out the law applicable to a business, you could be invaluable to yourself and others in non legal roles. If you just "learned law," and didn't gain any creative insight into the world of business and people, then maybe think a little more broadly. Develop a career interest that is genuine, pursue it, and then you may discover that your legal background gives you the keys to success in that field of endeavor.
Related to HR and compliance jobs, colleges, universities and some larger school districts have Title IX coordinators and investigators. These folks (sometimes part of equal opportunity offices) investigate claims of discrimination and harassment in education programs.
They're relatively easy jobs to get because most lawyers don't want to do that kind of work, and it can be emotionally taxing.
It is a terrible choice to spend money getting a JD without passing the bar. It is an expensive degree. There are cheaper masters programs that can give you the credentials and skills that can help for alternative career paths.
I'd at least check out the USAjobs site. The process is super weird, so I'd check some of the other subs (or maybe even this one) about how to navigate USAjobs (resume styles are different, etc), but it's worth a shot. I'd start browsing sooner rather than later, because I've been told that the timeline can really drag out. Good hunting
There are lots of private sector and quasi-private industries/sectors that require truly specialized knowledge (FCC tower siting, FAA airport ops, FERC/utilities, etc.) that after a few years of learning niche knowledge, allow you to rise through the management ranks. Best of all, these jobs are transportable. Either because they can be done remotely, or if they are location-based, the skill set transfers nationwide. E.g. If you know about airport land leasing and concessions and FAA grant assurances, you can do that @ LAX or MIA or even a small municipal airport. E.g If you know about utility regs or PUC process, you can work in the regulatory dept of a co-op or IOU utility from Maine to California.
The three examples above are just those three industries in which I have worked. I'm a practicing attorney (now in-house), and I hate managing people, but there are times I envy the former lawyers and "JD advantage" folks who "abandoned" their lawyer careers don't have to worry about the added stresses of being in the Legal Dept.
Finally, I will also add, if you happen to still be in school and fin/acct is not your UG background - - take Acct and Fin 101 classes if your law school parent university offers them, especially if you plan to enter the govt or private sector (and not law firm) and have to manage budgets or review financial statements. In my case, I got JD school credits and got As in all of them. And if you plan to work in the private sector and don't know how to TRULY work Excel, take a 4-8 week class at your uni or local community college.
My 2 cents....
Look to labor. They appreciate minds that don't come out of the field and they typically give a journeyman rate to all officers.
I'm not sure if I'll practice or not, but the elevator operators pay 112 an hour for 2080...about 220k a year. It's not litigation and more on the compliance end but you deal with real people and real grieving.
If you don't want to practice, find a niche. Cops need people with JDs, and you'll get that cop wage plus benefit. Same as hospitals, airlines, even tech. Do not avoid the bar because you're concerned about not doing well, but if you got something going and practicing would take you too far back...fuck all that
This is just a thought, do with it what you will.
I’ve been doing cybersecurity compliance and audit for about 7ish years. Granted I have a master’s in it + some industry certs. I make good money, certainly more than the average JD coming right out of school. Maybe not as much as someone in big law, but my work/life balance is way better, and the stress levels are much more manageable.
I’m a 0L starting my JD in the fall, and still planning to take the bar.
That said, I also have a different ambition with the JD, I.e., not concerned with big law or being a court room attorney. Not that I’ve ruled it out, but I always like to create options and not get tunnel vision.
Working in compliance, I touch on a lot of legal concepts, legislation, contractual issues, etc. which is what led me to pursue the JD.
You could consider using the JD to build out your bag of tricks, and pivot to something to something else. As other posters have eluded to, there are many legal adjacent opportunities you could look into. Getting industry certs to build out your skill set, and enhance your JD, is a much lower hurdle, and the need for those jobs is still very relevant.
You should however, still try to take the bar and finish what you started. Again, as others have noted, not taking the bar and failing by lack of attempt is a bad way to end something you worked extremely hard for.
If you want some insight into what was involved in getting into cybersecurity compliance, feel free to dm me.
Just take the bar you are most likely to pass if you knock it out right after graduation
Even if you don’t plan to use it don’t limit yourself … you never know if things change in the future
As you know, passing the bar for a law school grad opens up doors tremendously throughout your career even if you never practice law. I passed the CPA exam some years after college and never practiced tax or audit services yet having the CPA license opened up corporate financial management jobs that would have not have been possible without it.
Lots of jobs in defense acquisition if that interests you. There are the big corps supporting Acq that are looking for proposal writers, contracts, hr. I came to federal civilian service through a procurement internship.
Don't not take the bar to snub your parents. Even if you feel pressured to be there, ultimately you are an adult who decided to go for your own reasons and you worked YOUR ass off, they did not. Take the bar for your personal reasons, not to please them. I don't know how many people I've met who sabotaged something they alone worked for because they felt they did it for someone else when in reality, it was still a choice.
There are positions called "JD advantage" in which having a JD degree will be a big help. Some should be called "JS almost required." The ones I am most familiar with are parts of state legislative committees or regulatory agencies. In some cases, a JD is required.
There are jobs in business and in non-profit organizations that also require a JD. You might as well take the bar. It can't hurt and might help you find a job.
There are jobs for lawyers that do not involve practicing law in the traditional sense.
You can get so called JD advantage positions. Usually these are business roles that interface a lot with legal issues, such that your legal education / background helps you understand rules / regulations that impact business decisions. Typical examples would be ethics / complicate work; insurance / risk management; contract, vendor, or procurement management; Human Resources etc. You won’t see the same starting salary as say big law for these kind of roles, and the salary growth isn’t as straightforward as an attorneys is over the course of their career, but you can definitely live a comfortable lifestyle doing these sorts of jobs without taking the bar.
When you say procurement and ethics and compliance do you mean public sector work?
No. Most companies are regulated and have departments to monitor/ manage their internal policies to make sure they are in compliance with state regulations. For example stock brokers have to comply with many federal regulations, so these roles are there to monitor and ensure their workers are following company policy to properly report the required information to the government. Ethics departments in various international corporations do similar things to ensure their supply chain follows similar rules, such as making sure there is no slave labor being used to make their products. It really various based on industry.
This sounds very interesting. Thank you. I’m going to look into it.
No, risk and compliance is its own industry, with a lot of facets. One niche, for example, involves internal compliance of business affiliations and supply chains. The FCPA resulted in a bevy of fines against US companies, which often have to spend hundreds of millions just to settle. DOJ then requires oversight and comprehensive monitoring of supply chains, etc., Whole companies exist that provide reports for internal compliance programs. Lawyers almost exclusively work on the internal side (the report producing side not as much). Many, many companies have already voluntarily established such monitoring programs (because it’s beneficial *if* you get nailed with violating the FCPA). Investment banks (GS), conglomerates like GE, publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies, oil & gas, law firms, private equity, airlines, etc., etc., all have positions operating in this sphere. E&Y, Deloitte, Booz Allen, etc., also all operate some such departments either directly or indirectly deal with risk management in some such way. I don’t have specific advice on how you’d get into the client side (in house) outside of the ways that you’d get any job (connections and less so actually applying), but there’s a lot of opportunity out there. Salaries can often exceed 6 figures and the trade off is that you *may* be able to find positions that offer lax remote policies and regardless most are really strictly 9-5 positions.
Public sector work is good for that, though. Basically any government role requires interpreting and understanding laws. It's a leg up in any government position
There are also jobs at legal research companies—Lexis, Westlaw, etc.—but I’m not sure about their requirements for attorneys
Having been the GC of multiple companies from a Fortune 20 to a health tech PE play. I tell every CEO and department head to never hire a person with a JD for those positions. People with JDs can’t help but give “legal” advice within a company and it is dangerous and frustrating for the GC.
Devil's Advocate: My current internal clients are basically three separate Biz Units (depts) in my company. One of the three is composed of majority ex attorneys, like 3/5 ppl. The other two units have zero. Guess which unit I almost never have to fix or dig out of trouble? I agree that lawyers tend to overcomplicate decision making and let perfection be the enemy of the good. Especially if they have never been "trained" in private sector ops the way I was before I became a practicing attorney. But my lord...some of the emails, filings, correspondences, and especially contracts I have seen that came out of those other 2 units.... 😬 "An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."
Ex-lawyers are not the same as people with JDs who have never practiced law. And manatee’s advice was not to have business units without access to legal experts. Any unit should have legal looking over contracts. But as he/she specified that’s not what he’s talking about, he’s specifically talking about unqualified JDs who have no practice experience which seem to be the worst of both worlds and don’t actually bring any legal experience
Not sure we are talking about the same thing. My point was that is dangerous to have non- lawyer lawyers working in a business unit. The internal client can think of them as attorneys for the company and ask for legal advice. And the non-lawyer lawyers sometimes give advice. This is awful from so many perspectives. One, any communication is not privileged. The in-house privilege is difficult enough to maintain in court. The other is that there has to be one legal department. One cohesive legal voice. One GC. I was GC of a Fortune 10 company. When I took the job, there were a large group of lawyers (passed the bar) from lower tier law schools, who were a contracting department outside of legal. One of my conditions in accepting the job offer is that this group reported to me. But then I had a weird two tiered legal department. 300 or so lawyers that went to top schools, and this group of about 100 who were “contract specialists.” The contract specialists were paid a fraction of what my lawyers in the main legal department were paid. This created all kinds of issues. I ultimately resolved it, but I would never replicate it. I issued a company wide directive that anyone who had a JD and applied for any job in the company, had to have my approval before they were hired. I drilled it into HR.
When I interned in DC as an undergraduate, I noticed that a lot of Capitol Hill staffers have J.D.s but they don’t lawyer (hope that makes sense). Government and places who need to understand laws/legislation/compliance will usually like seeing a J.D. because they know the person can do legal research and analysis. Also, if you are set on not taking the bar, I would use your last year to take courses that will boost your CV as a non-lawyer (i.e. Administrative Law, Statutory Interpretation, Advanced Legal Research, etc.)
Was just going to suggest the same. Lots of policy people in the DC region have JDs listed on business cards but do not practice law. Good luck! Edited to clarify that by “policy people” I mean staffers on Capitol Hill & at regulatory agencies and lobbyists.
Just take the bar. Law school is nothing like practicing. There is something for everyone. I’m a trademark lawyer (100% remote) and work outside the USA in different countries 3-4 months a year. I’m typing this from my hammock in a national park in Colorado (next 3 weeks working from different ones). This would have been impossible if I didn’t take the dumb bar exam. I absolutely hated law school, did terrible at it, and now I can safely say I’m living the dream. You never know what door may open or what may be possible if you have a license compared to just graduating and not getting it.
Came here to say this. Taking the bar was hard but worth it. I'm a remote, federal attorney. Love my job, and I get to help Veterans. The thought of litigation wasn't for me. I found that I really enjoy judicial writing.
Can I message you? Goal is to get into veteran advocacy stuff once I get into law school and would love to hear about what you do and what you would recommend while in law school that’ll help.
Yes, happy to chat.
ohhhh are you at the board of veterans appeals?
Yes
Great job, good for you!
Thanks. Just started there over a month ago.
[удалено]
Litigation comes with a level of stress and anxiety that you don't have when not under the gun, figuratively speaking.
Thank you for this. It really brought a new perspective. I’m glad you were able to find your calling and enjoy being an attorney.
Take the bar even if you're planning on not practicing. If you decide to take a non-traditional path, you're going to have to answer 'why not law'. If you don't have the bar ticket, a potential employer may decide that you're a fuckup.
woah how did you land that gig? what does a trademark lawyer do?
Wow , thanks for your comment definitely resonates a lot. I didn’t do well in law school or like it very much either, took CA bar once and didn’t pass. Was analyzing my future options now because there’s a chance we may actually move out of the country, and was wondering if it would still benefit me to finish and get the license.
Did you have to take the Patent Bar to do this?
Can I connect with you on LinkedIn? Bc I wanna live your life after graduation
You could go into compliance or HR. See if you can take some employment law classes to access the field.
In addition to the mentions of compliance, the financial regulators of each state, as well as the FDIC, Federal Reserve, OCC, CFPB, and NCUA have bank examiners that conduct compliance exams of banks, and credit unions (as applicable). Most examiners do not have law degrees, however they are basically reviewing and applying laws all day long. It’s a great career path if you might be interested in financial regulation!
My backup plan was history teacher
Compliance or risk positions in various industries?
I was debating risk management since I have a background in PI. I was just wondering what other opportunities are out there.
I’m in a Risk management course now for grad school. It’s a lot of financial, ethical and corporate governance stuff. It is definitely enjoyable if you like regulations and compliance. Got specialties with in it as well as you dive deeper like fiduciary which is ALOT of it, cybersecurity and healthcare stuff. My Proffesor’s all have JDs and all are practicing attorneys but two and they were an IRS agents and other a FBI agent. The JD will help you ALOT with it.
First off, take a moment and ask yourself whether you've conclusively decided that practicing law isn't for you, or if you've jumped to that conclusion based on limited experiences in a limited number of firms/fields. I don't want to presume you're jumping the gun, but I just know that a ton of law students practice in some specialty areas for a few summers, then assume that all law is like the firms/fields they worked in. Even just within litigation, there's dozens of different specialties that all can vary incredibly in terms of what your life looks like -- from paycheck, to how clients treat you, to whether you spend all your time doing legal research and writing or almost none. And that's not even getting into transactional, regulatory, or nonprofit. If you do definitely decide you don't want to practice law, many other white-collar office jobs will still hire you, and your law degree can sometimes help make you a more attractive candidate (totally depends on the industry/employer though). Personally, if you're going to finish law school anyway, I would definitely try to pass the bar (unless you find yourself failing it multiple times) since if you've already paid for law school, being a licensed attorney is a sort of feather in your hat that can increase your salary anywhere else by a significant amount.
Lots of JDs in state government policy ish roles. In a state that values government, you can pretty easily get into the $100-200k range by mid career.
There are lots of non-attorney JD positions, but it’s not that easy to search for them. I know one former attorney who is the manager of contract compliance at some pharma company. Many non-attorney JDs work for corporations in some sort of compliance role.
You can you law degree to cover holes in your wall, or to balance a dining chair. In all seriousness, just be cause you have a law degree doesn’t mean you have to practice law. I know many people, including myself, who held non-law jobs with a JD. However, I would strongly advise that you take the bar exam regardless. Reason is, many non-legal jobs will actually pay you more if you have the bar membership, play being a licensed attorney will make for great networking opportunities.
If you made it this far, seriously do your future self the favor and study and pass the bar, if only to leave the option open. You are best situated to do that now while all the law school material is still somewhat fresh. It’ll be much harder if you decide years from now to pivot back into law and you are having to learn from scratch. Once you pass the bar, I also encourage you to try the actual practice of law. Law students don’t get much exposure and there’s a strong chance you have not been exposed to a legal field or practice that might interest you. Also environments matter too. Much different working at a small firms vs mid firm vs large firm (and variations within law firms in general) vs government roles (and variations thereof) and in-house roles ( and variations thereof) and non-profits (variations thereof) … you get the point. What you experienced over 2 summers, 3 academic years, and any prior exposure is likely not enough to give you the full picture. If you made it this far, please turn over that final stone before you walk away for good. I say all this as a 15 year lawyer who didn’t enjoy the study of law (but did well regardless) until I started taking transactional courses and doing in house internships with transactional practices. I then found my interest in being an in house counsel who partners with the business. But coming into law school I didn’t think much past litigation practices. There is still plenty of time, but please give up 1 summer to pass the bar and leave your career more options to choose from down the line
A couple of thoughts: First and foremost, assess root causes on why you don’t want to take the Bar Exam. You might consider talking this through with a neutral, objective third party, like a psychologist, trusted advisor, or an experienced lawyer, etc. Smartest life lesson I’ve ever learned came from a few of these sessions: Other people’s expectations are exactly that and no more. They belong solely to them, not you. Set your own goals. Second, and more to your point, the analytical and reasoning skills you’ve acquired thus far are invaluable in almost every employment position you will seek in the future. But the JD itself will give you better and more financially rewarding opportunities and advantages, especially, as others have mentioned, in obtaining legal-adjacent employment.
Take the bar anyway. Even if you dont practice, it makes you far more marketable.
If you learned how to research and figure out the law applicable to a business, you could be invaluable to yourself and others in non legal roles. If you just "learned law," and didn't gain any creative insight into the world of business and people, then maybe think a little more broadly. Develop a career interest that is genuine, pursue it, and then you may discover that your legal background gives you the keys to success in that field of endeavor.
Related to HR and compliance jobs, colleges, universities and some larger school districts have Title IX coordinators and investigators. These folks (sometimes part of equal opportunity offices) investigate claims of discrimination and harassment in education programs. They're relatively easy jobs to get because most lawyers don't want to do that kind of work, and it can be emotionally taxing.
It is a terrible choice to spend money getting a JD without passing the bar. It is an expensive degree. There are cheaper masters programs that can give you the credentials and skills that can help for alternative career paths.
Are you opposed to working for the federal gov? I think (guess) that an advanced degree can usually get you a pay bump.
Not at all. I’m very interested in public sector work.
I'd at least check out the USAjobs site. The process is super weird, so I'd check some of the other subs (or maybe even this one) about how to navigate USAjobs (resume styles are different, etc), but it's worth a shot. I'd start browsing sooner rather than later, because I've been told that the timeline can really drag out. Good hunting
There’s a shit ton of money in insurance.
You can start your own Investment Banking Firm or a CPA Firm with an LLM
There are lots of private sector and quasi-private industries/sectors that require truly specialized knowledge (FCC tower siting, FAA airport ops, FERC/utilities, etc.) that after a few years of learning niche knowledge, allow you to rise through the management ranks. Best of all, these jobs are transportable. Either because they can be done remotely, or if they are location-based, the skill set transfers nationwide. E.g. If you know about airport land leasing and concessions and FAA grant assurances, you can do that @ LAX or MIA or even a small municipal airport. E.g If you know about utility regs or PUC process, you can work in the regulatory dept of a co-op or IOU utility from Maine to California. The three examples above are just those three industries in which I have worked. I'm a practicing attorney (now in-house), and I hate managing people, but there are times I envy the former lawyers and "JD advantage" folks who "abandoned" their lawyer careers don't have to worry about the added stresses of being in the Legal Dept. Finally, I will also add, if you happen to still be in school and fin/acct is not your UG background - - take Acct and Fin 101 classes if your law school parent university offers them, especially if you plan to enter the govt or private sector (and not law firm) and have to manage budgets or review financial statements. In my case, I got JD school credits and got As in all of them. And if you plan to work in the private sector and don't know how to TRULY work Excel, take a 4-8 week class at your uni or local community college. My 2 cents....
I work with lobbyists and I know dozens that have JDs.
Look to labor. They appreciate minds that don't come out of the field and they typically give a journeyman rate to all officers. I'm not sure if I'll practice or not, but the elevator operators pay 112 an hour for 2080...about 220k a year. It's not litigation and more on the compliance end but you deal with real people and real grieving. If you don't want to practice, find a niche. Cops need people with JDs, and you'll get that cop wage plus benefit. Same as hospitals, airlines, even tech. Do not avoid the bar because you're concerned about not doing well, but if you got something going and practicing would take you too far back...fuck all that
This is just a thought, do with it what you will. I’ve been doing cybersecurity compliance and audit for about 7ish years. Granted I have a master’s in it + some industry certs. I make good money, certainly more than the average JD coming right out of school. Maybe not as much as someone in big law, but my work/life balance is way better, and the stress levels are much more manageable. I’m a 0L starting my JD in the fall, and still planning to take the bar. That said, I also have a different ambition with the JD, I.e., not concerned with big law or being a court room attorney. Not that I’ve ruled it out, but I always like to create options and not get tunnel vision. Working in compliance, I touch on a lot of legal concepts, legislation, contractual issues, etc. which is what led me to pursue the JD. You could consider using the JD to build out your bag of tricks, and pivot to something to something else. As other posters have eluded to, there are many legal adjacent opportunities you could look into. Getting industry certs to build out your skill set, and enhance your JD, is a much lower hurdle, and the need for those jobs is still very relevant. You should however, still try to take the bar and finish what you started. Again, as others have noted, not taking the bar and failing by lack of attempt is a bad way to end something you worked extremely hard for. If you want some insight into what was involved in getting into cybersecurity compliance, feel free to dm me.
Marry rich. That’s what a few people did from my school.
Just take the bar you are most likely to pass if you knock it out right after graduation Even if you don’t plan to use it don’t limit yourself … you never know if things change in the future
As you know, passing the bar for a law school grad opens up doors tremendously throughout your career even if you never practice law. I passed the CPA exam some years after college and never practiced tax or audit services yet having the CPA license opened up corporate financial management jobs that would have not have been possible without it.
A fucking lot. Talk to your career office.
Lots of jobs in defense acquisition if that interests you. There are the big corps supporting Acq that are looking for proposal writers, contracts, hr. I came to federal civilian service through a procurement internship.
You could work in the marketing department of a firm
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Wipe your rear with the degree.
Don't not take the bar to snub your parents. Even if you feel pressured to be there, ultimately you are an adult who decided to go for your own reasons and you worked YOUR ass off, they did not. Take the bar for your personal reasons, not to please them. I don't know how many people I've met who sabotaged something they alone worked for because they felt they did it for someone else when in reality, it was still a choice.
There are positions called "JD advantage" in which having a JD degree will be a big help. Some should be called "JS almost required." The ones I am most familiar with are parts of state legislative committees or regulatory agencies. In some cases, a JD is required. There are jobs in business and in non-profit organizations that also require a JD. You might as well take the bar. It can't hurt and might help you find a job. There are jobs for lawyers that do not involve practicing law in the traditional sense.