Job Ideas for Law Students
Suppose that alongside learning the case-law, the statutes and the vagaries of the legal system, the other thing you've learned while getting your degree is that, of all things, you do not want to be a lawyer.
If you do, why would you be reading this?
So assuming that none of the traditional routes of solicitor, advocate, barrister really appeal – what else is open to you? Well, that might depend upon how much you specialised in getting your degree.
Hopefully, you will have recognised early on that focusing on contract law would give you the widest range of options.
Criminal law whilst often the most interesting is quite narrow in terms of direct application.
Tort comes a close second to contract in terms of adaptability, but being the most mutable, it is often the area to lose currency to legislation most quickly.
A legal degree with a high contract content will look good on a CV for anyone wanting to enter the world of business and many of the public sector arenas. It is the most adaptable but also the most directly applicable. It is simply easier to sell to a prospective employer as being relevant.
That's the trick. You've got the degree. You may have a general idea of what kind of work you want to do, or what kind of organisation or industry you want to work in, but you're not sure how to get that foot in the door – especially given that you're feeling that maybe you've just wasted three years or more getting a law degree. What you need to do now is make it relevant. Market that line on your CV. Think about the transferability of the skills.
It's not about having a law degree. It's about having what you needed to have to get a law degree.
Let's look at the four key skills needed to be successful in law and legal studies and how they can usefully deployed outside the narrow confines of the legal profession.
Skill 1: Ability to read the law
Literally. The ability to read an Act of Parliament or Statutory Instrument is surprisingly rare. "Why is it so difficult?" a trainee solicitor asked in a recent project group meeting I attended, "It's only reading English."
Precisely. The sad truth is young people are not taught how to read these days. Once they can follow basic sentence structure sufficiently to read a popular novel, that seems to be considered "job done". The old-fashioned comprehension tests don't feature the way they need to, if we are to bring through school children able to decipher complicated constructions.
Argue for plain English legal documents as much as you like; sometimes the legal language has to be complex to avoid ambiguity.
What is it good for?
Virtually every firm will have a section dedicated to ensuring a level of compliance to internal and external rules. It might be called "Risk and Compliance" or "Internal Audit", or it might fall to the Chief Executive's or Company Secretary's team, or it might rest with the Policy unit but someone somewhere will be charged with looking after the legal framework within which the business has to operate.
Jobs to consider
Don't focus on the job titles. Also beware that you will not be going in on top dollar. Thinking of this as an entry point, look instead at the kind of business you want to work for (Dynamic? Money-making? Public-service? Education? Manufacturing?) or the are of operations that interest you (Human Resources? Construction? Environmental? Facilities and Buildings? Sales? Purchasing? General Management).
Then scour the advertisements, particularly in the trade press and on-line, looking at the role specification but also at the reporting line. P.A. to the Company Secretary might sound like a diary-keeper-tea-maker, but can very quickly turn into an Executive Secretary, Assistant Company Secretary role if the skill, talent and commitment are there.
Data protection is an increasingly fraught area of the law in the UK, environmental regulations get ever more complicated. A generic role in a policy department can lead to opportunities to specialise, particularly in emerging areas of legislation.
Skill 2: Understanding contracts
That ability to read and/or write complicated English constructions also translates into being able to read or write a contract. More importantly, being able to relate what's written to legislation and recent case law grants the additional benefit of being able to advise on the suitability of contract terms.
What is it good for?
Any department of any business that involves contracts. Purchasing departments, Sales departments, HR sections, property development companies, managing pop groups or sportsmen (although you'd need a good contacts list and broad experience of the industry). Again, it's a major function of Chief Executive / Company Secretary's departments.
Jobs to consider
If you think that either procurement or sales roles are primarily about negotiation you're only looking at half the story. Yes you have to do the deal, but if you don't then tie it up in a watertight contract, it will go sour. Buying for (and selling to) the public sector has a whole legal framework of its own – and the best buyers and sellers need someone on their team who understands it. Such specialism may not have formed part of your law degree, but you have the skills necessary to acquire the knowledge very quickly and apply it professionally. If you have the other qualities necessary to be a buyer or a salesman, a Law degree could be the differentiator that gets you the job.
HR teams also need specialist advice. In their case this is more likely to be 'bought in' at need rather than provided in house, which means that there are consultancy firms exist to supply the need. The firms generally supply a wide remit of HR advice and support, but having an in-house lawyer will be both a cost-cutter and a USP for them. If they're not advertising in this capacity – approach them anyway.
Skill 3: Advocacy
That's a very legal word: translate it to "negotiation skills" and you're back in business.
What is it good for?
Any scenario where you need to convince someone to believe in your point of view.
Jobs to consider
In business it's most obviously applicable to purchasing or sales. But what about advertising? If you can sell a blatant criminal as an upstanding member of the community – what else can you sell to a distrusting jury? Washing powder? Junk food? High-end high-price motor cars? Luxury holidays? Home insurance?
Or maybe you're a social worker? A charity advisor? Perhaps you'd like to help parents achieve the special needs statement their child requires to ensure they are appropriately educated.
Skill 4: ResearchStatute law is sometimes considered the smallest part of the English legal system. Much more rests upon the interpretation of the statutes, on case or common law. To be able to advise a legal client you will have learned not only to apply statutes to a scenario, but also to research the relevant interpretations, quite often conflicting interpretations to find the ones that best suit your argument, whilst being aware of how they might be countered.
What is it good for?
If you want to move beyond specifically legal research, most roles will be broader than anything you've done acquiring your degree, but you have already demonstrated an ability to trawl through records ancient and modern in a direct, targeted fashion.
Jobs to consider
Librarian. Researchers for TV documentary makers, for writers, for genealogists, for academics. Many research roles tend to be project-based, so you might want to consider free-lancing, enabling you to pick the areas which interest you most, but at the risk of having no guarantee of steady income.
These opportunities are seldom advertised, so you do need to be a self-starter and getting started might be tough but if the idea of staying out of the rat-race appeals, it is worth trawling the web and plying your contacts list with regular requests just in case.
A degree, even a Law Degree, is no guarantee of a job in the brave new world. Unless your heart is set on the full-blown legal profession, you will need to think creatively about how you put it to use. If you are prepared to "work up" your career (and let's face it, as a lawyer that's exactly what you'd have to do) then choose carefully the area you want to work in first, and only then consider what precise applications your law degree has.
Highlight any relevant areas of study that directly cover where you're looking to go, but above all play up those key skills, they're more transferable than you might have thought.
