Options for Your Law Degree
Law schools have saturated the job market with law graduates. This has resulted in a dismal path for those with law degrees as far as obtaining employment. Much of the “crisis” coverage relies on data that law schools report to the American Bar Association, which considers a graduate employed if the person has a job and is starting work by the time mid-February rolls around, typically nine months after graduation. In fact, some law schools have been hit with lawsuits claiming that universities and colleges mislead students in the first place with regards to job possibilities.
Less than 50% of the Class of 2010 reported having permanent legal jobs requiring bar passage nine months after graduating, according to recent data. That data was based on similarly categorized figures reported to the American Bar Association. By 2013, or almost three years after graduates entered the market, 80.4% of that same class landed those kinds of jobs. Things also looked brighter for the Class of 2011, too — 47% versus 74%. There are glimmers of hope for law graduates as of lately. The timing of the bar exam is part of the story here, and so is the economy. The data show that many students were getting good jobs, but it was taking some of them longer than it had in the past to get these jobs because of the poor economy.
So, what can you do with a law degree that does not include working in one of the top laws firms in the country? Law students often become professional counselors. Law students are trained for negotiation and resolution. Legal knowledge can be useful during the mediation process. Those with law degrees can work at nongovernmental organizations, as well. They are beneficial to companies where knowledge of the law is crucial to the operations.
And then there are the lawyers who become politicians. While law and politics remain entangled, there is a decline of lawyers entering politics. If politics are not your thing, there is always finance. There are certain fields where a law degree certainly couldn’t hurt such as estates, tax and small business. Even if you don’t want to practice law in the financial sector and prefer to deal with the money, having a legal degree can help because some finance does require legal knowledge.
There will always be value to pursuing more education. Knowledge of the law can make you of great value to a company. Working as a high powered defense attorney or as a prosecutor may be a longshot but there are numerous options for those with law degrees. The job numbers may not be as high as recent law graduates had anticipated but there is hope and there are options.
Source: Sylvestre-Williams, Renee. “Nine Jobs You Can Do With A Law Degree.” www.Forbes.com Forbes Magazine, 22 Nov. 2012. Web. 30 June 2013