Aside from the traditional legal paths of becoming a lawyer with a law firm, a company legal counsel, a government lawyer, a barrister, or sole practitioner, there are many other options out there for lawyers that are not as traditional.
Outlined below are some career opportunities available to lawyers not traditionally thought about:
- Commercial manager within a large listed or unlisted company, which may see you lead a team or reach CEO level. Your legal training provides you with a commercial nous that forms part of your DNA and adds tremendous value. A client recently told us that one of our candidates was the reason why their company avoided a million dollar law suit;
- Procurement/contracts manager specialist within a company;
- Working within a legal body such as the Law Institute of Victoria or Legal Services Commissioner to contribute to the ongoing success of the legal industry;
- Business development manager or client relationship manager;
- Public policy advisor;
- University Academic;
- Management Consultant;
- Marketing & PR Consultant;
- Human Resources Consultant or Manager;
- Operations Manager;
- Director of your own business or company.
Your skills are transferable across many positions no matter which direction you choose to go.
You may not know what you will do with your career immediately upon graduating from University or shortly thereafter, so you will have to run with it a bit, but keep self-assessing, and enjoy the journey of discovering who you are and the career path that is right for you.