Ex Judicata recently attended the National Association for Law Placement’s annual convention. Fifteen hundred career services professionals from law firms and law schools were in attendance. There is bad news and good news. The bad news: many law firms and law schools still do not have a handle on assisting lawyers who want to transition to nonlegal careers.
Nowhere was this more apparent than at a session on J.D. Advantage Careers featuring Ex Judicata’s own Kim Fine joined by leaders from Baker & Hosteler, Lubrizol Corporation, and Ava Maria School of Law. For the uninitiated, J.D. Advantage is a designation which has been around for decades and speaks to nonlegal careers where having a law degree is an advantage.
The session was standing room only and from the questions and line of people waiting to talk to Kim afterward it was apparent that both law firms and law schools are starting to realize what they don’t know and are hungry to learn more about nonlegal options for J.D.s.
The good news: People like Celestine Oglesby of Ave Maria Law and the NALP JD Advantage Working Group (Chairs Ellen Dolan of Suffolk Law School and Cassie Butler of University of Massachusetts Law School) are working hard to change the status quo and helping law students, and those that advise them, to pave nonlegal career paths. And Ex Judicata is proud to be playing a role by continuing to build exjudicata.com
That leads to the focus of this month’s column:
Part Of The Foundation Has Already Been Laid
Some very defined nonlegal career trajectories for J.D.s exist, there to be pursued by lawyers and law students seeking to transition and those that advise them.
There are the tried-and-true J.D. Advantage careers in compliance, tax, and investigative services. Over the past decade, careers in legal tech and legal ops have been added to those occupations where having a J.D. is a clear advantage and where employers actively seek to hire J.D.s for non-practicing roles
There are also J.D. Adjacent careers in which having a J.D. is a big plus, with a long history of J.D.s being successful. But to date, employers do not specifically seek to hire J.D.s for these careers. This is essentially the difference between J.D. Advantage and J.D. Adjacent careers. Both lean heavily on utilizing a law school education. More specifically, leveraging what is known as the J.D. Skill Set.
What Is The J.D. Skill Set?
While no set definition or ranking of traits exists, the skill set can be said to include the following:
- Analytical thinking
- Issue spotting
- Risk assessment
- Delivering under pressure
- Superb verbal, written, and presentation skills
- Driven to exceed expectations
- Laser focus on goal attainment
- Stamina to work very long hours
- Ability to manage huge amounts of data/information
Let’s look at some of these J.D. Adjacent careers that have been so welcoming to lawyers.
Communications. This includes journalism, marketing, public relations, and crisis management. Talk about places to utilize the J.D. skill set!
Sales. There is a common misperception that lawyers cannot sell, possibly from a mistaken belief that lawyering is very different from selling. But is it?
What makes a great salesperson? The ability to spot a client’s problem before the client does and proactively provide a solution … and what are lawyers trained to do, issue spot.
And what about those lawyers seeking to transition to nonlegal careers with courtroom experience? If you can sell a jury or a judge under the pressure of a trial, you can essentially sell anything. Because you know how to tell a story and read emotions.
Insurance. Outside of the Big 4 accounting firms, no other employer offers more nonlegal career paths for lawyers than insurance companies. There are many defined paths:
- Risk analysis
- Risk management
- Claims
- Brokerage
- Underwriting
All of these insurance careers are welcoming to J.D.s.
Wealth Management. Perhaps no J.D. Adjacent career is growing faster than wealth management.
Law and finance intersect in several areas, including: estate planning, investments, tax strategies, and planned giving. Whether advising individuals, family offices, or institutions, lawyers are well-equipped to pivot to careers in wealth management because analyzing and synthesizing complex information is crucial to developing tailored financial strategies.
The combination of analytical skills, attention to detail, strong communication, legal knowledge, ethical standards, and entrepreneurial spirit makes lawyers well-suited to careers as financial advisors.
Ex Judicata has a free (no strings attached or sales calls) hour-long webinar, “If I Leave the Law…Careers in Wealth Management, on May 7 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET.
You can access other free career-specific webinars in our “If I Leave the Law…” series here.
For those at the beginning of their quest for a nonlegal career, another version of our EXJ Career Transformation Workshop, this one virtual, is coming up June 23. Stay tuned to learn more.
Coming up next month in “The Great Escape”: It’s not just young lawyers interested in leaving law for business. It’s partners and general counsels too. Find out why and how next month.
Neil Handwerker and Kimberly Fine are the co-founders of ex judicata, a website providing information, resources, webinars, coaching, money management, and inspirational content for lawyers and law students interested in moving to nonlegal careers. This is their second startup together. Feel free to email them with any questions or suggestions or connect with them on LinkedIn.
The post The Great Escape: Greetings From NALP appeared first on Above the Law.
Ex Judicata recently attended the National Association for Law Placement’s annual convention. Fifteen hundred career services professionals from law firms and law schools were in attendance. There is bad news and good news. The bad news: many law firms and law schools still do not have a handle on assisting lawyers who want to transition to nonlegal careers.
Nowhere was this more apparent than at a session on J.D. Advantage Careers featuring Ex Judicata’s own Kim Fine joined by leaders from Baker & Hosteler, Lubrizol Corporation, and Ava Maria School of Law. For the uninitiated, J.D. Advantage is a designation which has been around for decades and speaks to nonlegal careers where having a law degree is an advantage.
The session was standing room only and from the questions and line of people waiting to talk to Kim afterward it was apparent that both law firms and law schools are starting to realize what they don’t know and are hungry to learn more about nonlegal options for J.D.s.
The good news: People like Celestine Oglesby of Ave Maria Law and the NALP JD Advantage Working Group (Chairs Ellen Dolan of Suffolk Law School and Cassie Butler of University of Massachusetts Law School) are working hard to change the status quo and helping law students, and those that advise them, to pave nonlegal career paths. And Ex Judicata is proud to be playing a role by continuing to build exjudicata.com
That leads to the focus of this month’s column:
Part Of The Foundation Has Already Been Laid
Some very defined nonlegal career trajectories for J.D.s exist, there to be pursued by lawyers and law students seeking to transition and those that advise them.
There are the tried-and-true J.D. Advantage careers in compliance, tax, and investigative services. Over the past decade, careers in legal tech and legal ops have been added to those occupations where having a J.D. is a clear advantage and where employers actively seek to hire J.D.s for non-practicing roles
There are also J.D. Adjacent careers in which having a J.D. is a big plus, with a long history of J.D.s being successful. But to date, employers do not specifically seek to hire J.D.s for these careers. This is essentially the difference between J.D. Advantage and J.D. Adjacent careers. Both lean heavily on utilizing a law school education. More specifically, leveraging what is known as the J.D. Skill Set.
What Is The J.D. Skill Set?
While no set definition or ranking of traits exists, the skill set can be said to include the following:
- Analytical thinking
- Issue spotting
- Risk assessment
- Delivering under pressure
- Superb verbal, written, and presentation skills
- Driven to exceed expectations
- Laser focus on goal attainment
- Stamina to work very long hours
- Ability to manage huge amounts of data/information
Let’s look at some of these J.D. Adjacent careers that have been so welcoming to lawyers.
Communications. This includes journalism, marketing, public relations, and crisis management. Talk about places to utilize the J.D. skill set!
Sales. There is a common misperception that lawyers cannot sell, possibly from a mistaken belief that lawyering is very different from selling. But is it?
What makes a great salesperson? The ability to spot a client’s problem before the client does and proactively provide a solution … and what are lawyers trained to do, issue spot.
And what about those lawyers seeking to transition to nonlegal careers with courtroom experience? If you can sell a jury or a judge under the pressure of a trial, you can essentially sell anything. Because you know how to tell a story and read emotions.
Insurance. Outside of the Big 4 accounting firms, no other employer offers more nonlegal career paths for lawyers than insurance companies. There are many defined paths:
- Risk analysis
- Risk management
- Claims
- Brokerage
- Underwriting
All of these insurance careers are welcoming to J.D.s.
Wealth Management. Perhaps no J.D. Adjacent career is growing faster than wealth management.
Law and finance intersect in several areas, including: estate planning, investments, tax strategies, and planned giving. Whether advising individuals, family offices, or institutions, lawyers are well-equipped to pivot to careers in wealth management because analyzing and synthesizing complex information is crucial to developing tailored financial strategies.
The combination of analytical skills, attention to detail, strong communication, legal knowledge, ethical standards, and entrepreneurial spirit makes lawyers well-suited to careers as financial advisors.
Ex Judicata has a free (no strings attached or sales calls) hour-long webinar, “If I Leave the Law…Careers in Wealth Management, on May 7 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET.
You can access other free career-specific webinars in our “If I Leave the Law…” series here.
For those at the beginning of their quest for a nonlegal career, another version of our EXJ Career Transformation Workshop, this one virtual, is coming up June 23. Stay tuned to learn more.
Coming up next month in “The Great Escape”: It’s not just young lawyers interested in leaving law for business. It’s partners and general counsels too. Find out why and how next month.
Neil Handwerker and Kimberly Fine are the co-founders of ex judicata, a website providing information, resources, webinars, coaching, money management, and inspirational content for lawyers and law students interested in moving to nonlegal careers. This is their second startup together. Feel free to email them with any questions or suggestions or connect with them on LinkedIn.
The post The Great Escape: Greetings From NALP appeared first on Above the Law.
