Career Change Advice and Ideas for Attorneys

Being able to communicate ideas clearly to people of all different walks of life can be an invaluable skill when venturing into other industries.

This also often means that many attorneys are excellent public speakers, which can open up a lot of doors for new careers.

But it’s not only about oral communication. 

Oftentimes, you might be gifted with the written word which can take you very far in a different profession. And that brings us to our next transferable skill.

Writing skills

Not every attorney is gifted with public speaking abilities or the best communication skills, but it’s very rare to find an attorney who is not a skilled writer.

Being a strong writer is a tremendous transferable skill because you can land a position in just about any industry. 

For example, you might be a natural for technical writing with your ability to break down complex ideas into easy to understand concepts. 

Research skills

Back when I was an attorney, most of my time was spent researching caselaw, statutes, state and local procedures, etc.

I learned how to efficiently attack my searches so that I could obtain the information I needed without unnecessarily spending hours perusing through irrelevant information.

Being able to quickly find the right information also means being able to quickly grasp new ideas and concepts which can make you attractive to virtually any employer.

New skills

These are just some of the transferable skills that stick out for attorneys. 

Chances are, you probably have many more and you can check out this article to give you some structure into discovering your own.

But a lot of times, you may be lacking a necessary skill set to launch you into a new industry. 

For example, let’s say you wanted to get into front end design. As an attorney, you are probably lacking the skill set to jump immediately into a field like that.

However, you can utilize Unmudl to find you skills that can land you a job in a new career where you lack the foundational skills.

The approach is called skills to jobs and Unmudl is the marketplace where you can find the skills you need to be connected with employers.

New career ideas for attorneys

Digital marketing

A lot of law firms want to build a larger online presence but don’t know where to start. They don’t have a good grasp on SEO, paid marketing, lead generation, social media, etc.

If you can pick up skills in these areas, your legal background will be extremely valuable to other law firms because it’s an instant way to stand out as qualified.

If you apply yourself to researching these sectors, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to pick up these skills. 

And because you are probably a skilled writer, you’ll be able to produce great content to go along with the skills making you a very attractive candidate.

Build an app

Building a good app is not easy but if you feel strongly enough about the problems you can solve, it could be worth giving it a shot. 

There’s a movement in law of automating certain types of cases and if you have in-depth knowledge of a given area you could apply that to creating a valuable new tool in the industry. This is especially true in certain areas like consumer debt collections, landlord tenant issues, etc.

Or maybe you worked in document review and you have ideas on how to optimize the process. Heck, maybe you even see a better way to take care of billable hours.

Think about the experience that you have gained and how you could create something automated to replace a lot of that human hours required for that task. 

Legal Journalism

You can find positions for legal journalism with many different blogs and websites. 

These websites publish articles providing insight and commentary on the law, cases, and different trends in the industry.

If you have a love for writing, your legal background could make you a prime candidate to become a regular contributor for some of these platforms.

If you have a liking for television, maybe you can try to get into the entertainment side of things and provide legal commentary for television networks or other online platforms.

Academia

As an attorney, you’ve spent plenty of time in higher education and so you probably have a good idea if that would be a good fit for you.

To qualify for a teaching position at the college level, a master’s degree or a doctorate degree is often needed. As an attorney, you do have a doctorate degree although it’s not quite the same as a PhD.

But you’ll be qualified enough to teach certain courses. I recall one of my favorite undergraduate courses for “business law” that was taught by a former attorney. 

This was a major university so whether you want to teach at community college or at a university your legal background may be enough to land you a position.

If you've published scholarly articles in law you also might be on the right track to become a law professor.