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On Pursuing a Non-Legal Regulatory Job
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February 26th, 2010Career, Law SchoolI had lunch with an attorney from the General Counsel’s office at my internship site and I ran over some of my plans with her. The current plan is to get a non-legal regulatory job and then use that experience to get a legal job. I told her I knew going the non-legal path first would make everything a little bit more difficult but if I wanted to avoid gaps in my resume, I should take a non-legal job for 1-2 years.
The attorney told me that going the non-legal route is not only makes obtaining a legal position down the road difficult but it is also a highly risky path to take. She said she had seen too many lawyers get stuck in non-legal positions and advised me to proceed with caution. Also, my legal skills would get shoddy from disuse. According to her, a law school graduate becomes a lawyer by doing legal work and getting feedback from other lawyers. It took her three years to feel competent in her skills as a junior lawyer. Integral to that transformation from law student to lawyer was doing legal work and having feedback from lawyers.
I also discussed with her another problem with pursuing a non-legal job. Your colleagues can feel intimidated by you. I am already experiencing this at my internship site.
A lot of things she said was hard to swallow and the only consolation at the end of the meal was that she picked up the check.
Tags: Career, First Job, Non-legal job, Reguatory Job
5 responses to “On Pursuing a Non-Legal Regulatory Job” 
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Jane,
What type of law are you interested in? I know not litigation, but what precisely do you want to do?
It didn’t take me 3 years to feel competent, but my boss made me take a deposition my first day on the job, and I handled my first trial 9 months in, so…but that’s the nature of litigation, especially in a small firm.
The type of law you eventually want to practice should guide what non-legal job you may want. If you want to be in a mid to large-size firm, I totally agree with the attorney. I think you really have to look at what you want to do long-term. You mentioned that you don’t want a state clerkship, but that’s going to give you more experience than non-legal work (and, quite frankly, if it’s in court, it’s litigation, so I don’t quite get the distinction between federal and state clerkships as a practical matter), and is much more likely to transfer skills over to a firm.
What particular skills, at this internship or another non-legal position, transfer over to what you want to do for a career? If you can’t readily answer that, because that’s the first question you’ll be asked, then I would seriously reconsider.
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I’m really feeling for you with these posts. I work in the legal field (but not as an attorney, obviously) and I have to agree. It’s incredibly difficult to climb your way back in if you start out with a non-legal position. I’ve talked with a lot of people who have seen this happen. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing something outside of the legal field, but just make sure you do that with your eyes wide open.
Just keep pushing through though! It’s hard out there for EVERYONE. You’re smart and educated, I know that as soon as the right person interviews you you’ll be set. If you’re not getting the interviews you want, I would definitely take another look at your resume to see if there’s anything you can improve. Are you taking advantage of LinkedIn? It sounds like you have a lot of connected people who really like you from your previous positions, you might be able to get something through them.
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Oh my, this sounds so stressful!
I know nothing about law as a profession, so take my meager advice for what it’s worth, but is there any way to take a “gap year” by getting another degree or some sort of program? (This is a fairly commons solution for my older friends who want to go into banking, entering an extra recruiting season with the added credentials of a Master’s degree)
Best of luck to you!
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Thank goodness she picked up the check or this would have sounded like the worse meal ever! Anywho, are you considering in-house work? I actually picked up that term from a corporate lawyer I befriended since she sits on my floor. She prefers working in-house because of the wide array of perspectives she can get on her work. Just putting her two cents out there for you…
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@Ronnie,
Thank you for commenting. I want to do financial regulatory work so working as a regulatory analyst would be directly related to the type of law I wish to practice. I spoke to a chief recruiter for a govt’l regulatory agency and she told me that their experience attorney positions required at least 1 year of legal experience but most attorneys have 3 years. A state clerkship would not further my interest in anyway because it will be litigation not securities work.@Kate,
I appreicate your thoughts. Thanks for commenting.@Caity
I can go get an LLM but I am not interested in shelling out the money for that because that would leave me with student debt. Also, those degrees are specialized and I wouldn’t want to specialize since I am not 100% sure about the field I want to specialize in. Right now, its securities/financial regulatory work. I need to be doing it on a regular basis to decide if that is what I am interested in for sure.@InvestingNewbie
I think just about any lawyer would kill to be an in house attorney for the hours and the wide ranging work. But, you need at least 3-4 years of large firm work experience under your belt to try for those positions and further you need at least 5+ years to be competitive candiate for some of the really good in house positions.
Ronnie February 26th, 2010 at 18:47