Newbie Law: Career Alternatives on Above the Law

The great blog, Above the Law, has a running series on career alternatives for law school graduates. For example, they offer graduates to look to become law librarians, law school administrators, or in law firm recruiting. But these mostly feel like "jobs that you can do with your law degree" as opposed to "jobs you can do because you're really smart and have legal training."

One thing I noticed in law school is that often law school is a "default: good" option for kids who did well in college. But they don't know much about law besides what they see on Law & Order--ADAs and defense attorneys. If they're lucky, they would have seen movies like Michael Clayton. (Any other movies that better portray what law firm associate life is like?)

To an extent, it does the world a disservice to stereotype the legal profession in the purely criminal arena--or even a "law firm" arena. It's similar to the medical profession being reduced to ER doctors. Doctors, though trained in medicine, can still be CEOs or politicians. Likewise, alternative careers for lawyers could be in business and politics. And if you're a do-gooder, than in non-profit administration.

I'd love to see more JDs going into international development--and not as legal scholars, but as administrators of NGOs or political/governmental consultants. That's broadening horizons for law graduates.