July 31, 2023
Contrary to popular belief, a law degree is not necessarily vocational. This means that, although those pursuing them generally want to stay in the legal field, there are many other options available for law graduates. A law degree confers you with an abundance of skills applicable to different industries – and employers know this. As a result, many companies tend to seek law graduates for certain positions.

1. Consulting

The consulting industry has seen a massive growth over the past few years. With many companies needing advice during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, consultants worldwide were suddenly in much more demand than ever before. According to the Global Management Consulting Services Market Report of 2023, the consulting services market is expected to have an annual growth rate of over 4%. The market is expected to increase from $976.3 billion in 2022 to $1,022.2 billion in 2023.

Needless to say, the consulting industry is currently booming, which means that there are jobs available in the sector. Law graduates can fill positions as legal and business consultants, depending on their preference, thus joining a largely different workplace environment from that of a law firm.

At the same time, law graduates looking to pursue consultancy would still be working with clients, conducting research and performing various types of analysis. In other words, the skills developed during your law degree would still be put to good use.

2. Legal Secretary

The role of a legal secretary involves essentially managing a company’s legal team. Legal secretaries need to be reliable, detail-oriented individuals and effective multi-taskers. As a legal secretary, you would not be doing the work of a lawyer per se, but you are still required to have some degree of legal knowledge in order to fulfil your duties.

Legal secretaries are responsible for drafting and filing legal documents such as contracts, as well as managing correspondence and responding to legal inquiries. They are also responsible for scheduling meetings and appointments, and researching the necessary information required for cases.

3. Academia

If you are passionate about the inner workings of the law, but do not necessarily want to be the one putting it into practice, becoming an academic might be the right career path for you. In order to become an academic, you will be required to pursue your research field to PhD level. Afterwards, you would usually initially take up a position as a tutor at a university.

In order to grow your career as an academic, you will also be required to publish your work in legal journals and books. As you build your career up, you will start splitting your time between higher education teaching and research.

Therefore, in order to become an academic, you will also need to consider whether teaching is something you would like to do. Teaching is not one of the skills you are taught during your degree, so you might want to pursue a course after you graduate, or even later on. Either way, make sure you think about the prospect of marking tests and preparing classes when considering a career in academia.

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4. Legal Journalism

If you enjoy writing and researching the law but do not necessarily feel like an academic career would be the right choice for you, you might want to consider becoming a legal journalist. Legal journalists are always sought after by publications, both big and small. The writers you often see writing about changes in law and criminal cases have some sort of legal background – so, while the work of a legal journalist can be incredibly varied, it still requires a degree of legal knowledge.

Otherwise, you can also pursue other types of journalism. You might want to consider a journalism course after you graduate, in order to make sure you have the right kind of preparation to start this job.

If you are interested in media but do not want to pursue journalism, you could also consider a career in media law.

5. Human Resources

A law degree confers you with a particular skillset when working in HR. More specifically, you would already have background knowledge of employment law and regulations, as well as policies. This knowledge would thus give you a huge advantage in this sector, as you would be able to draft contracts and agreements with ease.

Moreover, your training would provide you with the ability to solve disputes and offer advice, both of which are necessary skills for working in HR.

6. Real Estate

If you are interested in business and business relations, working as a real estate agent might be exactly what you are looking for. Your legal knowledge of property law would provide a huge advantage when discussing pricing and contracts; at the same time, working in real estate would provide you with a sense of novelty that many other industries lack.

As a property agent, you would be meeting clients daily, discussing their options and catering to their needs. It is a very people-oriented line of work, and you are required to interact with landlords, owners, buyers and sellers on a regular basis. Luckily, your law degree will have taught you how to be a mediator!

7. Judicial Assistant

Judicial assistants are widely regarded as the right-hand men of judges. They conduct legal research and provide court-written documents, as well as presenting cases. If you are passionate about court proceedings and want to an essential cog in the machinery of legal trials, this might be the job for you.

Judicial clerkships are highly competitive; in order to pursue this career, you will need to be qualified as a solicitor, barrister or advocate. However, although you would need to pursue a training contract or pupillage prior to opting for this position, your day-to-day activities would be vastly different from what you would be doing at a law firm.

Thinking of becoming a judge instead? Check out our guide here.

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