My recommendation would be to see if the office of the Revisor of Statutes is hiring. You can’t get closer to the political process than actually writing the law itself. You’ll work with both political parties and draft legislation/bills for the laws of the state.
Also, while searching for information on the Revisor of Statutes, I came across this job I thought you might find interesting:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/job_announcements/general_job_info.html
Thanks for all the tips. I have been getting politically involved in the past year and have developed a handful of contacts that can help me. I am starting to take multiple volunteer political positions. I recently took a lobbyist to lunch for an informational interview and I like what she had to say.
The State Bar will also pay for 2 hours of career consultation. I’m doing that.
I bought the book What You Can Do With a Law Degree and I have read the first half of it in one afternoon.
I will do more assessment and I will continue down my path. I applied for LAO before, but was rejected. I can apply again. However, after looking at that site, I would have to operate on a pretty slim budget at $50K/year (with student loans and all).
In politics, however, it will likely come down to “who you know”, as the lobbyist confirmed. She said I am on the right track if I want to get into lobbying and, if I keep it up, I should be pretty well connected in about a year.
I don’t want it to take another year, but I don’t have much choice.
If any other former practicioners want to chime in, I love hearing stories of people who tried to escape the practice.
I watch legislative committee hearings on cable all the time, even if I don’t really understand the topic in detail. I love watching that stuff.
My girlfriend thinks I’m nuts.