# I pit the legal job market **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829 "2009-08-26T22:29:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829/41 "2009-08-28T22:18:56Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Try looking outside the legal job market, at least temporarily. Plenty of companies would be happy to hire a college graduate who happens to have a law degree. There are a lot of companies and jobs on the periphery of the legal industry that do work like computer forensics, litigation support, discovery and document review software, and various forms of legal management consulting. There are a lot JDs who leave law practices to work in that field. ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829/42 "2009-08-29T03:52:35Z")
Come to rural Wyoming - I have to turn away at least 5 cases a week due to lack of time. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829/43 "2009-08-29T12:23:55Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > JAG is a good suggestion. Not only good experience at little personal risk, but results in veteran’s preference for future government employment. If the OP goes in to the active-duty JAG Corps, then yes, he is a veteran. If he goes in as a reservist/Guardsman, then there are other conditions that have to be met to qualify for preference. See a recruiter for details. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829/44 "2009-09-05T00:43:01Z")
I spent a couple of years as a subject indexer for an insurance law information service. We produced a computer-based product that was available on Lexis, although they have since gone to CD based product. Although IANAL many of my co-workers were JDs, either because they hadn’t passed the bar yet, or else because they simply had decided that lawyering wasn’t for them. The pay was truly of the better-than-nothing variety, but at least there were benefits, and the level of office chitchat was always stimulating. Really, a lot like this place, now that I think of it! You didn’t find people gathering around the water cooler to talk about the latest episode of Survivor. (Well naturally, since this was 1985, but you get the idea). ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829/45 "2009-09-05T00:52:56Z")
Just to check in, I have an interview!!! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829/46 "2009-09-05T00:59:27Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Have you been admitted yet? If so, you may find something in government work. Enforcing child support for the state would get you court experience…and a paycheck with benefits. > > Also, you may wish to contact either your state bar or the local family/juvenile court about guardian ad litem work. In my state, you have to either attend a training session, or watch a video to get annually certified, and you have to be available to handle two cases pro bono per year–but you get paid for other cases. Judges keep a list of local lawyers qualified and willing to accept appointments. This gets you in court, and talking to lawyers, so you can network for job leads too. I like Oakie’s idea – there are few things more rewarding than standing up for a kid in a role he cannot stand up for himself in. Look at CASA programs, as well. If you and your parents are comfortable continuing your at-home role for a while, I’d suggest seriously following up para-legal (not “paralegal”) work in which being a lawyer is a benefit but not a requirement. Planning agencies, for example, often find having someone admitted or admissible to the bar on their payroll to be a benefit that may make a hire worthwhile. Consulting for NFPs may not give a steady paycheck but will produce income on a semi-regular basis. Lots of people find it very difficult to wade through the bureaucratese of regulations, and will pay for a ‘translation’ into, “Do this, then do that” that only a lawyer can legally give for payment. Look at possibilities that are not strictly ‘lawyer’ jobs; they’re out there, and the competition is going to be substantially lower. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-legal-job-market/507829.md?page=2)