I love law but don't want to be a "lawyer." What kind of career is for me? Forum

[rococochanel]

Hi guys. I come to you very humbly, not for legal advice per se but advice on the career that might be the best fit for me.

I am currently attending law school (in the Netherlands, though this question doesn't specifically regard the Netherlands). However, I don't want to work in contentious law. I like policy, contracts, transactions, compliance, etc. and don't really care for the aspect of there always being a "winner" and a "loser." I really have no intentions of working in court, and was wondering if there are any job profiles that would be a great fit for me? I don't necessarily have to work in the US (in fact, I'd be happy as a clam staying here for work).

Ideally, I'd love to do something like document review but on a permanent basis or possibly work within compliance or competition law. Basically... I love anything that doesn't involve going to trial. In addition, I am also intrigued by IP law. I've been a translator for the past 12 years, and having to work on legal documents has made me have an all-consuming love of law. I have dual US-Italian citizenship and can speak Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch and English fluently, so I'm ready (and willing!) to work anywhere within the EU, if it helps you to narrow down a job title you think I'd be interested in learning more about.

Thanks so much.

[rinkrat19]

Find a government office where the lawyers do mostly advisory work for other departments. Plenty of divisions of a state AG, for example, rarely if ever go to court.

[DJ JD]

Maybe... just maybe, it'd be a good idea to set up informational interviews with people in these fields?

Or possible have your CSO give you a list of willing alumni who'd love to talk?

I mean, you seem to have the general umbrella categories down... outside of doing a full psychological evaluation on you, we probably can't tell whether you'd like healthcare compliance more than say, idk, tax.

[Glasseyes]

Definitely look into regulatory work. Some of it is compliance, some of it is definitely more on the policy tip. I just finished an internship at a federal agency and while my division was a bit more "contentious", as you say, 90% of the work done at this particular agency dealt with the development of new rules.

Also, and I'll admit to not reading your post in full, but have you considered transactional work? You might hate life for a host of other reasons, but you certainly won't be going to court. In fact very many (most?) litigators will not see the inside of a courtroom. Perhaps it's different in the Netherlands, but on the far side of the pond not much actually makes it to trial these days. Best of luck.

[TLSModBot]

Ideally, I'd love to do something like document review but on a permanent basis

I worked for almost a decade in Electronic Discovery and would recommend checking it out. It's basically the collection, processing, and organization of data on all ends of a doc review. There are roles for very tech savvy people (doing the collections, processing data into 'documents', managing the databases, etc.) as well as for non-tech people like myself (the consulting and managing end). The consulting end involves working directly with lawyers to help creatively come up with a discovery plan and then carry it out.

The downside is that Discovery is a maturing market, so it likely isn't going to keep growing at the same rate it has for the past 15 years, especially as the technology gets more efficient and reduces demand. Also after a while a lot of the cases can get kind of same-y, and it loses its shine. But I had a hell of a ride and generally enjoyed it, plus the pay was not half-bad (Not biglaw pay, but a comfortable six figures once you break into management or experience senior consultant territory).