Advice on changing legal fields of practice.
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 11:48 am
I am seeking advice from anyone willing to give it. I am about to graduate a T-20 school. I went into 1L a little below median, so I was lucky to end up with a single offer. The offer was for IP litigation (I was an engineer in a prior life), something I have no interest in, but a job is a job. Three semesters after 1L, I was able to totally turn my GPA around and now I have a shot at graduating with Latin Honors (it was really just two first semester B-s pulling down my average). As graduation approaches, I am just not excited about my job. I tried 3L OCI and that didn’t work, and then I tried to secure a clerkship, but I am tied to a specific market bc of my family and I did not land one. I really do not know what to do. I would prefer something in corporate (I received the highest grade award for bankruptcy and corporations + have enjoyed my time on BR moot court team), but I just don’t know how to switch. I have networked and networked and networked, to no avail. I am really worried about getting started in such a narrow field and not being able to get off that track. How difficult will it be to try and totally change fields after a year or two of practice? I would like to try and stay in biglaw, but that is not a deal breaker. I really want to be excited about graduating, but I am just dreading starting the job I literally have no interest in (also I feel like a real jerk complaining about my big law job when I have some very good friends who could not find one at all).