Lucrative legal employment for people with health care experience? Forum

[Mablaw]

1L trying to figure my life out in a hurry.
I have a good deal of medical (and general science) experience, so I figure I ought to use that to my advantage in carving out a legal path.
What’s the most lucrative option for me in which my background can give me an edge?
And how lucrative is that exactly?
Thanks in advance.

[2013]

Biglaw first year associate. Your experience is not as unique as you think. There are droves of hard science PhDs doing patent work.

[Lacepiece23]

1L trying to figure my life out in a hurry.
I have a good deal of medical (and general science) experience, so I figure I ought to use that to my advantage in carving out a legal path.
What’s the most lucrative option for me in which my background can give me an edge?
And how lucrative is that exactly?
Thanks in advance.

I mean you could do regulatory work or products liability work, etc in the medical sphere. But that doesn’t really require your background. It might make you more attractive for in house however.

[Anonymous User]

1L trying to figure my life out in a hurry.
I have a good deal of medical (and general science) experience, so I figure I ought to use that to my advantage in carving out a legal path.
What’s the most lucrative option for me in which my background can give me an edge?
And how lucrative is that exactly?
Thanks in advance.

The direct answer to your question is to spin your combined legal and medical / life science background into an in-house position at a bioscience / healthcare / genetics / other going to save the world startup where you get a good slug of equity (so we're talking pretty close to the ground floor here, not some place with 5,000 employees working on its Series C funding) and the company ends up hockey sticking (huge growth) and your equity share suddenly is worth $100m. Game set match. Fair warning that many people are playing this game and it may take many different attempts before you find "the one" and you risk possible personal financial ruin along the way if you can't manage the hits (startup winds down; startup stagnates; startup lays off 80% of its workforce). Others should weigh in but it'd probably be beneficial for you to get a few years in biglaw first, at the best firm you possibly can (doing relevant biosciency / startup crap, think Cooley not Cravath), to build your credibility and experience and then start trying to move in-house to one of these positions. It'll also help for you to network your ass off--industry forums, meet and greets, tech happy hours, "idea generator" bullshits, etc. so you're getting in touch with the relevant crowds. There's your full playbook, YWIA please remember me ten years from now and toss me a cool million or two.

[Mablaw]

1L trying to figure my life out in a hurry.
I have a good deal of medical (and general science) experience, so I figure I ought to use that to my advantage in carving out a legal path.
What’s the most lucrative option for me in which my background can give me an edge?
And how lucrative is that exactly?
Thanks in advance.

I mean you could do regulatory work or products liability work, etc in the medical sphere. But that doesn’t really require your background. It might make you more attractive for in house however.

Well I don’t have a science graduate degree, so I should probably make that clear. Would I still have any sort of edge for in house positions or would my experience just be too thin to have any effect? And no edge in first year associate hiring either?

[Anonymous User]

1L trying to figure my life out in a hurry.
I have a good deal of medical (and general science) experience, so I figure I ought to use that to my advantage in carving out a legal path.
What’s the most lucrative option for me in which my background can give me an edge?
And how lucrative is that exactly?
Thanks in advance.

I mean you could do regulatory work or products liability work, etc in the medical sphere. But that doesn’t really require your background. It might make you more attractive for in house however.

I worked for a biglaw healthcare regulatory/litigation group and I'd say that what OP writes would probably be a solid plus factor in a job interview. Wouldn't trump school and grades, but would make a marginal candidate far more attractive to that group. I'm not sure if Cravath scale biglaw is "the most lucrative option," but it's an option that pays pretty solid.

[Lacepiece23]

1L trying to figure my life out in a hurry.
I have a good deal of medical (and general science) experience, so I figure I ought to use that to my advantage in carving out a legal path.
What’s the most lucrative option for me in which my background can give me an edge?
And how lucrative is that exactly?
Thanks in advance.

I mean you could do regulatory work or products liability work, etc in the medical sphere. But that doesn’t really require your background. It might make you more attractive for in house however.

I worked for a biglaw healthcare regulatory/litigation group and I'd say that what OP writes would probably be a solid plus factor in a job interview. Wouldn't trump school and grades, but would make a marginal candidate far more attractive to that group. I'm not sure if Cravath scale biglaw is "the most lucrative option," but it's an option that pays pretty solid.

I agree with this. I more so took OPs post to mean what types of things would this experience unlock over the average law students. Your right that it might help you break into a group with most else being equivalent. Just not enough of a plus to overcome someone with better grades to really matter. I have seen the experience trump other candidates where you have a ton of people applying for a specific in house job.