What To Do After Law School

Law school is an incredibly expensive proposition these days. It’s very hard to hold both a job and go to law school together at the same time, so you also need to think about that. Your social life might suffer as well because of how demanding law school can be.

You can easily spend $100,000 on school, and then you need to get a job. But for some, its more than just the law degree. Here are some common options on what to do after law school and you have your degree.

Work for a Big Law Firm

Probably the most common route for new law school graduates is to go work for a big law firm. Many students will intern at a big law firm during school, and get a job with that same firm upon graduation. This is a good way to go to both gain experience, and also pay down the student loans that they accrued during law school. While being entry level at one of these firms can be a lot of work, the pay can be pretty good and the experience can be even better.

Work at a Company

Another common route is to go work for a company in their legal department. Most large firms have large legal departments, to handle everything from compliance issues to drafting and reviewing contracts. Many firms also have lawyers related strictly to taxation, and if you want to advance here, you could even get go back to school for LLM Taxation. If you’re interested in business law, this can be a great avenue to work in an area that is a combination of law and business.

Get Specialty Training

If you have a passion for a specific niche, there are many areas where the law and niches collide. There is environmental law, employment law, business law, and tax law. Just about everything has some type of legal work associate with it. As such, you could get specialty training in that niche, and do what you’re passionate about. For example, you could look into tax LLM programs to further your education and gain specialty training in this area.

Take Your Education to the Next Level

Finally, you could always take your education to the next level and get your master of laws or S.J.D of Laws. These are the highest research degrees in law, and you can specialize in various types of law to get your degree.