Law school was all the rage in the past 10 years. However, only 51.3 percent out of all law school graduates in 2015 was accepted into private practices. That statistic is applicable from Anchorage to Salt Lake City.
If becoming a lawyer doesn’t seem appealing to you but you still wish to pursue a career in law, there are dozens of options for you. A law degree can take you to different, equally credible fields that can help you find more careers suited for your interests and skills.
Electronic Discovery
E-discovery generates $2 billion a year and makes great use of a law students’ skills. Legal professionals in this industry work the aspect of litigation that deals with electronically stored information (ESL).
Identification, management, and preservation of ESL are just some of the tasks of e-discovery professionals. New salary brackets and skills are expected to develop in the future, thanks to greater information archives and similar changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Bail Bond Agent
In addition to finance, economics, and business administration, a degree in law is highly advisable for people planning to take and pass the bail bondsman licensing exam. Skills from these degrees help with the tasks that bail bond agents are expected to carry out.
Professionals in this field are licensed to secure bail bonds from defendants who wish to be free prior to their trials. Financial agreements secured by a bail bond agent also assures that a whopping 97 percent of defendants show up to their trial.
Most bail bond agents enter a pre-existing bail company for training and experience. Some go on to form their own bail company, which are then incorporated under state law.
Jury Consultant
The right jury can help lawyers win an unwinnable case. As jury consultants, law degree holders can provide lawyers with valuable information regarding juror behavior. Empirical data, functional observations, and other methodologies are employed to this end.
Data from jury consultants can help greatly with the jury selection process and voir dire. Consultants can also help lawyers create arguments that will compel a jury. By doing this, jury consultants on the high end of the success scale often receive six-figure fees.
Court Reporter
Stenographers or court reporters are indispensable when it comes to keeping track of legal proceedings. Speeches, statements, and testimonies are recorded verbatim by highly-specialized court reporters using stenographic equipment. An average stenographer can record 200 words per minute.
With the onset of live broadcasting, a stenographer’s duties have expanded. In addition to their regular duties, these professionals perform webcasts and live captioning for broadcasted trials. Due to the special training required for success in this field, fewer people are entering the profession. The dearth of people, however, has increased the salaries of current stenographers. Highly skilled court reporters can now expect to earn six-figures—the same amount as jury consultants.
If none of these careers appeal to you, your law degree can take you to other careers as well. Education is always a great sector for people with law degrees to enter. Data sciences and finance, specifically stocks and trading, use a law student’s expertise in different ways. Chartered accountants and forensic computer analysts may also get their start with a law degree. A law degree is a great stepping stone to any industry, as long as a student applies what they learned to their career judiciously.
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