From the NALP, part of the law school complex, I bring good news for you under-and-un-employed law grads! J.D. advantage jobs are out there for you. They exist. Let's not complain, let's explain.
Apparently, there are countless jobs that let you have an advantage when you possess a solid J.D. The NALP defines J.D. Advantage as
Apparently, there are countless jobs that let you have an advantage when you possess a solid J.D. The NALP defines J.D. Advantage as
jobs that do not require bar passage, an active law license, or involve practicing law in the traditional sense. However, in these positions, a JD provides an advantage in obtaining or performing the job. In fact, many graduates view entry-level opportunities with the federal government or in business/industry as a primary goal. There are many law-related positions for which a JD is a significant competitive advantage.
Here are the four categories, as listed by the NALP [This is not made up, but from the link above]:
1) Reformer2) Do-gooder3) Regulator4) Communicator
Accordingly the NALP, these four categories are places that law grads can have a career without practicing traditional law.
So I have some questions for you un & under employeds: Why don't you go reform something? Or do something good? (Morally or otherwise). Or regulate something at the very least. Or just communicate! You D.O. have a J.D., so you have the advantage in doing all of these things over the rest of humanity. People (as a general rule) just love being regulated by 25-year-old J.D.'s with no other skills.
So I have some questions for you un & under employeds: Why don't you go reform something? Or do something good? (Morally or otherwise). Or regulate something at the very least. Or just communicate! You D.O. have a J.D., so you have the advantage in doing all of these things over the rest of humanity. People (as a general rule) just love being regulated by 25-year-old J.D.'s with no other skills.
There are jobs but you have to hustle in the bustle. So start reforming, do-gooding, regulating, and communicating, and get back on climbing that career ladder to the very top, just like your dean and professors have done before you. So says the NALP:
GO TO LAW SCHOOL!
I thought we were done with this series.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. This shit is subpar for this blog. Boring too. Yooooornn.
DeleteMods, please email Bell and tell him to get a grip or he'll be canned.
Or his about putting out a call for new writers if this is the crap you are publishing right now.
As someone who is in a so-called "JD-Advantage" position, I have one thing to say:
ReplyDeleteNALP and their reforming do-gooder limousine-liberal toadies can suck it.
Unless you want to go to a clinic and see people with mostly non-legal issues that either you cannot do anything about as a lawyer or involve picking up the phone and getting information that you do not need to be a lawyer to get, and do all of this for free, you will have a hard time landing JD advantage jobs.
ReplyDeleteThey are very hard to get, even if you have relevant experience. You will likely spend years unemployed while looking for a JD advantate job after practicing in an area that actually relates to the job. For someone who can get one of the JD advantage jobs after practicing law, it will likely involve a giant pay cut. You will not get paid at all for your law degree.
The only time a JD is an advantage is where you have a job and are promoted to a high level nonlegal job. That is the exception. Surely not the rule. Probably harder than winning the partner lottery if you are talking about getting average lawyer pay for your area or more for a JD advantage job.
As someone with the top schools and years of big law experience - I have looked for JD advantage jobs for over a year (as well as legal jobs) and have come up empty handed - not a single offer.
Don't believe that there is any market for JDs in JD advantage jobs. That market does not exist. There are enough compliance and human resources people out there to fill those jobs. No one needs lawyers to fill the jobs.
Yes, everybody knows that reformers, do-gooders and communicators make bank!! NALP and ABA view: "Law grads shouldn't be so greedy, and expect to make a positive return on their investment."
ReplyDeleteWhat a "brilliant" idea, NALP swine. For $ome rea$on, these cockroaches do not extend this reasoning to themselves. Apparently, they believe that "teaching" archaic, parsed case law at TTTs - something that could be streamed online for minimal charge - is worth a $200K annual salary.
Reformers were popular positions during the 1960s as counterculture radicals which was pretty good for criminal law experience due to being constantly arrested and hassled by "the man".
ReplyDeleteDo-gooders are great gigs if you possess superpowers and can get paid for your autograph at comic book conventions and supermarket grand openings.
Regulators, although I don't know what one would regulate and am unaware of it as a specific job title, used to have do with the Old West and gunfighters...and also fancy clocks.
Communicators just release hot air into the atmosphere and is mostly akin to politicians and those remaining few that haven't been outsourced who answer phone calls labeled as customer service.
Study law and this is the best there is to offer...four vague categories for all of your time, money and effort.
I'm only familiar with positions for which a JD is a significant competitive disadvantage, such as where the employer values experience and focus and you spent three years studying international space entertainment law.
ReplyDeleteI'm only familiar with positions for which a JD is a significant competitive disadvantage, such as where the employer values experience and focus and you spent three years studying international space entertainment law.
ReplyDeleteI can only think of a couple of true JD advantage jobs. One would be as a compliance officer, where a knowledge of the legal system would be truly helpful. The other would be legislative--e.g. working as a legislative staffer, a lobbyist, or if you wanted to go into politics. (A stint as a prosecutor or judge is helpful to win elected office, and of course you have to go to law school to do that.) And how many positions like those are available?
ReplyDeleteAs a lawyer from top schools and top law firms, I have applied to compliance jobs many times, without success. They don't generally want lawyers. They want people who have grown up doing compliance.
DeleteI know of one lawyer who went strictly into compliance and only one of all the many many lawyers I have known in my years of practice. That person was a minority with an extraordinary record before going to law school and came as a midlevel associate directly from a major law firm. But for that person's pre law school record, it might not have worked out to get the compliance job.
No one else every landed a compliance job over years and years of my observation of lawyers, me included. Every compliance job wanted guess what -someone who had already been in a compliance job.
Yes. Complete rubbish. I know quite a few compliance people here and none of them have law degrees. No one from my Toilet that I know of landed a job in compliance either.
DeleteIn general, people from my law school either got into biglaw (20%, very good for Chicago-Kent in the mid-00's) got into a smaller law firm (25%), or pretty much did something else. No one did anything like this hot air crap spewed by the NALP.
Use your law degree to save the world!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202613584845&thepage=1&slreturn=20130705164055
This is weak. Preston, no more. Move on. You'll notice that the most powerful posts on this entire blog are from writers using their own voices and personal experience, not making up this kind of dogshit.
ReplyDeleteOther than Maurice Leiter. I'm assuming that Maurice is a fake Maurice. Or maybe not. Perhaps Maurice is actually real.