Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/55358
TERNATIVE OPTIONS PRACTISING LAW ISN'T FOR EVERYONE. LAW MAY NOT BE YOUR THING, OR YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO GET AN ARTICLING POSITION, BUT WHATEVER THE CASE MAY BE, THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER CAREER OPTIONS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE AN LLB OR JD. By HeatHer Gardiner know exactly what you want to do when you graduate — you may not even want to practise law. The good news is your legal training and years of academia open doors to a plethora of exciting careers outside of law that you can pursue with your legal degree. If you can't break into the legal field, or you decide to pursue a different career path, those L arduous three years weren't necessarily a waste of time. Canadian Lawyer 4Students has pulled together a group of working professionals who all graduated from law school, some briefly practising law, but eventually all deciding private practice wasn't for them. So they sought al- ternative careers in different industries, including technology, business, finance, non-profit/ community work, academia, and journalism. All of them still find their law degree applicable to their current job and admit that the knowledge and skills they gained in law school come in handy from time to time. So if you're not sure what you want to do with your life or you're having trouble finding an articling position, do not fear! There are countless careers — aside from private practice — that you can pursue, and as you can see from the working professionals in this article, there are plenty of other industries that your law degree can help you break into. C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS S PRING 2012 13 ike so many others, maybe you too "fell" into law. Maybe you weren't sure what you wanted to do with your life so you decided to give it a try. Maybe you buck- led under the pressure from family members to follow in their footsteps, or you just did it because your friends were doing it. Whatever the reason, you're now in law school — and there's no doubt it's going to be a tough three years. And if you're having trouble finding an articling position, you are not alone. Presently, there simply aren't enough articling positions available to accom- modate the number of students graduating from law school. You don't have to