l am curious: What would it do to my later legal ,Ci career to take a non-legal job after law school? I am considering a position as a financial consultant, and I am also considering pursuing my boyhood dream of being a police officer. What do you advise?
SC, New Yoylc
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You're not alone in wanting to hold your law degree in a state of suspended animation while you pursue something else, SC, so let's talk about how you go about accomplishing that.
As a rule of thumb, "The closer your immediate dream job is to a practice area or legal topic, the easier it is to go back," according to Mary Birmingham, Dean of Career Services at the University of Arizona Law School. So if you, for instance, pursue your financial consulting option, you'd expect a fairly smooth transition to practicing corporate law. On the other hand, if you opted to travel the world as a lion tamer, you'd encounter predictable difficulty selling a law firm on your professional assets (although expertise with a whip can be an advantage in so many adversarial situations, don't you agree?).
At this point you may be wondering, "Why, LawCrossing, have you glossed over the police officer option?" Because LawCrossing is sensitive to the idea of building up to a climax, that's why. And what makes the police officer option the climax here? Because you said so yourself, SC-it's your dream, and those are magic words to LawCrossing. Although you didn't ask, you'll find that your law degree is a real asset as a police officer. As Mary Birmingham points out, "Although it's unusual for a police officer to have a law degree, it will make it much easier for you to advance through the ranks."
When it comes to making the trip back to practicing law ... well, nothing is impossible. It's actually a lot easier to do things in a different order than you propose, namely, police officer -* law student -? lawyer, rather than your idea of law student -> police officer -? lawyer. As Peggy McCartney, Assistant Career Services Director at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis (and herself a former prosecutor) says, "A police background for lawyers is great." The flip-flop you're proposing?
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Peggy McCartney says, "Why not combine your two interests, and consider the FBI, where having a law degree is a real plus, and field officers are really glorified police officers. Or try the Drug Enforcement Agency, or even the prosecutor's office. Any one of those may fulfill your desire to be a white knight." She goes on to say that the problem with being a police officer now and a lawyer later on is that "Police technology is not like getting technical skills as a lawyer. It's not impossible to make the transition, but the distance between your law degree and practicing law creates problems." In other words, SC, it's not impossible to do exactly what you asked LawCrossing . . . but why bother, when you can do something right now that might fulfill everything you want? Why have your law degree hanging over your head like the sword of Damocles (look it up), making you feel guiltier and guiltier as the years go by? And if you think and think and think about it and it's being a police officer you really want, then resolve yourself to being an extraordinarily well-educated cop. It's your life, and your dream, SC-and if it ultimately doesn't mean flexing that law degree eight hours a day, there's no crime in that.
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