3 Alternative Ways to Use Your JD

For many law students and graduates, there are two possible paths after law school: big law or in-house. Even then, grads often lean towards law firms because the traditional path encourages them to spend a few years in big law before moving in-house.

But as the landscape of the legal industry changes and as legal teams become more business-oriented and tech-savvy, JDs have a wider pool of career options to choose from, including roles like law librarian, legal operations, and even legal engineering.

Here are 3 alternative paths for using your JD.

Technical Solutions Attorney (TSA)

The growth of legal tech has opened up the opportunity for law school graduates to become technical solutions attorneys (TSA) — an in-house legal function that helps the sales demo the product to potential customers.

Sam Nickerson, TSA at LinkSquares, hadn’t been 100% certain that working in a law firm — or even attending law school — was right for her. After a few years at a small firm, she applied for the TSA role at LinkSquares. Now, she enjoys working cross-functionally and wowing legal teams with ways to improve their internal processes using contract lifecycle management (CLM).

In addition to a JD, candidates need strong communication skills and a penchant for problem-solving to perform this role well. Not only will you work with sales and external legal teams, but you’ll also provide the product team with feedback to improve the product. The best part? You’re an attorney that doesn’t need to review contracts.

Legal Engineering and Data Science

If data is more your thing, you can actually use your JD (in combination with other credentials) to work in data science. With more sophisticated uses of AI in the legal industry, law school graduates with a background in computing and/or data science can help develop AI models for legal teams.

That’s the route that Eliana Lee took before landing a role as a legal engineer at LinkSquares. Lee combined her degrees in computing and data science with her JD and used her unique axis of knowledge to help develop LinkSquares AI models — aka smart values.

As data becomes a big deal, says Tim Parilla in an episode of Cockpit Counsel with Lee, more legal issues will arise, and so this can be a great way to use your love of data with your JD.

Legal Operations

Legal ops, according to Vanessa Saffold, Legal OOs Manager at LiveRamp, is “the wheels that make the legal department turn.” While you don’t need a JD to be a legal ops professional, it can be helpful as you help make the modern legal department more efficient.

The legal operations team is responsible for introducing process efficiencies into the legal team and working cross-functionally with other departments to ensure that the legal team has the resources they need to get their jobs done as quickly and painlessly as possible.

People who are process-oriented and want to help improve things can consider using their JD to break into legal ops. There’s no one size fits all approach to legal ops, so there’s plenty of on-the-job variety to keep you interested.

Takeaways

New law school grads don’t have to take the beaten path after getting their JD. Legal tech has opened up so many opportunities for using your degree that you can make your career your own. Tune into Cockpit Counsel, hosted by CLO and real-life pilot Tim Parilla, for more career tips and advice on how to build your brand as a legal professional.