The Legal Career Path as an Atlas

Question: Color me concerned. I will be starting law school in the fall at a good, but not top, law school. I have heard that what law school you attend limits your career options, that your first practice choice limits your career options, and that where you elect to practice limits your career options. How do I make the right choices? And am I starting out on a career path where my opportunities get increasingly narrow?

Answer: The answer is yes and no, with a decided emphasis on the latter. Choosing any field of study opens some doors while closing others. Get an engineering degree and no one is likely to let you perform open-heart surgery. Law is interesting in that some people pursue it not intending to enter traditional practice, while for others there is much concern that if you don't do it "right" your options are limited. It's time for a little perspective.

The media, trade and otherwise, focus on a small segment of law practice, typically that at the big firms. Those starting salaries get the headlines, those layoffs get the stories, and the travails of associates get the spotlight. One might assume that this is the only way to practice law and that if you don't attend a top-tier law school, get training at a big firm, work in a major metropolitan area, and eventually grab the partnership brass ring, you missed the boat. That, of course, is only true if big firm practice is all you aspire to or, to put it another way, all you are open to.

The ABA's "Appraisal of the American Legal Profession in the Year 2000" paints a very broad picture of law practice in this country, noting that, as of 1995, only about 12% of lawyers practiced law in firms of 51 or more attorneys. Most are in sole practice or in very small firms. Their methods of practice, geographic settings, and community standing vary as widely as do the regions and towns in America. And this variety doesn't even account for the many ways of getting from point A to point B.

In all my years in legal recruiting, the only thing I can say about the legal career path is that it is as varied as an atlas and that many avenues lead to "success." I have a friend who went to a big firm, left for in-house practice, and has spent the last twenty-years in a very satisfying teaching position in law school, with a consulting and writing practice on the side. Other lawyers go into business, start companies, push innovations in mediation, return to small communities, enter local politics, or lobby organizations to draw public attention and political response to important social and medical issues, as did a special person I know who fell victim to Parkinson's disease.

My point is that, at the outset of your legal education, you may not be able to accurately predict the path it will take you down. Your school, choice of practice area, or initial practice locale will not confine you so long as your imagination is not limited and you stay intimately in touch with the ideas, passions, and ambitions that define you. A legal education opens more doors than it closes. It'll be up to you which doors to walk through.

Bill Seaton is the co-founder of EmplawyerNet, which offers the largest legal jobs database anywhere, with over 6,000 job listings. To send Bill Seaton an e-mail question, read his message board, or check out past articles, visit Bill Seaton central.