Product Description

Written by a lawyer for lawyers, Deborah Arron's book is a virtual encyclopedia for lawyers in transition, covering such topics as how to conduct a self-assessment and transferrable skills analysis, how to detect and prepare for layoff, how to establish a transitional financial plan, how to market your special talents, how to work with career consultants and headhunters, how to decide whether to stay in law or leave, how to avoid job-interview hell, how to handle compensation negotiations that work in your favor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116410 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Review
A lawyer's version of What Color is Your Parachute? Offers a logical, analytical way of evaluating career options -- ABA Journal

A practical, inspirational manual whether you want to change your practice or ditch it altogether -- Washington State Trial Lawyers Assn

When those dark nights of the soul arise, Arron's book is the beginning of the solution -- Law Practice Management Magazine

From the Author
I am a former civil litigator and bar association leader who closed my law practice in 1985 to take a one-year sabbatical, and never returned. Since then, I've studied, consulted with and talked to thousands of lawyers nationwide to learn what separates those who create satisfying and successful careers in or beyond the law from those who remain unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed. This book shares their secrets. You won't find any easy answers or quick career fixes in What Can You Do with a Law Degree? What you will get is a pragmatic approach to career development, and a multitude of career-building techniques, that have been successfully tested by thousands of lawyers and law students. You may be facing unemployment or retirement, or graduating from law school with no clear career path ahead of you. You may be wondering if you want to return from parental leave or whether part-time work is the answer. You may be restless and bored, hate your job or your work, feel underpaid or unappreciated, or be too burned out to drag yourself to the office each morning. No matter where you are, if you're the kind of person who can get into law school, get through law school, pass the bar or practice law, you're among the cream of the crop of American workers. You're analytical, intelligent, motivated, responsible, the kind of person who achieves the goals you set for yourself. And that's the key. You can't get very far if you don't have a meaningful goal. What Can You Do with a Law Degree? will help you find it.

About the Author
Author/lawyer Deborah Arron was the first to write and speak openly about career alternatives for lawyers. A Seattle civil litigator and bar leader for 10 years, Ms. Arron left her practice and set out to discover why she and so many lawyers were unhappy with their career. From that research came her first book -- Running From the Law: Why Good Lawyers Are Getting Out of the Legal Profession. The book broke the code of silence about lawyer dissatisfaction, and launched Arron's second career as an author and national public speaker.

Customer Reviews

You can be a (fill in blank), BUT WITH A LAW DEGREE
This book was almost completely worthless.
Basically, the author's suggestions are along the lines of "With a law degree, you can be a doctor!!! Of course, you will have to go to med school first..."; "with a law degree, you can be a chemist!!! But you may have to go back to school and pick up some of those science and math courses you skipped in undergrad because you knew you were going to law school..."
I mean, yes, I already KNEW I could go and be WHATEVER, given the proper additional training and/or sufficiently low expectations ("a drug dealer...WITH A LAW DEGREE!!!"). What this book's title suggests is an anlysis of alternative career paths utilizing a law degree, and what it delivers is a worthless list of random jobs that you are at least not banned from by virtue of having a law degree. I admire the author for tapping into what is an almost genetic yearning in the legal profession to GET OUT (and thereby getting out herself), but as a useful tool, the book fails miserably.

The best book of its kind out there
I have looked through practically every book on career change/transition for lawyers, and generally found them totally lacking in concrete advice as to lawyer-specific issues, self-assessment and options. This book not only hits the nail on the head as to reasons for dissatisfaction with the law, but offers sound ways to evaluate possibilities for change, both inside and outside the law, in terms of one's personal interests. And the examples of people who did make changes are very inspirational. The resources offered are the most comprehensive I've seen. Very valuable. If, as a lawyer, you question the path you are pursuing, this book will make you feel less alone in the process.

An information-packed tome written for only for lawyers.
Deborah Arron covers career assessement, career change, issues and concerns unique to lawyers. I read her book and didn't feel so alone when I finally admitted to myself I didn't want to practice law after three years of law school and $X in student loans. After thoroughly covering psychological issues specific to attorneys considering transitions to non-traditional careers, Arron provides effective assessments to determine a new direction. The final chapters teach exactly how to obtain that new career, including cover letter and resume tips. Arron's book also helps attorneys who want to continue to practice law, but in a different way. Buying "What Can You Do With A Law Degree" is among the best investments I've made.