Alternative careers for a Law student

[alpro]

I am currently a 2nd year law student at a mid-tier UK university. With the situation the law industry is right now I have more or less given up on a career as a lawyer.

I need some advice on alternative careers in industries where a law degree is appreciated.

Any help would be very much valued.

Have you thought of compliance in banks?

[alpro]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Have you thought of compliance in banks?

Im sorry but no, its not something that Ive thought about.

would you mind explaining to me how my law degree might apply to a career in compliance, and how do I go about starting on this path with no banking or business background?

thank you

Originally Posted by alpro

Im sorry but no, its not something that Ive thought about.

would you mind explaining to me how my law degree might apply to a career in compliance, and how do I go about starting on this path with no banking or business background?

thank you

This is what I know for banks (but may be applicable to other industries too). Compliance has been a growing division among the financial services industries due to increasing amounts of regulatory issues that are required to be met. This has caused the pay in compliance to have risen quite significantly over the past years (it's high, I'm not sure if it is comparable to big law).

Banks like to hire lawyers for their compliance department. Here are a few examples on Linkedin (there are many around):
- s://.linkedin.com/pub/mark-edwards/23/b99/87
- s://.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=68517503&authType=name&authToken=5lHf&trk= prof-sb-browse_map-photo

For greater details on the increasing demand and relevancy, you can refer to this article: ://blogs.reuters.com/financial-regulatory-forum/2014/12/03/u-s-compliance-education-expands-as-demand-increases-part-one-law-schools/

For greater details on the various aspects of law that are relevant to compliance, you can refer to this article: ://.michaelpage.com/our-expertise/banking-and-financial-services/compliance

Hi,

I'm not affiliated with the TS but I too am interested in exploring alternative career options as a law graduate.

Just a brief background: I am 2:1 graduate from a still scheduled UK university. I am about to complete my training contract with a mid sized local law firm and will be called to the Singapore Bar later this year. However owing to the current conditions, the firm was unable to retain me. I have been applying to quite a number of other law firms, but without much success so far.

In this regard, I've begun to give a career in compliance some serious thought. However most positions i've encountered (via Job Boards, Recruitment sites and Headhunters) require about 2+ years of working experience. Needless to say the search has been challenging so far.

I wish enquire as to what would be the 'entry point' to gain the required experience to pursue a career in compliance? I currently have about 1year of legal training and also a BBA degree from NUS (Law is my 2nd degree) under my belt. I have also considered enrolling in the IBF Level 1 course conducted by the ICTA.

Any advice rendered would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. Any advice on any additional alternative career paths would also be greatly appreciated as well!

[lifeistough]

Just to add in. I'm a current law undergraduate from a local uni...got a training contract at a JLV. The firm has had 100% retention for the past 7 years or so, but I'm not counting on that to keep up, given the market.

I'll be graduating in the top 10-15% of my cohort with pretty good extra-curriculars (won international law competitions, led club, NPO consulting work etc.). Do you think bank/MNC MAPs are within reach? Any other suggestions? Anything I should do to make myself more attractive to non-law (i.e. finance, consulting) employers?

Originally Posted by lifeistough

Just to add in. I'm a current law undergraduate from a local uni...got a training contract at a JLV. The firm has had 100% retention for the past 7 years or so, but I'm not counting on that to keep up, given the market.

I'll be graduating in the top 10-15% of my cohort with pretty good extra-curriculars (won international law competitions, led club, NPO consulting work etc.). Do you think bank/MNC MAPs are within reach? Any other suggestions? Anything I should do to make myself more attractive to non-law (i.e. finance, consulting) employers?

r u boi boi or ger ger? got diff ways to make u attractive

english teacher with moe

Just like Law, the market for Finance isn't all that good too. Only a few sectors are still not too bad currently, such as Compliance and Private Wealth Management.

Compliance: All the regulatory standards that were recently implemented have been driving the demand for compliance executives up. Salaries have gone up quite considerably over the past few years. However, a thing to note is that this has been happening since ~5 years ago. Many banks have been recruiting and training heavily (e.g. Credit Suisse's Compliance Practicum), hence increasing the supply to the market over the past years. Not sure what the market would be like in the years ahead.

Private Wealth Management: The increasing number of rich people in Asia have driven the demand for Wealth Management executives up. However, to qualify, you would typically need to possess the characteristics for this (reasonable looks, communication skills, financial literacy and client servicing skills). Furthermore, you would usually need to have, or to be able to obtain, a large network of rich people; this is something which many fresh graduates are unable to achieve, unless they are born into a wealthy family with huge connections. And lastly, the 'RoboAdvisors' phenomenon seem to be starting to shake up this segment of the financial industry.

TL;DR: The Finance industry, just like the Law industry, may not be very pleasant currently. Think and research carefully before you leap.

[lifeistough]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just like Law, the market for Finance isn't all that good too. Only a few sectors are still not too bad currently, such as Compliance and Private Wealth Management.

Compliance: All the regulatory standards that were recently implemented have been driving the demand for compliance executives up. Salaries have gone up quite considerably over the past few years. However, a thing to note is that this has been happening since ~5 years ago. Many banks have been recruiting and training heavily (e.g. Credit Suisse's Compliance Practicum), hence increasing the supply to the market over the past years. Not sure what the market would be like in the years ahead.

Private Wealth Management: The increasing number of rich people in Asia have driven the demand for Wealth Management executives up. However, to qualify, you would typically need to possess the characteristics for this (reasonable looks, communication skills, financial literacy and client servicing skills). Furthermore, you would usually need to have, or to be able to obtain, a large network of rich people; this is something which many fresh graduates are unable to achieve, unless they are born into a wealthy family with huge connections. And lastly, the 'RoboAdvisors' phenomenon seem to be starting to shake up this segment of the financial industry.

TL;DR: The Finance industry, just like the Law industry, may not be very pleasant currently. Think and research carefully before you leap.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Compliance is the "in-thing" at the moment as, as you said, regulations are being tightened due to recent evidence of gross mismanagement. That said I suspect that once banks and FIs get their systems in order and proper protocols set up, the need for so many compliance workers will go down and a skeleton crew will be sufficient to keep things running. Then compliance will no longer be the "in-thing" and focus will shift to something else, leaving the compliance workers in the lurch. That said though I think its a very valid option for the present, and if we get in early I think there's a good career to be made of it?

Not sure about private wealth management but I'll definitely look into it!

Oh yes a side note about the "Robo-Advisers" sorta thing - Automation is slowly creeping up, even in traditionally skills-based industries like law. IBM has created a legal research database that intelligently searches for legal materials and writes you a cited answer to a legal problem (ROSS). Its really amazing stuff!