Legal Careers that Don’t Require a Law Degree
Let’s face it, law school is expensive. Even if you don’t go to a top school or do a fully-comprehensive degree, you’re still going to end up owing tens of thousands of dollars after you’re done. Maybe that just doesn’t appeal to you, or maybe you’re now in your mid 20s or early 30s and have decided you don’t want to go to college, yet would still like to work in law.
Surprisingly, you still have a variety of options available to you. In this article, we’re going to look at what legal careers you can enter into that won’t require you to have a law degree.
Legal Secretary
As a legal secretary, you’ll be working around lawyers, usually in a private law firm. While you won’t be tasked with winning cases for clients, you will be an instrumental part of the team that does seek to pursue justice.
You’ll need to handle much of the paperwork regarding the case and assist your partner with law research. To become a legal secretary you don’t even need a two-year degree. You just need to be organized, have a great work ethic and a passion for law.
Legal Marketing
A lawyer’s job isn’t just to excel in court. It’s usually to run a business, too. At least, that’s the case for the lawyers who own and run law firms across America.
For these law firms to succeed, they’ll usually need to advertise themselves. That’s where you come in. By working as a legal marketer, you’ll help a firm build their brand awareness and attract new customers. A degree in marketing is important, but not essential.
A Patent Agent
There are many aspects to law. Some of them are glamorous, some of them less glamorous, but still extremely important.
The U.S economy thrives because it encourages businesses to invest money into worthwhile ideas. To do that though, these ideas need to be protected using a patent.
A patent agent is required to file patents and prosecute certain applications. You won’t be working on any high profile murder cases, but you will be doing an important job nonetheless.
A Corporate Compliance Officer
Finally, one further role you can take on if you love the law but don’t have a legal degree is that of a corporate compliance officer.
Within any business, legal advice will be needed on fairly mundane matters. Take banking, for instance. A bank will require somebody with expertise in how to stay within the law, to work for the company and advise the business on whether certain aspects of its operations are legal, illegal, or borderline.
This particular non-lawyer job requires you to know a lot about specialist parts of the law, but doesn’t require you to have a degree in law. You can expect to be paid handsomely for your time, and enjoy a career filled with responsibility.
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