“JD Refugee®” Course Helps Lawyers Transition from Law to Other Careers
With studies showing that nearly 25 percent of law school graduates abandon their legal career within a decade, JD Careers Out There, an award-winning legal careers website whose mission is to help lawyers find career fulfillment using their law degree, today announced the launch of its innovative “JD Refugee®” course. Believed to be one of the first of its kind for the legal profession, the online, step-by-step guide helps lawyers confidentially reinvent their careers when they are unfulfilled by the traditional practice of law and want to pursue other options.
An American Bar Foundation study revealed that 24 percent of surveyed lawyers who passed the bar in the year 2000 were not practicing law by the year 2012. A study published in 2018 by the Gallup Organization and AccessLex showed that more law graduates like what they do every day when they are working outside of the legal profession.
“Given the level of career dissatisfaction combined with factors like the legal profession’s struggles with mental health and substance abuse, it makes sense that a lot of lawyers would want to explore their options and there is demand for resources like JD Refugee to help guide them,” said JD Careers Out There founder Marc Luber, a non-practicing attorney.
The course is self-paced and can easily be completed in 12 weeks. It includes online videos, downloadable exercises, and biweekly group coaching calls; helps participants identify new jobs that are a good fit; and guides them step-by-step through the career change process. Specific areas addressed include: exercises to determine one’s skills, talents, interests, and goals; lessons on connecting to potential career paths; and guidance for networking to access the hidden job market.
“Unhappy lawyers tend to have a tough time figuring out what kind of work could be a better fit,” Luber said. “Having successfully found fulfilling alternative careers myself after law school, I want to help other lawyers get unstuck, discover alternative jobs that will bring them greater satisfaction, and save them time, stress, and frustration by guiding them through the career transition process.”
Challenges lawyers specifically face when seeking career options outside of practicing law include:
• A law school education doesn’t typically focus on career possibilities or how the legal skill set is transferable.
• The benefits of the legal skillset often aren’t obvious to employers outside the legal industry, so they may not see how lawyers in non-legal roles could benefit their organizations.
• Potential employers are also likely to think lawyers will demand too high a salary and be secretly waiting for a law job to become available.
The online course, coupled with group coaching calls, is accessible from anywhere in the world, and all activity is completely confidential.
About JD Careers Out There
JD Careers Out There (JDCOT) has been helping lawyers with their careers since 2013. At the end of its first year, it was named Best Career Site by the ABA Journal Readers Poll. After using his law degree in the music industry and legal recruiting, company founder Marc Luber combined his career consulting interest with his past life as correspondent and editor of his high school cable TV show. His first site, Careers Out There, partnered with McGraw-Hill Education to provide video content to high schools across the country. For more information, please view the JD Refugee class introduction webinar.