Reply to How many of you JDs do not work anymore because it is not worth it financially?

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[quote=Anonymous]I completely disagree that BigLaw is off limits if you don't get an offer right out of law school.  If you plan to practice law in the long run, you do need to work rather than SAH -- it is much harder to on-ramp after taking time off, particularly if you have no substantive work experience.

If your long-term goals is BigLaw, consider a position in government while your child is young, particularly an agency in a practice area that is marketable to firms, such as securities, commodities regulation, financial regulatory work, antitrust, energy.  While not all government positions are family-friendly, and your first year as a GS-11 or 12 will not pay well, you will get more hands-on experience in government than you will at a firm.  Whether and how quickly you will be able to leverage this into a BigLaw position depends on the practice area, the economy, and whether you have a desire and are able to climb the ranks into management.

If you are interested in "humanitarian law," however, that is not something you generally will encounter at BigLaw, unless you are working on a pro bono case or defending a corporation against TVPA/ATCA claims.  There may be exceptions to this, but "humanitarian law" is not the bread-and-butter of most firms.  If that is your intended practice area, I would focus on non-profit or advocacy work.  If you do exceptionally well in that, you may be able (one day, far in the future) to leverage that into a lobbying or government affairs position at a firm.

But my bottom line advice is to get over any "prestige" issues that may be driving you topward BigLaw.  There is lots of other interesting (okay, semi-interesting) legal work out there, some of it actually compatible with having a family.[/quote]

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