A reference for thinking about the work you already do as the work someone else is hiring for.
Not technically leaving law, but the first move many lawyers make. The skill is the same; the client is one. The trade is autonomy for stability — and for the first time, you get to see what happens after the lawyers leave the room.
Translate my resume for this role →Reg work in a firm is compliance work in-house with a different title. You already know the rules, the regulators, and what auditors look for. The harder transition is to stop billing in six-minute increments.
Translate my resume for this role →Reading a statute → drafting one. Briefing a court → briefing a member. Lawyers already speak the dialect; the move to policy is about reorienting from "what does the law require" to "what should the law require."
Translate my resume for this role →M&A diligence → investment diligence. Reading a credit agreement → reading a term sheet. Pressure-testing a deal team's projections → pressure-testing a founder's. The vocabulary changes; the work doesn't.
Translate my resume for this role →The credit lawyer already underwrites. The fund formation lawyer already understands the cap table. Translation is mostly about moving from "advisor to the deal" to "principal in the deal" — same fluency, different chair at the table.
Translate my resume for this role →Running a case is running an operation: scope, staff, deadline, budget, reporting. Translate "managing partner" to "VP of Ops" and most of the resume already rewrites itself.
Translate my resume for this role →Running a deal team or a trial team is people management with worse tools. Translate "managing senior associate" to "team lead" or "director" and the rest is reframing the same skills around P&L instead of billables.
Translate my resume for this role →Scoping discovery → writing a product spec. Managing a litigation team across workstreams → managing a sprint. Translating a client problem into a legal theory → translating a user problem into a feature.
Translate my resume for this role →Lawyers already sell judgment by the hour. Consulting is the same trade, with case teams instead of matters, decks instead of memos, and engagements instead of billable years. The expertise transfers; the deliverable changes.
Translate my resume for this role →Closing a deal as a lawyer is closing a deal as a salesperson with more lead time. Drafting a term sheet → drafting a sales proposal. Reading a counterparty → reading a prospect. The pipeline replaces the docket.
Translate my resume for this role →Real estate is one of the few industries where legal training is worth advertising. Acquisitions, leasing, development — every transaction has a deal lawyer's fingerprints. The move is from documenting deals to sourcing and owning them.
Translate my resume for this role →Lawyers who taught CLEs, ran trainings, or mentored juniors are already educators. The move is to a longer time horizon and a younger audience. Legal writing translates to curriculum design; oral advocacy translates to lecturing.
Translate my resume for this role →Persuading a jury is persuading a market. Brief-writing is long-form content; oral argument is the keynote. The "audience" just got bigger and less captive.
Translate my resume for this role →Get the first issue when it ships