Law degree opens new paths

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Students expecting their law degrees to be a meal ticket straight into the field may be destined for disappointment: less than half end up in the legal arena.

The warning comes from Tony Crane, manager of the careers and employment office at the University of Auckland, whose law school is the country's largest, with more than 2000 students.

He was speaking as the New Zealand Law Society released figures showing that this country has one of the highest lawyer-to-population ratios in the world, behind only the litigation-crazy United States and Canada.

In its June edition of Law Talk, the society says there is now one lawyer for every 468 people in the country. The ratio in 1950 was one to 787.

The Government has, controversially, suggested capping popular courses such as law and commerce, the better to feed its much-vaunted "knowledge economy".

But that doesn't necessarily mean the country produces too many law graduates, says Crane. "Nor does it mean that [a student's] law degree is wasted."

Too many students are expecting a law degree to be a sure path to a legal firm, despite a tight law job market. They are not looking at the skills their degree teaches, such as research, analytical thinking and speaking off-the-cuff, and the openings those skills might offer in other fields.

"What's important is what a job involves, rather than what the job is titled," says Crane. "They need to look at the content of the work rather than the name of the job.

"Look at the components of what you like doing, and find the types of roles where you can maximise the things you like doing."

The best career path "may not be law after all - there may be more [options] than they contemplated".

Students "think too narrowly, thinking if they do that degree they'll get that career path. But it's not necessarily true". Rethinking careers after a law degree requires putting status and money considerations aside, he says. Many of the skills law might teach, such as solid research, debating and confident speaking, apply to other fields, such as journalism.

Or intellectual property, insurance, public policy, investigative work, investment, or property management, says Liz Medford, manager of career development and employment at Victoria University.

In March, for the second year, the university ran a law careers fair, and 15 non-law companies took part.

Represented were Government departments such as the Ministries of Justice and Labour, Inland Revenue, a publisher, and accounting firms.

Employers, says Medford, are beginning to understand that law skills have application outside legal firms. It's taking some students a little longer.

Crane advises would-be law students to consider what individual activities they like doing before settling on a programme of study.

Law students should take a breadth of subjects, particularly in the early stages. Whenever they get electives, they should take something in another faculty.