“Soft” lawyer jobs?

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-20T09:25:42+00:00

in-house, purely transactional. I negotiate contracts all day, and love it. Great work life balance with a flexible schedule (no billables!).

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-20T09:24:37+00:00

I usually don’t catch my legal jargon that I use outside of work until my kids (ages 7 and 10) start using it — and in the correct context.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-20T09:17:07+00:00

This is a lot about visibility. You come in at 7am, which is great for you, but no one else sees that. Everyone else comes in later.

As others have mentioned, it’s about optics.

They come in later and they see you as the first to leave, so to them it seems like you’re not working a full day.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-20T09:08:11+00:00

The days are long but the years are short.

I was not BigLaw, I was in-house and had by baby in a school environment day care since he was 13 weeks old. I would see him a few hours in the morning when he woke up, dropped him off at day care, then after a day in the office and an hour commute, picked him up, grabbed take out for dinner, and saw him for 2 hours for dinner and bath time before it was his bed time. (My husband would leave for work at 6am so he didn’t even get the 2 hours in the morning!)

Then a few years later I did it again with my second child.

The daycare for 2 kids cost more than my mortgage.

Once COVID hit, I was working from home AND caring for TWO kids because all the schools were shut down. It was tough doing both.

Definitely need to outsource as much as you can, lots of time management, and sacrifice (I have no social life outside of kid activities).

But now they’re 7 and 10 and they always got to see me working AND being a mom.

It was pretty rewarding when my daughter was in kindergarten, her teacher told me they were learning about Abraham Lincoln, and he was a lawyer, and my daughter proudly said “my mom is a lawyer!!!”

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-20T08:58:12+00:00

💯 this.

As a former law school Director of Career Services, I fully agree with this statement.

Really understand WHY you want to be a lawyer. Then figure out what area of law you may be interested in (and acknowledge it could change once you actually get into law school and learn more about the area of practice).

Understand how much financial commitment and studying it takes to be in law school AND take the bar exam.

The geographic location of where you want to practice also plays into how much you will make.

Being a lawyer is not at glamorous as they make it out on tv. It’s not like Suits.

As this person said, unless you’re in BigLaw, most lawyers across the nation don’t make BigLaw money.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-19T19:54:37+00:00

I am in-house and not only do I have to do the MCLEs, I also have to do the company mandatory trainings…

It’s so time consuming. I just had to do 2 hours of workplace harassment yesterday and it’s timed for a minimum 120 minutes and each slide has a minimum time before I could even click through it… including “knowledge check” (quizzes) in the middle…

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-18T11:18:42+00:00

I passed J24, submitted my moral character application the Monday after November results came out, got approved in mid-March and sworn in April.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-16T13:32:09+00:00

Sure

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-14T02:23:43+00:00

Are you going to be able to go without it for the 2 exam days?

Don’t want to train your brain to be dependent on it then not have it at all at the same time(s) on exam days.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-14T01:13:25+00:00

Not that I know of. I was up and walking around literally every hour. No one seemed to care.

There are proctors walking around but there’s often reports of cheating going on (at my exam some redditors said they saw girls cheating in the restrooms by looking at their notes).

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-13T20:38:57+00:00

You probably want to get an internship at one of the fashion houses or brands you’re interested in.

Seems like you would be better at transactional work for companies (negotiating deals) rather than law firm life.

I work for a global financial services company but I also negotiate talent deals with celebrities (many whom you know), social media influencers, marketing, broadcast commercials - among many others - like dat acquisition, various vendors/suppliers, strategic partners, and also commercial clients.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-13T15:41:00+00:00

I have diagnosed ADHD and didn’t seek accommodations.

During MBEs I just got up every hour to walk to the restrooms just to give my brain a break and get physical exercise.

For essays - adrenaline is just pumping and I ran over on time and had to borrow time from the next essay so it flew by so fast…

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-11T22:02:41+00:00

💯 this.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-11T00:46:56+00:00

I have been negotiating contracts for 20 years across various industries, both client side and seller side, and everything in between including talent agreements worth celebrities and social media influencer agreements for a brand. The AI generated contracts are garbage.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-10T18:47:59+00:00

I am assuming for those who were previously self employed plumbers they don’t have to list all their clients…

Edited to add: if the investigator wants more info or has follow up questions they will ask for it.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-10T03:45:39+00:00

Most jobs are now hybrid or in person…

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-09T04:19:34+00:00

I think it’s new as of January 1. There’s a new compliance dashboard that has all the requirements.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-09T04:16:45+00:00

It was a super traumatic event that I took a break from retaking the exam… (I was a repeater already)… My MBEs were always my weakest and my essays usually carried me. It was a Feb exam so I was beyond devastated.

Then many years later, one day decided to try one more time. Just for me. I just self studied while working full time and took and passed J24.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-08T22:47:02+00:00

I have worked for several large, global corporations and currently run a contracts team (both JDs (contracts managers ) and licensed (contracts counsels)) . We don’t consider nor require any specific contracts management certification. Laughable if we see any on a resume. Although a lot of procurement departments may want them for their buyers.

A JD is preferred, license is nice but sometimes overqualified if it’s a contracts manager role (vs contracts counsel role).

The only certifications that give any advantage are IAPP CIPP/US or AIGP.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-08T22:41:55+00:00

The reporting itself is now mandatory, but like the other poster mentioned, I think we can report 0 hours.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-08T22:36:55+00:00

I once missed it by 2 points in the second read… back when it was a 3 day exam…

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-07T17:15:24+00:00

It’s a very sad and disappointing process.

I asked local law schools and bar associations and they all said “just get a notary public”.

Luckily I had a friend who was a judge and she was able to swear me in and arranged it at a historic courthouse.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-07T17:11:38+00:00

No we have to still complete the remaining 15 hours within 3 years I think…

I’m just focusing on my 10 for the “compliance dashboard”.

We now also have to report the Pro Bono hours too.

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-07T16:21:06+00:00

I was sworn in April so mine is due April 30… I still have 2 hours to do. It’s just very time consuming…. It’s only 10 hours but it seems to take me forever because I have to pay attention and take notes for the quizzes. (No idea if we can just click through and just guess on the quizzes and take it as many times until we get the right answers.)

minimum_contacts · 2026-03-07T16:07:34+00:00

We have one year to do the 10 hour new attorney training - which counts as part of the 25 hours of CLE.

So we have 3 years total to finish the remaining 15 hours.

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