Sarah Cottrell: Hi, and welcome to The Former Lawyer Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Cottrell. I practiced law for ten years, and now I help unhappy lawyers ditch their soul-sucking jobs. On this show, I share advice and strategies, for aspiring former lawyers and interviews with former lawyers who’ve left the law behind, to find careers and lives that they love.

Today I want to talk about transferable skills. Listen, it's no secret, it's no surprise to you, if you're listening to this podcast, pretty much every lawyer who's thinking about leaving law, one of the things that they focus on the most, is whether or not they have transferable skills. And often, you have a situation where lawyers feel like “I don't have any transferable skills, my skills are so specific to practicing law that like, I don't really know how they would apply in other fields, or other roles, and I don't know how to demonstrate that to other people.” So I've already talked on the podcast before about, how to translate some of the things in your resume that is more, legal-ese ish, into something that is more, figuring out how to, gear it towards whatever type of thing you are trying to land. But I wanted to talk today, specifically about, ways in which, transferable skills that you, I'm sure have as a lawyer, apply in all sorts of different jobs, including jobs that you wouldn’t necessarily expect. And I’m gonna use some examples from past podcast episodes, because, honestly in interview you hear on this podcast you’ll hear people talking about some of the ways that, they have used skills, that they developed as a lawyer in other roles. But, I think it’s just a good reminder that like, you often, as a lawyer, are going to, the way you approach things, is not special. Especially if you work around, basically all lawyers, because, you tend to have a similar skill set. But when you go out in the world, into other types of roles, the things that are sort of like, ubiquitous within the legal profession, actually become selling points, that you can use. And I want to illustrate that for you, by talking through some examples.

So the first example I wanna talk about is, when I recently had Alex Su, back on the podcast. Alex is the Chief Revenue Officer at Lateral Link, and he originally left legal practice for like, a legal tech sales type role, and now he's in this Chief Revenue Officer role. And, we talked a ton about, what skills transfer from practicing law to potentially doing something else. And we also talked about, some of the things that you can work on, upskilling on, if you are wanting to make a transition. One of the things that he talked about that I thought was really interesting, is something that I think a lot of lawyers would overlook. He talked about accountability, and specifically he talked about, some of the things that he has seen, that lawyers who leave and are successful in making a transition to something other than law, versus lawyers who don't necessarily have that same success. And the thing one of the things he talked about was, being able to hold yourself accountable.

So a lot of the lawyers I work with, and a lot of lawyers in general, tend to be highly responsible people, people who hold themselves to a very high standard. And people who execute, and like, get things done. And so, I wanted to start with this example, because I think that this is an example of, something like accountability, holding yourself accountable, that a lot of lawyers would not think of this as a skill, right? A lot of lawyers would just be like “Well of course I do the things that need to get done, that's literally, like, my job.” But that actually is, a skill. It is a skill that you cultivate as a lawyer, and it is a skill that will serve you in all sorts of different industries. Now Alex specifically, is in, with Lateral Link, they are essentially, placing lawyers in various roles with companies, but there're all sorts of other jobs, right? Where having this accountability, having this sense this internal drive, and this sense of like “Okay I'm going to set these goals and achieve them.” Is actually, hugely helpful. And does actually set you apart.

Another example is, sometimes you have roles where being a lawyer is, like, a very helpful add-on. Or it gives you sort of a competitive advantage. So one example of that, is Lilly Ghahremani. So I had her on the podcast and, she is a literary agent. And her legal training, her experience of training to become a lawyer, is hugely helpful, in that particular role. Because of course she's representing authors and illustrators, and negotiating contracts, and doing all of these things that touch on certain types of like, legal knowledge. And especially when you're talking about these contracts like, they can have very far reaching implications for the other things that her clients can do. And so, it is a differentiator for her, in terms, of helping her to stand out, as an agent.

Okay so let’s talk about another example. I was just wanting to talk about like, a handful of examples so that you, can get a sense of like the breadth of variety of these transferable skills, and also like the breadth of like, potential jobs that the skills can transfer to. I had Dan Branagan on the podcast, he was a member of the collab, and he became a data analyst. And one of the things that he talked about. So, in the process of becoming a data analyst, and doing the interviews for that role, you go through a series of technical interviews, and I think he described the interviews as harrowing. And one of the things that he talked about is, going through those, that interview process, having had the experience as a lawyer of going into court, and having to like, stand up and argue motions, and, and all the things that one does in court. Actually translated really well for him in terms of, approaching these interviews. Because there is an element of like, you're making the case for yourself, right? You’re fielding tough questions and being able to respond. And so like, that's an area, for example, that I think people, just don't think about very much. Because, you do have this experience as a lawyer of like, learning how to structure arguments, and learning how to anticipate questions. That ultimately can set you up for like, a better experience when you're going through, for example, an interview that involves a lot of those things.

Okay, just a couple more. Oh. So, another example that, I think is particularly interesting, is the conversation that I had with Ashley Carlisle. Her, her role now is a Chief Marketing Officer role. And the reason I think this is interesting is that, so many lawyers tell me that the reason, one of the reasons that they went to law school is because they like, really like learning. Like, they’re like, good at learning, they're good at understanding new things, and even when you're practicing law, like, there is an element of “Okay I need to like learn, if you're a litigator, I need to learn this new case. I need to learn the facts. I need to, maybe, understand a new area of law. I need to think about like, what I might need in order to defend this case, or to like bring this lawsuit.” If in another area. Like, if you're doing more of like, deal work or diligence, there's like, other aspects in terms of the things that you are having to think about and look for, and know, and that really goes across, pretty much, any type of legal practice, no matter which particular area of practice it is. So one of the things that Ashley talked about is, as a Chief Marketing Officer, a lot of what you're doing is, you are looking at data and information, and running experiments, and learning from them. And, having to take in information, process it, draw out the conclusions, or insights, and then apply those. And, I think for a lot of lawyers, the facility with which we learn, or our ability to approach new information, and pick it up, is a skill that we develop both in law school and then ultimately in practice. And that is another thing that is very helpful. And is often sought after in, all sorts of different roles, where you're having to pick up, that kind of information.

Okay, so this was a very brief overview of just a couple of examples. But the reason I wanted to talk about it is that, it is so easy as a lawyer to think “I don't have any transferable skills.” Or like, “If I do, they're only transferable to like, compliance or other things that are like, very close in terms of substance potentially, to legal work itself.” And that, it just isn't true. There are so many ways that your experience as a lawyer can be applied, that it can be helpful, that it can be a competitive advantage, that it can be something that helps you land a job, do a different type of job. And, it's just really important for me that, lawyers who are listening know, that like, you have way more transferable skills than you think you do. And they can apply in a lot more fields and roles, than you probably think they can. And it's really just a question of figuring out where, like what role, or what field do you want to take those skills to, that will be a better fit for you, if practicing law is not a great fit. So be encouraged. You have transferable skills, and they can apply in lots of different areas, and the many interviews that I've had on the podcast, including these couple of examples that have shared today, are really good place to start. In terms of just, thinking through like, what skills might I have that I could use in other areas, or other types of work that I'm interested in. That's it for me today, thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you next week.

Thanks so much for listening. I absolutely love getting to share this podcast with you. If you haven't yet, I invite you to download my free guide First Steps to Leaving the Law at formerlawyer.com/first until next time, have a great week.