I thought this might be of interest for those practicing law in NYC…

Life Outside of a Law Firm: Non-Traditional Careers for Lawyers
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 6 PM

Registration:
NYC Bar Member Price : $15.00  Register
Non City Bar Member Price : $25.00  Register

You’ve always heard that a law degree is beneficial because it provides so many career options. The panelists on this program are all former lawyers who have taken both their legal knowledge and skill sets and transitioned into careers outside of a traditional law practice. The panel will discuss the paths they each took, and how their training as lawyers continues to play a role in their careers.

Moderator:
MICHAEL MELCHER, Next Step Partners; Author, The Creative Lawyer: A Practical Guide to Authentic Professional Satisfaction

Speakers:
MARCI ALBOHER, VP, Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers work and social purpose; Author, “One Person/Multiple Careers”; Former Shifting Careers blogger/columnist, The New York Times
JUDY GROSS, Coordinator of Literacy and Volunteer Programs, JCC, Manhattan; Director, Gift of Literacy Programs (after school), PS 75 and PS 165; Reading Specialist/Intervention Team Leader, PS 75
ASHLEY HUFFT, Chief of Staff and General Counsel, Millennium Promise
SUSAN WIVIOTT, Deputy Executive Director, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services

Sponsored by:
Committee on Career Advancement and Management, Carroll Welch, Chair

Registration is necessary. The fee is $15 for members, $25 for non-members.

I found this to be quite interesting!

From the WSJ law blog:

We have a friend who lives up in Boston. Harvard undergrad, Yale Law, district-court clerkship with a highly respected judge.

After her clerkship, she landed at a well-known and well-regarded Boston-based firm. She hated just about every minute of it. The partner she did most of her work for was an anxious and twitchy Blackberry addict. Her colleagues stumbled through their days glassy-eyed and overcaffeinated, then drank themselves silly on the weekends. Our friend thought about quitting the law. Maybe it wasn’t for her, she thought. There must be something better.

But she stuck it out long enough to land a good in-house job at a Boston-area company. And life is different. Much different. She loves her job, loves the company, leaves the office at a reasonable hour to take care of her kids. She has a good salary, stock options, and feels connected to something in a way she didn’t while at the firm.

Thing is, this tale isn’t unique. Far from it. Everyone reading this blog knows someone who’s trod a similar path — from BigLaw misery to in-house bliss. Were we giving advice to someone heading to law school today, after trying to convince them not to go, we’d tell them that the in-house path is the one that glows golden; that law-firm partnership is for freaks — freaky in that they don’t need much sleep or read the UCC on their vacations or are just preternaturally ambitious. Partners, we’d argue, are born, not made. If, as a second-year associate, you find yourself weeping in your office more than once a quarter or, on Friday nights, draining more Jagerbombs than you did as a college freshman, think hard about getting your tush in-house.

Fine. So where is all this leading? Here: a breath of spring in a job market that’s been wintry for far too long. According to the Association for Corporate Counsel’s most recent chief legal officer survey, in-house hiring is on the way up.

Nearly one-third (29 percent) of the 970 chief legal officers who responded to the ACC survey said they planned on adding to their departments this year, up from 23 percent in last year’s survey, Corporate Counsel says.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the floodgates have opened. Nor does it mean that in-house jobs are going to be easy to get. (It also might mean, as AmLaw’s Zach Lowe observes, that law firms might get less work.) But it reaffirms in our mind that, especially as general counsel increasingly start kicking a little tail — doing more work and telling their law firms what they’re going to pay and how — for a lot of folks, they’re the place to be.

I love reading stories like this about lawyers becoming entrepreneurs.  Enjoy! 

From the Small Business section of the Wall Street Journal

“I wanted job security, so I got a job at Sills Cummis & Gross P.C., a New Jersey-based law firm that does work on Wall Street,” Arrick said. He specialized in commercial real estate transactions as well as corporate finance.

After getting laid off in 2008, Arrick went on job interviews in Dubai, where he hoped to get in on the real-estate boom there. He accepted a job, returned to the States to pack up his things, but his offer was then rescinded because of the local financial crisis.

“When I came back to the U.S., I had no idea what I was going to do with my life,” Arrick said. “I went to every museum twice, went to every free event New York had to offer, and because I couldn’t afford to eat out, I became a really good cook.”

Just when things looked bleakest, Arrick found his calling. Strolling around one day in the West Village, a neighborhood in downtown Manhattan, Arrick spied people lining up around the corner for Magnolia Bakery’s cupcakes. This piqued his interest in the business.

The most common question most people wonder when reading a story like this (especially one dealing with a laid off lawyer) is how was he able to finance his small business? Here’s how Arrick did it:

To start the business, Arrick pooled together $20,000 from a few different sources. He maxed out his credit cards to the tune of $10,000, liquidated his 401(K), and cobbled together $5,000 in savings.

Right now, Arrick has a staff of five, including the baker. He runs the operation out of a commercial kitchen space in Queens. There’s no storefront yet, but he hopes to open a store downtown in Manhattan this spring.

So how are corporate legal skills transferable to running a bakery selling masculine cupcakes?

Arrick’s journey doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon. He’s been approached by brides, asking if he’ll do wedding cakes, and by the Food Network, suggesting that he audition for “Cupcake Wars.” He wants to expand into Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles by the year’s end.

“It’s surprisingly a cutthroat environment for cupcakes,” Arrick said. “But my negotiation, corporate and LLC compliance, and accounting skills have served me well. Plus, I can draft complex agreements and contracts.”

The lesson to be learned from Arrick’s jaunt down Pastry Avenue and Whipped Cream Street? First, the skills you pick up on the Street can serve you well anywhere, even in a bakery. And second, if you can’t stand the heat on the trading floor, maybe it’s time to get in the kitchen.

To read the whole article, click here.