While many people go to law school to get better opportunities in the job market later on, some with law degrees have changed hats because they realized their potential in other fields.
Tim Kevan
Barrister-turned-novelist Tim Kevan practiced law for 10 years in London. He specialized in civil fraud, personal injury, and credit hire. He decided to write a novel later on and his first novel titled Law and Disorder got raving reviews. By 2011, he published his second novel titled Law and Peace. His experience as a lawyer gave his novels some credence.
Unlike other lawyers who changed hats, Kevan intends to practice law again. Kevan believes that lawyers are intelligent and very dynamic people and that they could easily become entrepreneurs if they wanted to. Kevan also believes that lawyers wanting to go into business whatever business this may be, should start from the bottom up.
Nathan Sawaya
A former lawyer who graduated from the New York University School of Law, Nathan Sawaya always loved making Lego sculptures. Sawaya confirmed in an interview that he couldn’t remember being passionate about law but he has crystal clear memories of wanting to become an artist. When he was still working as a lawyer, he painted and sculpted to unleash the creativity he cannot apply in his job. One day, Nathan Sawaya sculpted something out of Lego blocks, one of the toys he played with when he was a child. His piece out of the Danish blocks was a large scale one and when family and friends saw it, they encouraged Sawaya to do more. He put up a website later on and as fate has it, Sawaya got the attention of Lego enthusiasts the world over.
This was the turning point of his career. Sawaya decided right then that he has to stop practicing law to make a living out of making sculptures from Lego blocks. The New York-based artist already had a number of exhibitions in North America, Australia, and Asia. Today, Sawaya no longer has to sit long hours in a boardroom to negotiate contracts but spends his work hours playing with toys.
Jodi Ettenberg
Jodi Ettenberg quit her job in the year 2008 and took off to do some traveling. A former lawyer in New York City, Ettenberg dreamt of traveling and eating her way all throughout the globe and blog about it. She however thought that after touring the world, she would go back to practicing law but this did not happen. The Legal Nomads website owner shares her experiences on food she has tried from different corners of the world and makes a living out of it.
She basically left her taste buds to lead her to where she is now –content and happy in sharing stories about her food exploits. It was in 2010 when Ettenberg started getting freelance writing offers as well as inquiries on how to buy photos from her.
She forged long term partnerships with a number of companies later on and this has supported her lifestyle ever since. She is a public speaker too and squeezes speaking opportunities around her existing work contracts.
Paul Mandell
Paul Mandell gave up his seven figure salary to be a successful entrepreneur. Unlike Kevan however, Mandell, who now writes for the Washington Post believes that his legal training made it difficult to transition into a businessman. He also noted that 75 percent of his entrepreneurial successes were traits he developed outside of law school. Mandel does not regret being a lawyer though because it definitely helped him in launching his business. Now the CEO of his own company, Mandell’s success story is now an inspiration for lawyers who want to become entrepreneurs.
About the Author: Joshua Turner is a writer who creates informative articles in relation to business. In this article, he describes a few law students turned entrepreneur and aims to encourage further study with a master’s degree in law.