by Lesley Mason

Created on: August 31, 2011   Last Updated: January 06, 2012

Suppose that alongside learning the case-law, the statutes and the vagaries of the legal system, the other thing you've learned while getting your degree is that, of all things, you do not want to be a lawyer.

If you do, why would you be reading this?

So assuming that none of the traditional routes of solicitor, advocate, barrister really appeal – what else is open to you?  Well, that might depend upon how much you specialised in getting your degree.

Hopefully, you will have recognised early on that focusing on contract law would give you the widest range of options.

Criminal law whilst often the most interesting is quite narrow in terms of direct application.

Tort comes a close second to contract in terms of adaptability, but being the most mutable, it is often the area to lose currency to legislation most quickly.

 A legal degree with a high contract content will look good on a CV for anyone wanting to enter the world of business and many of the public sector arenas.  It is the most adaptable but also the most directly applicable.  It is simply easier to sell to a prospective employer as being relevant.

That's the trick.  You've got the degree.  You may have a general idea of what kind of work you want to do, or what kind of organisation or industry you want to work in, but you're not sure how to get that foot in the door – especially given that you're feeling that maybe you've just wasted three years or more getting a law degree.  What you need to do now is make it relevant. Market that line on your CV.  Think about the transferability of the skills.  

It's not about having a law degree.  It's about having what you needed to have to get a law degree.

Let's look at the four key skills needed to be successful in law and legal studies and how they can usefully deployed outside the narrow confines of the legal profession.

Skill 1: Ability to read the law

Literally.  The ability to read an Act of Parliament or Statutory Instrument is surprisingly rare.  "Why is it so difficult?" a trainee solicitor asked in a recent project group meeting I attended, "It's only reading English." 

Precisely.  The sad truth is young people are not taught how to read these days.  Once they can follow basic sentence structure sufficiently to read a popular novel, that seems to be considered "job done".  The old-fashioned comprehension tests don't feature the way they need to, if we are

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