What type of law would you want to practice? You could do patent law in one of the hundreds of biotechs around the Boston/Cambridge area.

Appreciate the suggestion! I'm really into foreign policy and affairs, but there aren't many jobs that exist for that. Patent law doesn't sound terrible, but I've heard you have to pass a special patent law exam among other things to work in that field.

I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know. I just work with lawyers everyday on patents. I would still look into biotech. Most have a regulatory affairs division and many work with Japanese teams as they're a major world health authority. I would recommend looking into it more, maybe you can find a niche for yourself!

You’ll likely get more useful advice on /r/Lawyers or Fishbowl.

I was a prosecutor for a bit; currently a litigator in big law. The grind will follow you to almost all lit jobs. Something in local government might suit you better if you don’t want the churn of a caseload.

You can search for legal jobs with the city here, and more broadly with other MA government agencies here.

Your law school career office can also help you out (I work at one).

Again, much appreciated! It's a new option and that's more than I had before. Really appreciate you taking the time to help.

Those two links for MA government agencies were really helpful. already sent out two applications through them. Not sure if anything will turn up, but I really appreciate you taking the time to provide them.

Do you think my office will be able to help even though they're in florida?

Yes. At least they should. It’s the law school’s benefit that you’re happily employed. Be sure to ask about reciprocity with a Boston area law school, which can grant you access to local legal listings via a local law school’s job board: https://www.nalp.org/reciprocitypolicies.

I’m sure you already looked into this but is there Bar reciprocity for you to work in MA without taking the exam? I know Florida doesn’t have it for MA (or really anywhere, they are sticklers). Caveat is my knowledge is dated, as I took the MA bar before it moved to the UBE.

FYI, without a science background you won't be able to get into patent law. I'm not an attorney but I'm familiar with the field and you're right that there is a separate licensing exam through the USPTO, in addition to needing a science/engineering degree. There are other areas of IP law where you don't necessarily need that science/engineering background, but you might struggle to break into them in Boston. The common path for patent attorneys is science/engineering first, and then using that knowledge to practice law rather than the other way around. Trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and transactions would be your avenues into IP.

And if you have a bachelor's or higher in a science or engineering field then you can ignore this entire comment and look into patents

Typically you have to practice for at least 5 years to waive into the Bar in Boston, but I just took the exam and passed thankfully!

That sounds about right from what I've heard. I was a criminal justice/legal studies major, so I don't think that science backgrounds exists for me unless through osmosis I can grab it from my wife.

Unfortunately I don't think the USPTO accepts osmosis as the basis for a science background, but if your wife wants an equally grueling but higher paying job than a medical residency she could always look into it. Of course the pay tips back to favor doctors after residency, and she has probably spent close to a decade working towards just her residency, but I guess it's an option nonetheless

Probably not the most high paying option but I've seen former attorneys, mostly women who want to exit big law and have better work like balance, become sales/demonstration reps for attorney software like westlaw. In Massachusetts you can also obtain a real estate brokers license if you are licensed to practice law, that might be another avenue to explore.

I would look at being a City/Town Solicitor for a Municipality. Great work/life balance and pension.

You might look into things that are law-adjacent; I'm thinking particularly of "compliance" work. There's quite a lot of that in both universities (research) and finance and I know some non-practicing lawyers who are happy in the niche.

This was going to be my rec. Lots of legal jobs in Biotech that are not just patient law.

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Was going to add this. A bonus of working in higher ed is there are often tuition benefits. If you end up wanting to do a complete career change, you can take advantage of free (or subsidized) classes.

seconded, i have a JD and work in compliance (in the financial industry). it's not nearly as well paying as biglaw obviously but it's a solid and growing industry!