Tallahassee boasts one of the highest concentrations of lawyers in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s not surprising, since Tallahassee is capital of the fourth largest state. But many of those lawyers are in jobs that have nothing to do with being in a courtroom.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says more students are graduating from law school each year than there are jobs available. Marcy Cox, Assistant Dean of Career Development at the University of Miami law school, blames the recession. She says the upside is that more graduates are moving into non-traditional legal careers.“People just assume because you go to law school that you want to practice law," Cox said. "Somebody might be a contract administrator or compliance officer. Compliance officer doesn’t necessarily translate to lawyer, but the legal skills help tremendously.”
Cox likes a proposal in the Legislature that could lure more lawyers into the public sector by paying some of their student
“Anything that could help with loan repayment assistance would benefit not only our students but we think the legal market," Cox said, "just because graduates are in a tough position when they graduate with an incredible amount of debt.”
National statistics show about one-third of lawyers have jobs that didn’t require them to pass the bar exam.