Are you an attorney or lawyer? Are you for whatever reason fed up with legal practice and you are seeking other avenues where you can still utilize your education? Or you are satisfied working as a lawyer, but still need to venture into a side business for more income?
If any of the questions above seems to describe you, then this article will help you a great deal, as it reveals ten smart and lucrative business ideas that you can venture into as an attorney.
Lucrative Business ideas for Attorneys and Lawyers
1. Legal consulting service
Many business organizations are too small to have an in-house counsel. Yet, they need to ensure that their policies, employee manual, and practices are complying with employment law and other government mandates. Some organizations can hire you to train their staff on how to improve their compliance.
Others can hire you to rewrite their employer documents such as employee handbooks and standard contacts, so as to ensure that they comply with the law.
2. Public speaking
Since lawyers are often very eloquent and can confidently make their case in front of a group, you can be a good fit for a position that requires a good public speaker. Even if you go into another side business, consider this as another idea for earning extra cash and visibility.
3. Counseling service
Since lawyers often go into the legal profession with the major goal of helping others, they can easily transition into a field that seems unrelated. An example of such a field is counseling.
You can become a marriage and family counselor (offering advice to families on how to handle challenges related to family and marriage), sports counselor, career counselor, etc; depending on their areas of interest. Bear in mind however, that working as a counselor could require obtaining another qualification or certification.
4. Blogging
If you have enough spare time on your hands, blogging might be the way to go. Set up a blog and share your knowledge about a topic, such as your experience in legal practice, your hobby, tips on how individuals and businesses can handle legal matters, and so on. Adopt a culture of publishing valuable content on a consistent basis, and you will gradually build a large followership.
Once your blog starts to generate a sizeable amount of traffic frequently, you can monetize it to start making money from it. Blogging gives you the fulfillment that comes with sharing your knowledge with others and additional income, too.
5. Freelance writing
If you are a wordsmith, then you can make a lot of money from freelance writing. With your writing skills and solid background as an attorney, you can draft legal documents for individuals and firms. You can write articles for legal blogs. And you can write for newspapers, magazines, and legal publications. To get freelance writing assignments, you can hook up with clients using popular freelance outsourcing sites like Elance and Odesk.
6. Solo practice
If you love being your own boss, then you can go solo. To increase your chances of success, you can work in a rural area where there is low competition. You can also increase your chances of success by renting a desk in an existing law firm or an adjacent business that might offer potential for cross-referral, such as an accounting firm or insurance brokerage.
7. Career coaching service
Since you have worked as lawyer for years, you definitely would have understood the bright and dark sides of the profession. You would have known the worst challenges anyone could face in the profession. You would have known the shortcuts to success.
You would have known the keys to fulfillment while practicing as a lawyer. And you would have known virtually all other things that lawyers that are just starting out would love to know. You can convert your knowledge and experience into a decent income by offering career-coaching services to young lawyers.
8. Selling legal books and other items
Another great idea is to start a business that sells law textbooks and other items needed by both law students and practicing lawyers. You can set up a store and sell your merchandise either online or offline.
9. Agent / manager
With your solid background as an attorney, you can become an agent for talented individuals, such as artists, writers, celebrities, performers, and athletes. These individuals need agents to help them secure lucrative deals, handle legal issues, negotiate with clients when necessary, among other tasks.
10. Write a book
With your knowledge and experience in the legal profession, you can write a book that caters to legal students and young lawyers. It could be a law textbook or a guide on how to succeed as a lawyer. Such a book would continue to fetch you huge profits every year. You can also write a book that isn’t related to law. The rule of thumb is to create a book that people will find valuable and helpful.