Commercial roles: founding or joining a start-up, business development, customer success, and other professional services 

Founding or joining a start-up

This is a bit of a catch-all, given the almost infinite range of tasks that employees at start-ups might need to complete (plus the huge variety of products and services offered by start-ups). That being said, given the broad range of transferable skills developed by lawyers and law graduates, many will have what it takes to succeed in the early-stage start-up world (including resilience and a strong work ethic). My personal legal experience has had a huge impact on my own ability to launch, operate and grow multiple businesses, especially in terms of my organisation, work ethic, ability to write well, professionalism, and ability to think laterally.

The biggest barriers in this context will likely be risk profile (working in a start-up isn’t the most secure career!) and the pay (you’ll most likely earn a lot less working for a small start-up, at least in the early days).

Business development and customer success

Business development essentially means helping a business to identify, attract and retain clients (“customer success” tends to focus more on the retention of existing clients), be that individual consumers or corporate clients. This can involve researching prospective leads, clearly articulating the business’ value proposition, interacting professionally with prospects, and keeping track of dozens (if not hundreds) of leads at a time. It might also involve negotiating the terms of deals, once a prospect decides to become a client. All skills that align with those developed in a legal context.

Other professional services 

Most professional services roles require strong attention to detail, analytical skills, teamworking abilities, and commercial acumen, whether it’s a finance, accounting or banking position, or a role as a consultant. Again, these are all skills that lawyers and law graduates tend to develop. Note that these roles do tend to require more confidence with numbers and spreadsheets than legal roles however, although this is knowledge that you may well be able to teach yourself over time (if you’re willing to put the work in).