government lawyer

marc luber: hey everyone – welcome to jdcareersoutthere – where we get you career advice from fellow lawyers and non-practicinglawyers – to help you find success and happiness in your career. i’m ml – and today we’reexploring careers in government agencies. we’re talking to rich rodriguez, who iscurrently the senior vp of strategic communications at res publica group, a public relations firmin chicago. but before joining the private sector, rich spent his first 15 years afterlaw school working for a variety of government agencies, most of which were in the city ofchicago. he rose to some incredible positions of leadership including president of the chicagotransit authority, commissioner of the dept of buildings, commissioner of the dept ofaviation, executive dir of the dept of construction

and permits, a managing deputy commissionerat the dept of aviation and managing director of operations for the chicago housing authority.incredible stuff! rich tells us all about those roles so you can see a variety of waysto apply your law degree. i asked rich what skills from law school he was applying everyday since he wasn’t actually practicing law at these government agencies. let’stake a look: rich rodriguez: problem solving, your analyticalthinking and i think your being able to communicate and articulate effectively in writing. especially,i think a few things that i really appreciate having gotten out of law school was beingable to write as clear and concise as i think i’m able to. as intense as your first yearlegal writing class is and that entire year

and people used to hate it, it completelychanged the way i was able to explain something to someone - and i have been able to utilizethat, both communicating to my employees - downward - but then also communicating upward to myboss and to the media and to the press and to my boards and so on; being able to taketwo pages worth of information and being able to explain it within a paragraph: here’sthe issue, here’s the problem. the whole process of solving problems. being able toreally streamline your thoughts and set apart everything that isn’t a priority with regardsto resolving that matter at hand. luber: so it sounds like you really feel that,even though for all the leadership roles in city government that you’ve had, even thougha law degree isn’t required for those roles,

you feel it’s been very helpful to you,it’s been a major asset. rich rodriguez: i don’t think i would havebeen granted any of those opportunities had i not brought with me, not just a piece ofpaper, but the skills that i actually acquired in law school. so, again, graduating law school and takingthe bar exam didn’t prepare me to be a lawyer per se, it taught me how to resolve problems.it taught me how to advocate for people who potentially couldn’t advocate on their own.so being able to do that on their behalf. so again, working for government, you’rerepresenting the public, the tax payers, and you’re trying to ensure that you’re meetingtheir expectations in terms of their investment

in you. luber: in the full interview, rich paintsa great picture of the different types of work available in city government, how toapply your jd, as well as how to network effectively and break in to roles like he’s had. youcan watch that at jdcareersoutthere.com – or jdcot.com for a shortcut. if you’re alreadyat the site, you can scroll down to the full version – be sure to become a member soyou can watch the full interview and get access to lots more exclusive content filled withgreat advice. thanks again for watching everyone – i’m ml and look forward to seeing youagain soon. take care.