A broad head of course. National, local, trade periodicals, critic, specialist reporting, feature writing, editing, freelancing, legal reporting, broadcast journalism etc.

Journalism is a good fit for lawyers as both journalism and law require similar skills: the ability to analyse information quickly, write well (although as a journalist a different writing style may be called for), communicate perhaps to a non-specialist audience and, of course, work to a deadline.

Courses and qualifications are going to be important for a leg-up. Choice, of course, is also important, and a postgraduate qualification should be job-specific, as opposed to more general vocational courses provided by some universities for example. There are over 845 postgraduate media/publishing courses listed by the UK Postgraduate Application and Statistical Service, but only a few of these are accredited by the NCTJ or the BJTC (see below). The PTC website also lists accredited courses and offers a career guide. The NCTJ itself runs its own correspondence courses in magazine journalism.

Also and essentially, one should have a mind to building up a portfolio of published articles. Lawyers are well placed to do this in theory, where contributions to the press, legal press and client trade publications are seen as good marketing practice in any event. Magazine/periodical journalism is often less structured, takes more contributions from freelancers, and has a mutual attraction for law leavers and their specialist knowledge. If you know anyone in the trade, get them to ask you to write an article on a topic.

Also, see 'Arts & Media' and 'Journalism (Legal)'.