Dear Listers, I have decided to make some career adjustments in 2002 and would like to impose upon the list members for some direction and advice. I am a corporate lawyer 5 ½ years out of law school, a docent at a museum in DC, and spent a few years at Parsons School of Design (before law school) working on a masters in curatorial studies (a degree they no longer offer since becoming part of the New School). I want to combine my legal experience with my love of museums and interest in art education, but want to pursue options other than practicing law for a museum. I am not sure how feasible this is, so I thought it best to first run my ideas by some professionals. As a corporate lawyer I have a lot of experience with corporate governance and management issues that I think could be useful to many different types of large organizations. In my practice I spend a great deal of time analyzing organizational issues and crafting solutions, assessing risks and determining how best to protect a client from them, and obtaining funding and allocating and managing these funds once raised. I would think such experience would be useful to a museum administrator. In one recent ad I saw for an Associate Director, the job description sounds like something for which I would be well suited. And since the Associate Director reports to both a Director and an Assistant Director I thought maybe applying for a position like this with no actual museum administration experience wouldn’t be hideously overreaching. But I really don't know if this assumption is nothing more than lawyerly conceit. (I am not certain why lawyers think they can do anything - I assure you it's not a required course in law school - but I am aware that most of us do think this about ourselves). Do you think my legal experience and art background be well received or would those assessing my application set it aside in favor of true museum professionals with lots of actual museum experience? If you were reviewing an application from someone like me do you think you'd be intrigued enough to consider me a viable candidate? If so, what part of my legal (or other) experience would you deem most valuable? Any and all comments, suggestions and advice are welcome and appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and your ideas! Regards, Annemarie Rice ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).