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Rick Hillier begins his second career knowing two things: He won't become a defence lobbyist or a politician.

The rest of it, however, he doesn't know. He will take the summer to decide, pondering his future from the Ottawa offices of Gowlings, a big national law firm with particular expertise in trade and banking. After three years as Canada's top solider, he stepped down last week and is joining the firm.

“We have no regrets and nothing but positive feelings coming off this. I feel very good, very confident, taking a little bit of a break here and then we'll assess what life's going to bring us from there,” he said in an interview on Sunday, interrupting his brunch in the Byward Market with his wife and friends.

At age 53, however, the blunt-speaking former soldier isn't nearly ready to retire.

He has many offers, including speaking engagements; he is also thinking of writing a book on leadership and also one about the “operational story that we've been involved in for the last 15 or 20 years.”

In the meantime, however, General Hillier, who is neither a lawyer nor a businessman, will report to Gowlings.

“So what Gowlings has offered me [as he considers many other job offers] … is a temporary support, a transition home … with a very mature approach to me to become a part of their firm,” he says.

The road from Canada's top soldier to button-down law firm started with a conversation at Gowlings' offices last spring about Canadian icons “who people immediately respect,” said Scott Jolliffe, chairman and CEO of Gowlings.

“It happened that [Gen. Hillier] had announced his retirement a few weeks before that and so we started to kick around the idea: What could he do? And what could we offer him?”

Mr. Jolliffe asked one of his partners, David Rubin, who is an honorary lieutenant-colonel in the reserves, to contact Gen. Hillier.

And so last June a “clandestine” meeting was set up in a Markham hotel room, Mr. Jolliffe says. The two spent a “wonderful morning” chatting and figuring out if they would be a good fit for each other.

“The one thing I realized immediately, and Rick would not be embarrassed by me saying it, is that he is a total neophyte when it comes to the business world,” Mr. Jolliffe recalled Sunday.

“He didn't even know how to set up an e-mail account. He said that for 35 years his tax form has been one page. He's entered a very complex world that in some respects he's been insulated from. So being able to provide him with that kind of assistance alone is a wonderful thing for him.”

But it's not all about him. In terms of Gowlings, Mr. Jolliffe says that senior business executives will be intrigued about what he might be able to offer them.

He says that in the short term, Gen. Hillier can offer leadership training, governance and public-policy advice.

Indeed, Mr. Jolliffe says that some of their banking clients have approached Gen. Hillier for leadership advice in that area.

It's a savvy and strategic arrangement for both. More and more law firms are entering into these sorts of partnerships as law firms evolve from pushing paper to providing broader advice and expertise to their clients.

However, Mr. Jolliffe says that he has advised the former general against a career in lobbying as he believes it could tarnish his reputation as the “public and the government would look at [it] as being a conflict and unethical.”

For his part, Gen. Hillier, has also said no to a career in politics.

“I'm not going there, so to speak,” he says.

But for someone who is just a few days into his new life, he is still thinking of his old one, especially about the mission in Afghanistan.

He says that it's a tough mission but the Canadian Forces have made steady progress. What concerns him most, however, is whether the Afghans can “build themselves a government that's going to actually effectively run their country in the province of Kandahar and the other provinces also.”

“That is the part I have the greatest concern about,” he said. “We have responsibility to help them with security. Development agencies and NGOs have responsibility to help with development. Who has responsibility to help them with building a government? Who brings government in a box?”