Only because her husband was AG and then governor. The Rose law firm profited mightily from her connection to Bill.
I have an old classmate (couple actually) from UC Berkeley who have turned into the most liberal Democrats you could imagine. He's a lawyer -- retired partner in a maritime law firm. When I mentioned that Hillary was a "litigator" (which is how she was always described during the Whitewater investigation) he just laughed his face off.
"She was NEVER a litigator," he exclaimed. I assured him that it was true, but he wouldn't accept that description, implying that she held some low level position in the firm -- slighly about intern, or para-legal. He's an umpty ump in the Sierra Club plus many other organizations. He has taken cases in all kinds of courts. I figure he knows.
Even if her job was all about her connections and consisted of only providing coffee (and possibly other comforts) to the the real lawyers, it was still private sector.
So the answer to the question “did Hillary ever hold a job outside of government?” is “yes”. And that’s all I’m saying — I’m certainly not here to defend Hillary Clinton, I’m just pointing out a particular fact.