WORK DURING LAW SCHOOL? Forum

[theventriloquist]

HI EVERYONE I AM THINKING OF LAW SCHOOL. But I want to be sure that it is a financially good decision as well.

I will only attend a T10 school. For me, it is not work the loans to attend a lower ranking school, because I recently got a better paying job.

I currently earn $50 per hour as a tutor, part-time. I think that I'd be able to make $100 per hour tutoring in law school, b/c I live in a pretty rural area currently. I am thinking of working as a tutor for maybe 6 - 10 hours a week during law school.

Is this feasible? And also, would it look good to employers? Would it help me get into a top firm?

So earning, like, $500 a week would add up to some 20K a year, which would significantly lower my law school financial burden. I did not know that law school cost some 90K a year (all things included).

Thanks everyone.

[pancakes3]

weren't you banned? I hope you get perma banned

[theventriloquist]

weren't you banned? I hope you get perma banned

This is not an answer to my question. Maybe you didn't read my question?

[pancakes3]

you asked a dumb question

[theventriloquist]

you asked a dumb question

Why is it dumb? I looked this up and could not find answers. It will make a difference of 60K in debt.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Employers won't care. It won't help you get a legal job. It's also unlikely you'll be able to double your rate just by moving because there are lots of tutors in cities, so more competition will keep rates down. Finally, you will be unlikely to be able to tutor every week - during the school year you will have exams, and during the summers you will be working legal jobs. So I'm not sure the numbers are going to work out as you anticipate. (Many schools also have prohibitions against working during 1L but of course it's on you whether you want to follow that.)

[guynourmin]

Why not just move to the bigger city, tutor ft for a year or two, save up six figures, then go to school?

weren't you banned? I hope you get perma banned

[btruj777]

Why not just move to the bigger city, tutor ft for a year or two, save up six figures, then go to school?

weren't you banned? I hope you get perma banned

dying

[cbbinnyc]

Tutoring in general is not a bad credential as you can use it to talk about working directly with clients (though it's not particularly impressive). But tutoring during law school, specifically, makes no difference. I just finished 1L and I tutored part time both semesters. I was able to balance it and get good grades, but it's a risk (who knows, maybe my grades would have been even better had I not tutored). I would not exactly recommend it, but I also won't deny that pulling in $1500 (give or take) each month was pretty nice. As for making $100/hr, it is doable, depending on the city, your experience, what you tutor, etc. But it's not a given, by any means. Very few places will start you out at anything close to $100/hr, even in NYC. I make around $100/hr (depending on the student, which tutoring company it's through, etc) but it took me several years tutoring in NYC to build up to that. Some people I know got there faster (or make more) but those people hustled and treated it like a career, not just a side gig.

ETA: 6-10 hours a week doesn't sound like a lot, but it is in law school. Especially when you figure that 10 hours, for example, would probably be more like 15-20 hours (or more) when you figure in prep, travel, etc. Also, most parents who are shelling out that kind of money for tutoring are going to want value for that money, so you won't be able to get away with phoning it in, for the most part. The money was nice, but it was definitely hard to finish a day of classes and studying and then show up for a tutoring session ready to give 100%. I usually had about three students at any given time, so about 4.5 hrs of actual tutoring per week, and that felt like my limit. But to each his/her own.

[PeanutsNJam]

I don't think it'll matter once you work at Wachtell. Have you seen those bonuses?!?!

[Thelaw23]

I don't think it'll matter once you work at Wachtell. Have you seen those bonuses?!?!

+1, Watchtell or die crew checking in

[PeanutsNJam]

If you post in all caps again you're going to be banned.

[theventriloquist]

Tutoring in general is not a bad credential as you can use it to talk about working directly with clients (though it's not particularly impressive). But tutoring during law school, specifically, makes no difference. I just finished 1L and I tutored part time both semesters. I was able to balance it and get good grades, but it's a risk (who knows, maybe my grades would have been even better had I not tutored). I would not exactly recommend it, but I also won't deny that pulling in $1500 (give or take) each month was pretty nice. As for making $100/hr, it is doable, depending on the city, your experience, what you tutor, etc. But it's not a given, by any means. Very few places will start you out at anything close to $100/hr, even in NYC. I make around $100/hr (depending on the student, which tutoring company it's through, etc) but it took me several years tutoring in NYC to build up to that. Some people I know got there faster (or make more) but those people hustled and treated it like a career, not just a side gig.

ETA: 6-10 hours a week doesn't sound like a lot, but it is in law school. Especially when you figure that 10 hours, for example, would probably be more like 15-20 hours (or more) when you figure in prep, travel, etc. Also, most parents who are shelling out that kind of money for tutoring are going to want value for that money, so you won't be able to get away with phoning it in, for the most part. The money was nice, but it was definitely hard to finish a day of classes and studying and then show up for a tutoring session ready to give 100%. I usually had about three students at any given time, so about 4.5 hrs of actual tutoring per week, and that felt like my limit. But to each his/her own.

Thanks a lot for this answer. Thank you again, so I don't think I'd be able to make much money, to be a significant impact on my salary. B/c I was overestimating the amount of time I can spend. So I suppose I'l have a higher loan than I calculated.

However, if you don't mind me saying, I think that employers might care, because it shows that you can balance your time. Again, I don't know, but I would think, it shows you can balance time.

B/c when I am applying for jobs, employers liked that I worked during college. Again, law employers may be different

[A. Nony Mouse]

They are. If you're going to ask the question don't fight the answers you get just because you want them to be different.

[theventriloquist]

Employers won't care. It won't help you get a legal job.

Is this the case for legal employers? I know that, after college, employers were very interested in my working during college.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Employers won't care. It won't help you get a legal job. It's also unlikely you'll be able to double your rate just by moving because there are lots of tutors in cities, so more competition will keep rates down. Finally, you will be unlikely to be able to tutor every week - during the school year you will have exams, and during the summers you will be working legal jobs. So I'm not sure the numbers are going to work out as you anticipate. (Many schools also have prohibitions against working during 1L but of course it's on you whether you want to follow that.)

Is this the case for legal employers?

Yes. I answered that already. Legal employers care either about grades, legal experience, work experience substantively related to their job, or some combo of the three. Tutoring is better than having no work experience at all, but they're not going to be impressed that you tutor during law school. You would do much better working for legal employers during law school.

[theventriloquist]

Employers won't care. It won't help you get a legal job. It's also unlikely you'll be able to double your rate just by moving because there are lots of tutors in cities, so more competition will keep rates down. Finally, you will be unlikely to be able to tutor every week - during the school year you will have exams, and during the summers you will be working legal jobs. So I'm not sure the numbers are going to work out as you anticipate. (Many schools also have prohibitions against working during 1L but of course it's on you whether you want to follow that.)

Is this the case for legal employers?

Yes. I answered that already. Legal employers care either about grades, legal experience, work experience substantively related to their job, or some combo of the three. Tutoring is better than having no work experience at all, but they're not going to be impressed that you tutor during law school. You would do much better working for legal employers during law school.

Oh ok thanks for that answer.

[elendinel]

Employers won't care. It won't help you get a legal job.

Is this the case for legal employers? I know that, after college, employers were very interested in my working during college.

People work FT and do PT programs all the time; merely working isn't going to impress anyone.

I was working FT in a firm and graduated in 3 years; that did impress some people. Working PT in a firm as a law clerk doing substantive work would impress some people. Spending those 6-10 hours a week working on a really kick-a** paper that gets picked up by a well-ranked legal journal would impress people. Etc.