Part-time law students...... Forum

[Susan_Walid]

I'm thinking about being a part-time law student next year, so I can work my way through school....

I'm asking this question on here, because I don't know of another way to get this information.....

How much harder is it for part-time law students to land interviews? Do employers view part-time law students as "lazier," or as students who "snuck their way" into the particular law school? In all honestly, how are part-time law students viewed? I was hoping to get into a top 25-40 school, but with my numbers that's not so likely anymore. So, I'm thinking about a part-time program for next year. I don't have a "legal" job lined up or anything, but hopefully I will have ample time to find a good job within this year (before the fall of 2012)...

Does anyone have any advice for me?

[Anonymous User]

How much harder is it for part-time law students to land interviews? Do employers view part-time law students as "lazier," or as students who "snuck their way" into the particular law school? In all honestly, how are part-time law students viewed?

There are too many variables involved to say whether PT students are looked at differently or not. Employers look at the entire candidate profile when making OCI decisions (grades, school, WE, LR/Journal, etc...).

I landed 18 preselects on 29 OCI bids. Of the 11 firms I didn't get at OCI I picked up 10 at a diversity job fair. I am a PT student, top 10%, LR and have significant WE . I know other non-urm top 10%, LR PT students who have 20+ screening interviews. Some have significant WE, others do not.

A lot of this also depends on the school. The GW OCI thread implied that their PT students have a real tough time at OCI. Just do your research on the PT programs you are interested in.

[MrAnon]

If you have a job and go to law school and do well in law school employers will love you. If you do poorly employers wont care about you. Same goes for if you dont have a job. And if you do poorly with your job you'd do just as poorly without it so dont worry about that.

[Susan_Walid]

Makes perfect sense. What kind of job would be acceptable to have? Does it look better to have a legal job? Would any legal job suffice? Lets say, as a legal assistant in a big firm??

[MrAnon]

it really doesn't matter. Even if you have a blue collar job like construction worker, well, that might be a turnoff to the biggest corporate firm because they'd think you wouldnt fit into the culture, but to the majority of hiring people would prefer someone with life experience over a snotty kid. All jobs have pluses and minuses in the eyes of employers. They might prejudge paralegals as being undynamic, or they might love their paralegal and think he/she is a life saver. Just have a job to show them you can balance a lot of crap in life and they'll be happy.

[Anonymous User]

I dunno, I've always heard that many employers look down on p/t law students. I am inclined to believe that because at least at my school, some full time students look down on the p/t crowd, and those f/t students go on to become employers and doubtless carry their biases with them.

That said, patent law is the one area where non-traditional students are valued perhaps more than their f/t counterparts -- assuming that the WE is relevant of course. From biglaw to solos, patent lawyers have often been p/t students.