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For personal and spiritual reasons, I want to work at night. I know working at night raises health concerns, but I like to do it so much I am willing to make this sacrifice. I am graduating law school this May and planning to move to the New York City area. I wondered if there are any niches to be found in the legal profession in which one can work something like a night shift. I wondered if big law firms with litigation practices would hire paralegals to work at night, or if there is a way to clerk at a "night court" that does, e.g., criminal arraignments. I would appreciate your thoughts and/or advice.

Night court. Awesome show, seemed like a great job.

Indeed. Great show.

I'd be interested in this too. I'm always most productive in the dead of night. Hard to work during natural light hours for me. The world seems a lot more tranquil too.

reformed calvinist wrote: I'm always most productive in the dead of night. Hard to work during natural light hours for me. The world seems a lot more tranquil too.

Word. up. At night, I'm at peace with myself and the world.

I'm sure vampires could use some legal representation.

.

I really have to ask: spiritual reasons? I'm intrigued.

What hours do you mean by night shift? You could possibly find evening shift work, but I doubt it is very peaceful.

sunynp wrote:What hours do you mean by night shift? You could possibly find evening shift work, but I doubt it is very peaceful.

Yeah, I would imagine doing homework and personal projects alone at your desk in the dead of night is different from doing work

You're graduating in May with no job, that's what I took away from all of this.

sunynp wrote:What hours do you mean by night shift? You could possibly find evening shift work, but I doubt it is very peaceful.

Evening hours would be great, but something like midnight to 8:00am would be ideal.

NZA wrote:I really have to ask: spiritual reasons? I'm intrigued.

I just think it is good for my soul to be working at night.

OP. You're weird.

Geat27 wrote:

NZA wrote:I really have to ask: spiritual reasons? I'm intrigued.

I just think it is good for my soul to be working at night.

I figured that from your post. I'm really asking, "why?"

I'm genuinely curious, not trying to be a dick, for the record.

Legal work is basically service work, and I think in large part you will have to work during the daylight hours to service the individuals or businesses that need you. As far as I can think, you'll basically need to have to work during the day for a legal job.

However, you can try to get a job that has a fair amount of freedom as far as face-time and then just allocate your workload to the evenings and figure out some type of sleeping schedule that makes you available during the important parts of the day but then allows you to get work done at night. For example, you could go into solo practice and just field email/phone/clients during a substantial portion of the day and then get most of your writing/research/etc done during the evenings, however you'll probably have to work the evenings and the day anyway.

You probably will just need to conform your life to the work schedule of the profession and working world if you want to do legal things. Litigation you'll be in contact with opposing counsel and on the court calendar, and in transactional you'll have to work for businesses that have normal operating hours for the most part.

handsonthewheel wrote:you will have to...service...individuals...and...allocate your...load...into...clients during a substantial portion of the...evenings and the day

NZA wrote:

Geat27 wrote:

NZA wrote:I really have to ask: spiritual reasons? I'm intrigued.

I just think it is good for my soul to be working at night.

I figured that from your post. I'm really asking, "why?"

I'm genuinely curious, not trying to be a dick, for the record.

I realize that to say "it is spiritual because it is good for my soul" probably sounded (and was) tautologous. To better answer your question, here are some of the reasons working at night is important to me: People interact differently late at night. There is a kind of camaraderie that is different from anything that takes place during the day - you can see it among hospital emergency room workers, police working the night shift, paramedics, people who work in 24-hour diners, and even students pulling all-nighters together to write papers. There are also fewer distractions and it is easier to focus.

Working at night is really different and I think it allows me to be my best self. That's its spiritual importance for me.

Am I weird? Sure. I also know it is unusual for there to be legal work one can do at night - that's why I'm searching so intensively for it. I just need one job; I don't have to do what is common or normal for the profession.

I am also willing to do paralegal work - perhaps this is more amenable to night-shift work than an attorney job that includes direct responsibility to clients.

You want to be calling your clients at 4:30 in the morning? Maybe international work is what you should consider.

I don't know of any work as a lawyer that is after midnight, though there might be some temp paralegal gigs that you could do. There are supposed to be courts that are open all night in manhattan for criminal matters, but I know nothing about them.

You could possibly find a law enforcement job or a job at a medical center. I don't know, most people working after midnight in law in Manhattan have been there all day. There might be a second shift of paralegals, but I don't know if that is true.

Geat27 wrote:For personal and spiritual reasons, I want to work at night. I know working at night raises health concerns, but I like to do it so much I am willing to make this sacrifice. I am graduating law school this May and planning to move to the New York City area. I wondered if there are any niches to be found in the legal profession in which one can work something like a night shift. I wondered if big law firms with litigation practices would hire paralegals to work at night, or if there is a way to clerk at a "night court" that does, e.g., criminal arraignments. I would appreciate your thoughts and/or advice.

Companies like WestLaw/ Lexis usually have attorneys availble 24/7 to offer phone support to subscribers. I have seen posting for these type of positions before looking specifically for people with JDs looking to work the night shift in the NYC area, so you may be able to find something. Good luck!

Become a cop, or paramedic, or 24 hour diner waiter/waitress, or professional student.

InGoodFaith wrote:Become a cop, or paramedic, or 24 hour diner waiter/waitress, or professional student.

Or stripper/hooker.

Quick Google search shows at least something that resembles normal legal work (--LinkRemoved--) but it's 6pm-10pm. Also there are night shift doc review jerbs.

This thread is almost the most odd I have ever seen.

In any case I am sure there are many recent graduates working third shift somewhere.

romothesavior wrote:This thread is almost the most odd I have ever seen.

In any case I am sure there are many recent graduates working third shift somewhere.

that third shift probably isn't legal, or its bottom of the barrel. Probably wouldn't work if that was OP's only job.