Best way to make money during 2L and 3L? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone,

So with my SA offer in hand and more skill at getting readings done efficiently, i'm finding myself with a lot of free time. However, there are only so many mediocre TV shows I can binge watch. I'm looking for a way to make some money on the side, hopefully more than the 13 bucks an hour or so I could make as a research assistant.

Specifically, i've heard that some firms allow 3L's to do work for them remotely for good money during 3L. Is there a way to find out if the firm I am going to offers such an option? In the mean time, does anyone have experience with odd jobs that earn 20 bucks an hour or so? I think I could work 20 hours a week pretty comfortably, it wold be nice to keep dat loan total down.

[RaceJudicata]

$20 an hour is probably steep, and I wouldn't advise asking your summer firm for work before you start. If they want to bring you on as a 3L (some firms do), then they'll ask.

That said, I've worked the entire time at school for the same small firm (took off 3 months for SA and came back as 3L). I make like $16 an hour in a major city. I'm sure there are other similar jobs out there. And probably more importantly, I've also gotten a lot of substantive experience -- in fact, way more substantive experience than I got as a Summer.

[Anonymous User]

The firm I work at in Houston contracts out for depo. summaries when we don't have enough law clerks to cover them all efficiently. I'm not sure how much these guys get paid, but they charge a lot.

[Anonymous User]

In the mean time, does anyone have experience with odd jobs that earn 20 bucks an hour or so? I think I could work 20 hours a week pretty comfortably, it wold be nice to keep dat loan total down.

Uber

[s1m4]

Security guard / high-end apartment concierge - lots of downtime and time to read & study while you watch the money stack.

[Anonymous User]

Tutor the LSAT to undergrads

[Anonymous User]

Best paying job would be working as a part-time clerk at your SA firm, if you're in a city where they have an office. I'm doing it now (my pay is >$40 an hour, major market). Not sure if they would've been open to remote work, but I still would've asked. Obviously ideal since not only does it pay the best, they realize you're a student first and will be the most flexible with hours.

Otherwise LSAT tutor if you have the scores is probably the best money per hour basis if do it right.

Beyond that, meh. Uber driver probably, just gotta game the system in where/when you drive. There's resources on how best to do that.

[zot1]

Red. Light. District.

[Anonymous User]

I think where you go to school is pretty important. If you go to Cornell, you may not have that many opportunities. I went to school in a major market and pulled 5 figures my 3L year making $25-35 between my two internships. While the opportunities were definitely skewed towards corporate, just about everyone I knew who wanted a paid internship got one.

[Anonymous User]

Pretty doable, might take a bit of searching.

[lawlorbust]

$20 an hour is probably steep, and I wouldn't advise asking your summer firm for work before you start. If they want to bring you on as a 3L (some firms do), then they'll ask.

That said, I've worked the entire time at school for the same small firm (took off 3 months for SA and came back as 3L). I make like $16 an hour in a major city. I'm sure there are other similar jobs out there. And probably more importantly, I've also gotten a lot of substantive experience -- in fact, way more substantive experience than I got as a Summer.

$20/hour would be a desultory rate for the biglaw firms with these programs. But I agree that, at least with regards to biglaw, they'll probably let you know that they have remote work opportunities. If you SA'd at a smaller/less structured firm, perhaps more room to put out feelers about their needs.

[Anonymous User]

I know a friend who works for fragoman and they hire law clerks, paying in the 25 range.

[mrs.miawallace]

high end bartending if you have the experience. know a guy from Cleary who bartended throughout.

[Anonymous User]

There are a lot of firms out there willing to pay for law clerks. I'm at GULC and I had no problem finding a place to work for 2L and 3L. I'm paid $25/hour right now, but in my experience that's more in the upper range of what you can find at small firms (<10 lawyers), at least in DC, and those make up most of the work opportunities. Most places are in the $15-$20 per hour range.
That being said, there are also a few biglaw places looking for more specialized law clerks (tax, international trade, employment law), and I'm sure those pay even better. And obviously you could always try to reach out to the firm you SA'd for as a 3L, though personally that would make me pretty uncomfortable.

Edit: someone mentioned tutoring the LSAT to undergrads. That's also a solid option if you can't find anything law-related and have a very good LSAT score (170+). The more prestige-whory LSAT tutoring companies pay pretty well, but they have a cut-off score you need to have.

[Anonymous User]

Work part time for a big law firm and get paid $87/hour. Unfortunately, not getting many hours atm - but I made like 3k since Sept. Also, tutor the LSAT and charge at least $60/hour. Post on craigslist to get students.

[RaceJudicata]

$20 an hour is probably steep, and I wouldn't advise asking your summer firm for work before you start. If they want to bring you on as a 3L (some firms do), then they'll ask.

That said, I've worked the entire time at school for the same small firm (took off 3 months for SA and came back as 3L). I make like $16 an hour in a major city. I'm sure there are other similar jobs out there. And probably more importantly, I've also gotten a lot of substantive experience -- in fact, way more substantive experience than I got as a Summer.

$20/hour would be a desultory rate for the biglaw firms with these programs. But I agree that, at least with regards to biglaw, they'll probably let you know that they have remote work opportunities. If you SA'd at a smaller/less structured firm, perhaps more room to put out feelers about their needs.

Ya that's my bad I wasn't clear. I meant 20 was steep generally for student employment. But if op got a job at his/her summer big law firm, it would pay well over $20

[ballouttacontrol]

Uber

[run26.2]

You should enjoy your free time. It is not replaceable and you won't experience it again for a long time. If I were in your shoes, I'd think about the things I've really wanted to do that aren't terribly expensive and go do those things. All of them. No need to go work. You have decades to do that.

[RaceJudicata]

You should enjoy your free time. It is not replaceable and you won't experience it again for a long time. If I were in your shoes, I'd think about the things I've really wanted to do that aren't terribly expensive and go do those things. All of them. No need to go work. You have decades to do that.

That's fine advice for a T14 student with big law (or desired career choice) lined up.. Those at non-t14 schools need to do everything possible to bolster their resume and get experience. Personally, I have a job lined up and still feel the need to work part time. I've gotten my best experience (way more than class or SA) working at my current small firm, I work like 20 hours a week and can take days off whenever - so it's really only eating into time I'd be sleeping or watching tv.

[run26.2]

You should enjoy your free time. It is not replaceable and you won't experience it again for a long time. If I were in your shoes, I'd think about the things I've really wanted to do that aren't terribly expensive and go do those things. All of them. No need to go work. You have decades to do that.

That's fine advice for a T14 student with big law (or desired career choice) lined up.. Those at non-t14 schools need to do everything possible to bolster their resume and get experience. Personally, I have a job lined up and still feel the need to work part time. I've gotten my best experience (way more than class or SA) working at my current small firm, I work like 20 hours a week and can take days off whenever - so it's really only eating into time I'd be sleeping or watching tv.

OP says they have their SA offer in hand. I'm sure you are getting some good experience. But you can either get paid $20-30 an hour to do it or get paid a lot more later to get the same experience. Personally, I'd rather have my free time than even $30/hr, if I were in OP's situation.

[patentlitigatrix]

If you have a particular marketable skill for your practice area, I think it is OK to ask to work for the firm where you are going to SA or SAed. I ended up doing a lot of source code and technical review, supervising experts on technical issues, drafting technical parts of reports, accompanying experts places where an attorney wasn't need (i.e., code review), making claim charts, etc.

I did some work during 2L and a lot of work during 3L for my firm. It let me basically stop taking more loans and pay off some bad high interest ones I had already taken. I didn't qualify for federal student loans, so I was dealing with loans with interest in the double-digits.

[Anonymous User]

Edit: someone mentioned tutoring the LSAT to undergrads. That's also a solid option if you can't find anything law-related and have a very good LSAT score (170+). The more prestige-whory LSAT tutoring companies pay pretty well, but they have a cut-off score you need to have.

I have a 171, would this suffice? What companies would you recommend I try applying to?

[Wolfie91]

My 2L year I was kind of lucky and the firm I clerked at over the summer offered a part-time position where I could just work remotely from my laptop at $25 per hour. They would just send me work and say "just estimate how long this will take so we know when to expect it."

My 1L year, I tutored for the LSAT independently, which generated pretty solid income and was easy because I could just stay at the library and study for school while I gave assignments to the student I was tutoring. I think I charged like $35 or $40 an hour. I got the pre-law program at my law school to send my info to students, which was how I got so many tutoring requests.

I also drove for Uber twice a week as a 2L and 3L. Mostly because I was bored as shit at how much lighter my work load was and I kind of found it entertaining.

[star fox]

Edit: someone mentioned tutoring the LSAT to undergrads. That's also a solid option if you can't find anything law-related and have a very good LSAT score (170+). The more prestige-whory LSAT tutoring companies pay pretty well, but they have a cut-off score you need to have.

I have a 171, would this suffice? What companies would you recommend I try applying to?

I think you can take the LSAT again even if you're already in law school simply to prove your score for this purpose, of course, it's probably not really worth it to prep just for this reason.

[rambleon65]

During 2L, I RA'd.

During 3L, I worked part-time for my summer firm (at which now I am an associate at), anywhere from 10-20 hrs / week. I juggled my school schedule around so that I can come in for 3-4 hours / 4 days a week, which made it much more conducive to me being useful to the firm. I ended up actually learning QUITE a bit and felt it gave me a leg up when I started full time. Was paid $40/hr.

But be careful... I've heard stories where people did this to their own detriment. For example, I knew a 3L who worked here two full days a week, which, while hours-wise the same, it's not easy to get good work. The money is nice, but this is likely going to be your group's first impression of you as an associate. Meaning, while the hours/work is not hard, there is a mental aspect of having to be with it the whole time. School should take a backseat--although if you play your cards right, you should have minimal work without killing your GPA (i actually ended up 4.0ing my last semester because of the classes).

You have to be accessible even though you're paid hourly--I made sure to get remote access so that I could reply to urgent emails even while at school or during class.

OUTSIDE of doing this, I'd stay away from law altogether. I probably would have gotten a bartending job or something like that. It's low stress, money is nice, and it's a hell of a lot more interesting than doing free work for law review or something.