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I'm a second year in-house counsel for a start up in the West (not the coast). I'm late getting started in my career because of some bar exam/mental health challenges and now I feel like I'm behind in the pay game. I am licensed in the state the neighbors the one I practice in. (Thanks, UBE!) Trying to determine if there are opportunities to use my skills in either my state of license or the state I'm currently living in. Also, this is a second career for me. I was in a creative field before this. Any ideas?

Your post is kind of vague in what it's looking for. Are you asking for advice on how to find a better-paying, more interesting in-house gig?

I think they are asking if they can do work on the side while being in-house and what types. I would think that it is company dependent

trebekismyhero wrote:I think they are asking if they can do work on the side while being in-house and what types. I would think that it is company dependent

Conflicts will always be a big concern. Imagine your firm decides to make a major acquisition and you have to tell the GC you're conflicted out because you're running a side-gig. And God forbid you have to tell the GC that they have an imputed conflict, and that they might need to engage outside counsel if you can't get a waiver or if the conflict isn't waivable.

albanach wrote:

trebekismyhero wrote:I think they are asking if they can do work on the side while being in-house and what types. I would think that it is company dependent

Conflicts will always be a big concern. Imagine your firm decides to make a major acquisition and you have to tell the GC you're conflicted out because you're running a side-gig. And God forbid you have to tell the GC that they have an imputed conflict, and that they might need to engage outside counsel if you can't get a waiver or if the conflict isn't waivable.

I heard a story once about a paralegal who got conflicted out of driving for Uber. Legal employers rarely deviate from "as careful as possible" with this kind of thing.

Also, OP, there might be a written or unwritten rule against working outside of your day job if as a salaried employee, especially the higher up you are. Some companies feel a biggish salary means you keep them as your top priority 24/7, 365.

This is a stupid post. If you want more money, uber or deliver pizza. Its not that hard.

sparty99 wrote:This is a stupid post. If you want more money, uber or deliver pizza. Its not that hard.

Sparty99 with another great take

You could look into contract opportunities to do writing or editing for Lexis or Westlaw in your practice area. Not much likelihood of conflict there, although still you should notify all appropriate people in your organization.

Wubbles wrote:

sparty99 wrote:This is a stupid post. If you want more money, uber or deliver pizza. Its not that hard.

Sparty99 with another great take

Yeah. Delivering pizza is an extra 1,000 a month at least.

sparty99 wrote:

Wubbles wrote:

sparty99 wrote:This is a stupid post. If you want more money, uber or deliver pizza. Its not that hard.

Sparty99 with another great take

Yeah. Delivering pizza is an extra 1,000 a month at least.

...if you do it for 35 hours a week, maybe.

Yeah, google tells me the average pizza delivery driver makes $8-10 an hour. Good luck with that side gig.

It also has nothing to do with using the OP's legal skills, which is what the original question asked.

Practicing law on the side when you are employed full-time by a law firm or company is usually grounds for immediate termination if discovered. Besides the massive conflict of interest potential, your employer needs you full time when needed. What do you tell them if a major transaction/case is coming to close/trial and you have a similar event scheduled for your side gig at the same time?

On the other hand, if you want to sell things you've knitted on Etsy or drive for Uber, I doubt anybody will care.

If you were good at the LSAT, try to tutor that to some law students or provide some law school admissions consulting to them. No conflicts and pretty easy with decent $ if you can find some clients.

nixy wrote:Yeah, google tells me the average pizza delivery driver makes $8-10 an hour. Good luck with that side gig.

It also has nothing to do with using the OP's legal skills, which is what the original question asked.

For various reasons, it is pretty hard to moonlight as a lawyer when you are already employed which is why his initial question was stupid. Additionally, he said he needed money. Delivering pizza and being Uber driver is easy money compared to providing legal services on the side. But yet you want to complain when you probably don't even have a side job so don't even know what it is like.

Not sure why I’d have to be delivering pizza to realize that fitting in delivery hours at $8-10/hr around a full time legal job isn’t worth it for everyone. (I didn’t comment on driving for Uber.) Maybe explain why someone’s question doesn’t work before you don’t answer it?

I agree with the notion that as a salaried employee you probably shouldn't be seeking legal opportunities elsewhere. Obviously everywhere has some internal review for it, but I think that is more geared to allowing people who request to represent their Grandma in some landlord dispute as opposed to hustling across state lines.

I also agree there is money to be made elsewhere. I have friends with full time jobs that Uber (and Uber equivalents, such as Wag, etc.) that make decent side money. If you want some extra income there are plenty of opportunities.

I also agree, sidegig as pizza delivery bro probably not best option.

ghostoftraynor wrote: I also agree there is money to be made elsewhere. I have friends with full time jobs that Uber (and Uber equivalents, such as Wag, etc.) that make decent side money. If you want some extra income there are plenty of opportunities.

Uber is probably safe, so long as you keep your opinions to sport, politics and religion while chatting with customers.

Remember that most states will assume you are practicing law as a lawyer if your second career touches upon the practice of law, even if it were something that could otherwise be done by a lay-person. For example if you were to work as a realtor, the bar may consider your home selling to be legal work. This is an issue because it again opens up the question of conflicts (direct and imputed) as well as meaning your work will be held to the standard expected by the bar of lawyers, and the bar being willing to address complaints against you.

I looked at earning a few bucks on the side doing legal work, doing pro-bono representation with a group I'm affiliated with (but my company isn't), and doing non-legal work.

Basically, the first two seemed too complicated/expensive to research more than just a cursory search. For the third one, it depends on your company/employment agreement and it depends on the non-legal work. Most places aren't gonna can you for driving Uber a few hours per week to get some beer money. They're going to look much less favorably on spending 20 hours/week starting a legal-adjacent business. Turns out I didn't have as much free time as I thought I did, and the free time I do have mostly goes to fixing up the house. I save more money doing that than I could make delivering pizzas or selling fish at the local pet shop.