Are you allowed to have a second job while working at big law? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Obviously, it should be one's right to have a second job or not but I was wondering if there is any clause in your employment contract that prevents you from having a second job in addition to being employed as an associate at the firm?

For example, can I work as an instructor at an LSAT prep company while being employed at a firm?

[hdr]

You technically can if it doesn't create conflicts issues, but after you tell a partner "I can't do these edits until midnight because I'm teaching an LSAT class from 6-9," you probably won't have two jobs for very long.

[umichman]

Most firms have strict policies against this. I'd check.

[Anonymous User]

Most firms have strict policies against this. I'd check.

you're saying most firms have strict policies against having a teaching job as an LSAT instructor or having any side jobs that don't have any conflict of interest?

[Spirit99]

Leaving aside any potential policies, please let me know what firm you are working at where you have so much extra time that you can have a second job.

Obviously, it should be one's right to have a second job or not but I was wondering if there is any clause in your employment contract that prevents you from having a second job in addition to being employed as an associate at the firm?

For example, can I work as an instructor at an LSAT prep company while being employed at a firm?

[Anonymous User]

Obviously, it should be one's right to have a second job or not but I was wondering if there is any clause in your employment contract that prevents you from having a second job in addition to being employed as an associate at the firm?

For example, can I work as an instructor at an LSAT prep company while being employed at a firm?

I would highly suggest against it. My knowledge of firm policies is that they generally require your full energy be devoted to the job. In addition, from a practical standpoint, it is likely to overload you and cost you a chance at excellent performance at either job. This all assumes a biglaw job - I don't know if you could make this work at a small firm in a smaller city.

[nixy]

Most firms have strict policies against this. I'd check.

you're saying most firms have strict policies against having a teaching job as an LSAT instructor or having any side jobs that don't have any conflict of interest?

I don't know about official policies, but biglaw firms pay you a lot of money to be available basically all the time and aren't interested in working around your other job. What do you do when a partner assigns you something at 5 pm that they want turned around right away and you're teaching a LSAT class that evening?

[s1m4]

I agree with all the above people saying you won't have time, but I want to mention that my LSAT instructor was then an associate at a biglaw firm.

[Anonymous User]

why on earth would you want to spend more time working (???!?) at another job and creating time constraints that could get you in trouble or fired

even the burden on you aside, this is crazy unless you truly don't care about your reputation and whether you leave or get fired within your first year or two (frankly, from either job).

[2013]

I know people who helped out with family businesses and stuff, but I don’t know anyone who had an actual second job. As previous posters have mentioned, you get paid your salary as a junior because of the expectation that you’re available at all times.

Would you really make that much money from LSAT tutoring anyway?

[Elston Gunn]

Agree generally with the responses so far, but there’s definitely an exception for being an adjunct at a local law school. You’d want to talk about it/clear it with the partners you work with, but midlevel/senior associates occasionally do it for sure.

[Anonymous User]

This question could only be asked by someone not currently working in big law. Wait until you get your first 250 or 300+ hour month and then ask yourself if you want to or have time to work a second job.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Claim to be an Orthodox Jew and only teach your classes on Friday nights and Saturdays. Have actual Orthodox Jews become increasingly suspicious of the ruse you have to keep up until one day you're hilariously outed.

[obamalaw]

Be careful. Working on the side is a lot different than coaching your kids basketball team. Some companies might think you feel they do not pay you enough or you are unhappy working there. Granted, you can always say you volunteer tutor.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

I'm not aware of any biglaw firms that prohibit all employment outside of the firm - that seems like a strange policy. Mine (and I imagine all of them) prohibit any legal services or acting in the capacity of a lawyer outside the confines of the firm, perhaps subject to some firm approval process to do a will for your grandparents or something.

If you wanted to be an LSAT instructor, or an Uber driver, or edit personal statements, or sell arts and crafts on Etsy, or anything like that, I can't imagine a firm would prevent you from doing so. I also can't imagine that you would want to once you become familiar with the demands of biglaw and the paycheck starts to change your personal value of an hour. My free time is incredibly valuable to me now, and it would take much more than any LSAT tutor job would pay me for me to agree to sell that marginal time after I've done all my biglaw work.

[Anonymous User]

I know someone at a V10 who is an adjunct law professor.

[nixy]

Adjuncting is pretty common and usually valued/allowed, though I’d bet there are more partners who adjunct than associates.

[nealric]

Claim to be an Orthodox Jew and only teach your classes on Friday nights and Saturdays. Have actual Orthodox Jews become increasingly suspicious of the ruse you have to keep up until one day you're hilariously outed.

Lol. Sounds like the plot of a bad Adam Sandler movie. Having worked with a lot of Orthodox Jews, I think it would be rather difficult to fake. Even in a huge city like NYC, It's a pretty tight knit community where people tend to know each other. They'd ask about your congregation, and you'd have a pretty tough time making things up that made sense unless you knew a lot about a specific one. Plus, you'd inevitably mess up one of the rules out of ignorance (wrong clothing, wrong food, etc.). It's a lot more complicated than just avoiding pork and covering your head.

But in seriousness, I agree with others that it's a bad idea. A firm would accommodate for an activity like adjunct teaching at a law school or taking classes in an LLM program, but they aren't going to be willing to accommodate a side gig that doesn't accrue to the benefit of the firm (at least indirectly). It's hard enough to block out personal time for things like birthdays, weddings, etc. You'd pretty much have to lie if an important matter came up in direct conflict with a side job commitment, and it would have to be a pretty big lie if it was an important enough matter. A few thousand bucks for teaching LSAT classes isn't worth having to juggle one more request for blocked off time, especially given how much they are paying you as a jr. associate.