GULC Evening Student (3E) Taking Questions Forum

[TLSModBot]

Anyone who is incoming as an evening student (at GULC or otherwise) or thinking of become a part-time law student while working - I'd be happy to share my experiences. I can speak to balancing academics with work, and extracurricular activities such as journal, moot court, pro bono volunteering, serving as a faculty research assistant, and balancing all that with a personal life (i.e. raising a family while attending law school).

I can't promise too much wisdom on the legal-hiring front, as I am currently looking down the barrel at OCI (or EIW, as GULC insists on calling it). If I successfully make it into one of my dream firms come late August I'll feel a little more comfortable dispensing words of 'wisdom' (hah) on that front.

[nagy1]

Hi thanks for doing this! I will be starting there in the fall, I would love to know how you balanced it all first year. I know alot of people talked about doing all of their reading on weekends. Also what was the toughest thing, or something you'd wish youd known coming in.

[TLSModBot]

Hi Nagy1 - welcome to Georgetown! Balancing schoolwork and regular work isn't that hard; it really depends on two factors. The first is how demanding your job is. If it's really just a 9-to-5 (or some set schedule from 40-50 hours or less), then adding in schoolwork isn't that hard - just set aside an hour every day to tear into it. My colleagues who have insane work schedules have a much more difficult time fitting in class and reading, and they've suffered for it - so in that case I would recommend figuring out either how to set better boundaries at work or determine if law school is something you can really commit to.
The second major factor is how intelligently you do your schoolwork outside of class. Unlike any job or other day-time responsibilities you might have, this is entirely controllable on your end. In general, set aside 1 to 1.5 hours for each day's worth of readings at first - reading cases starts out slow and picks up as you learn to quickly synthesize the materials. I spent, no joke, about an hour on Marbury v. Madison, the first case I outlined and read for school. I had practiced reading cases and outlining previously, but still took a long time at first. Spend the time now, so that you will be able to breeze through cases without having to outline them by the middle or end of year 1.

The next tip that worked for me and a number of my classmates is to do the reading relatively close before the class starts. If you work, maybe show up to school an hour or two early and do your reading then. It's fresh in your mind, so you don't have to re-read right before so you waste less time overall. Maybe reading the same materials multiple times cements it in your head better, but I never found this to be the case.

Instead, take handwritten notes as you do your reading AND in class. Best piece of advice I ever got: put the laptop away. It's distracting, and writing notes instead of typing them forces you to synthesize and condense the material. You listen better, you absorb more of the material, and it keeps you focused in class.

Finally, when outlining, I personally recommend making your outline from scratch. I never looked at a single commercial outline, I did the work myself and it forced me to really understand the material. I spent less time overall because I didn't have to cram the same stuff over and over again.

Later on, balancing extracurricular activities with all of that will just come with time. I don't think there's any particular trick to it (other than keeping a schedule book so you know how to organize it all), I just slowly increased my commitments gradually until I do a truly insane amount of things. It's good preparation for the heavy workloads of associates, I figure...

[nagy1]

Great! That's good to know it won't be too awful an adjustment. Have you done any internships or plan to do any? DO you have alot of legal experience at your job now? My current is very flexible and not demanding at all. I work 40hours and not a minute more. Great benefits, but no legal experience. I hope to change that after a year of two. Beyond extracurriculars how are you getting legal experience outside of school. Do you know what type of law you'd like to go into?

[TLSModBot]

If you don't already have some legal experience, internships can be good (or a complete waste... it all depends on the internship, of course). I didn't do one because A. I already have legal experience (working as an electronic discovery consultant) and B. I needed the money from working so I could pay for the following year of school. I have, however, been serving as a faculty research assistant - which mostly involves helping a professor with research, editing potential publications, preparing course materials, or helping the professor with side projects and symposia with which he or she is involved. It's a great way to get to know a professor better (who can serve as a nice reference later on) and usually allows for flexibility so you can work it in with your regular job. Legal experience is great - but any experience that shows you can hack it as a professional is good. Anything that gives you the opportunity to hone your legal writing skills is golden.

My recommendation is to get whatever experience you can possibly fit into your schedule - the more you can handle (and handle well - so no slacking on classes!), the more you show yourself as a capable professional. Along the way, you'll also get writing experience, and more items on the resume to distinguish you from the thousands of other people competing for the jobs come interview time. As an evening student, you get two years before you go before interviewers, which means time not just to 'be accepted into journal or moot court or whatever', but to actually participate in them and get some awards/honors/publications/writing samples in the process.