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Hello Everyone,

Here is a situation that I am in and I wanted to see if people would be kind enough to give me their advice or insight:

I recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business with a B.S. in Administration. I just landed a job as a Financial Advisor at a prominent wealth management firm; however, I have always had aspirations of going to law school and becoming a corporate lawyer.

I will be paying for law school on my own, and since I have already established my own practice I think it would be ideal for me to enter a part-time program instead of a full-time program.

My main concern, or rather question, is will attending a part-time program make it more difficult for me to get a job at a big firm, as opposed to attending a full-time program? Will big firms be giving priority to full-time students, or do firms happen to have a bias against part-time students?

Also, hypothetically speaking, if I decide to leave or quit my job as a financial advisor, would I still be able to attend the part-time program?

There is always a possibility for me to switch from part-time to full-time after the first year.

lawschool111 wrote:Hello Everyone,

Here is a situation that I am in and I wanted to see if people would be kind enough to give me their advice or insight:

I recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business with a B.S. in Administration. I just landed a job as a Financial Advisor at a prominent wealth management firm; however, I have always had aspirations of going to law school and becoming a corporate lawyer.

I will be paying for law school on my own, and since I have already established my own practice I think it would be ideal for me to enter a part-time program instead of a full-time program.

My main concern, or rather question, is will attending a part-time program make it more difficult for me to get a job at a big firm, as opposed to attending a full-time program? Will big firms be giving priority to full-time students, or do firms happen to have a bias against part-time students?

Also, hypothetically speaking, if I decide to leave or quit my job as a financial advisor, would I still be able to attend the part-time program?

There is always a possibility for me to switch from part-time to full-time after the first year.

No, PT will not make it more difficult for you to land big law. Generally, you'll be judged by the same metrics as other students at your school.

Yes, you can quit working and attend a PT program.

Which schools are you looking at?

The rub is there are not that many part time programs

J-e-L-L-o wrote:The rub is there are not that many part time programs

the deeper rub is that the highest ranked school offering a PT program is Georgetown, which only places around ~30% of their graduates into biglaw

It's worth noting that while law schools with part-time programs are not very highly ranked, the work experience you'd get from attending school part time and working as a financial advisor would defintiely help you out. Firms like someone who has been in the workforce, has experience with office life, knows how to be a team player yet work independently, etc.

Part-time is also an attractive option because you'll be bringing in money while attending school rather than just accuring tons and tons of debt. Also, given the state of the legal job market, many people aren't in a huge hurry to get in and out of law school. Being part-time gives you one extra year to look for a job and get more work experience.

Best of luck!