How to Make Extra Money While in Law School
Law School is an extremely expensive undertaking, many law school graduates emerge from the trenches with well over $100,000 in debt. In addition to the…
Law School is an extremely expensive undertaking, many law school graduates emerge from the trenches with well over $100,000 in debt. In addition to the cost, its an extremely time consuming affair.
Good luck working a part-time job your 1L year of law school, its been done, but its certainly not for the faint of heart. At the end of 1L year you will hopefully have a summer internship somewhere that is related to the law. Unfortunately 1Ls soon discover during applications that 1L paid internships are few and far between.
These harsh circumstances make it very difficult for law students to avoid taking on large amounts of debt to finance their education and living expenses.
Luckily for you, there are a variety of options for even the busiest of law students to take advantage of and earn some extra income on the side.
1) Become a Research Assistant
A research assistant position is awesome, I was a research assistant for my former Torts professor for more than a year. These positions are certainly not the highest paying, but they tend to be extremely flexible and you will likely learn something new in the process.
The job descriptions vary depending on what your professor needs. Assignments sometimes include translating documents (if you speak multiple languages), researching caselaw/current events, editing documents, generating content, and cataloging research.
There is also a ton of demand for research assistants at most law schools. Professors typically have a certain amount of hours that they can use for research assistants. Its typically fairly easy to find available research assistant positions. Sometimes professors will send out an email notification that they are looking for research assistants, some will send individual emails, and others will list available research positions on your law school’s job forum.
Take advantage of a research assistant job. The pay usually isn’t much higher than minimum wage, but it has the additional benefit of offering a learning opportunity. During my research assistant assignment I learned about ancestry DNA testing, DNA databases, and how they were changing criminal investigations.
The flexibility is also a huge advantage and you would be surprised how easy it is to work twenty hours or more a week when you work at your leisure. I would frequently find myself filling the gaps between my classes by clocking in to my research assistant position.
One last benefit of serving as a research assistant is the relationship-building factor. Serving as a good research assistant can serve you well in the future if you ever need a reference/recommendation letter.
2) Tutor 1Ls
This is pretty common at my law school for 2Ls and 3Ls, and a few of my friends do this. Some schools, like mine, sponsor their own 1L tutoring program. With these schools the law school typically contacts every 2L/3L who received an “A” in the professor’s course. If you accept the tutoring invitation than you will be assigned a 1L to tutor.
Other schools don’t have such a tutoring program and you will need to do a little advertising on your own. First you should decide what classes you dominated 1L year, if you sucked at Civil Procedure you probably should not be tutoring anyone in that subject.
Decide what your hourly rate is going to be, look around at other tutors and find out what they are charging for their tutoring sessions.
Lastly you need to start advertising. Check with the school and find out if there are some public spaces that you can post flyers on. Make some flyers and check if there are some student groups from your law school on social media, you might be able to post there as well.
3) Teach the LSAT
This is restricted to students who received a certain score on the LSAT. Most commercial LSAT courses require their tutors to have received an upper 160s score or above. Definitely not easily obtained, but if you have a score in that range they are very well paid.
My friend was paid $40 an hour to teach an LSAT course and I have heard of tutors making even more than that. You should definitely check out any LSAT tutoring opportunities in your area if you received a high LSAT score.
The only negative I can think of regarding an LSAT tutoring position is that you are not going to learn new information relating to the law like you might with a research assistant position. But don’t let that stop you, because the money tutors get paid blows research assistant jobs out of the water (in my opinion).
4) Paid Internships/Legal Jobs
These are not as impossible to find as you might initially expect, especially during your 2L year of law school. Several of my friends got jobs with law firms during the school year that paid $15+ an hour.
It’s highly unlikely you will be able to get one of these during your 1L year, but more significant opportunities usually open during 2L year because most firms feel like upper-class law students actually know something.
A friend of mine was actually able to get a paid legal job during her 1L summer. She was certainly an exception to the rule, but if you apply to enough jobs and have decent grades you have a shot!
5) LexisNexis/Westlaw Representative
Reps are basically in charge of promoting their companies products. They get as many people as possible to come to the training sessions and they spend some time answering students legal research questions.
Some advantages of this are that the hours are extremely flexible and the pay is pretty good. One huge advantage is that you get in-depth training on the research platforms which is extremely useful not only for law school, but also for your internships.
6) Sell Those Over-Priced Textbooks
I know the editions change fast, textbooks are a huge scam. Trust me, once the class is over you will NEVER open your class textbooks again. If you purchased your textbook make sure you sell that sucker at the end of the semester so you can recoup some of that money.
7) Gig Economy Jobs
There are loads of gig economy jobs that law students do to get through law school. Here are some of the most popular.
Uber/Lyft Driver
Its really easy to sign up, you need to be over the age of 21 and you need to own a four door vehicle that was made within the past ten years. Besides that there are no additional restrictions that I am aware of, you can basically get started on making money immediately.
Tons of students in my school do it and the experience overall is favorable.
Of course the opportunities to be a driver may vary considerably depending on where you are located. A law school in a more rural area is less likely to be able to support a decent side income. Whereas the area that I live in, Washington D.C, is awesome for part-time Uber and Lyft drivers.
Dog Walker/Sitter
A few of my friends used to do this. Personally I love dogs, but I used to hear horror stories about evil poodles and extremely nippy Chihuahuas. Not saying this to dissuade you, but just be aware that not all dogs are bundles of joy.
Dog walking is an excellent thing to do to make some extra money over the summer. Its also a great opportunity to get some exercise and sunlight, and the hours are really flexible.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you with brainstorming some ideas to make some extra money in law school. Law school can be mentally and financially draining, but you can help mitigate the costs with some of these strategies!