Going to Law School Part-Time

Luke Gilman has posted this very thoughtful post on going to law school part-time. I think there’s much merit in what he says. I certainly agree with his criteria for choosing a school, but add some thoughts on what they mean for evening students and on my current opinion (subject to change) that you should really consider going full-time if you can swing it. I’m replying here so as to not post a lengthy comment on Luke’s blog.

I agree with Luke’s suggestion that you ought attend a law school in or near the jurisdiction where you’ll practice. Obviously, this isn’t always possible and there are times when it probably doesn’t make sense. When you are not able to go in your jurisdiction of eventual practice, a part-time program might be a good option so you can accumulate experience that could possibly translate back to your home jurisdiction. I have a good friend in school who will be practicing – or at least sitting for the bar – in a land far, far away, but she is accumulating great experience while going to school. There are a surplus of such opportunities in DC. The accumulation of experience in the real world is, of course, the chief reason for doing law school at night, though I wonder if this is negated if your experience is in a non-legal profession. I’m accumulating experience in public relations. I believe there are interesting similarities between the professions. But they are different in more ways than they are similar. (I’d welcome thoughts on how you translate this experience into legal experience or transition into a legal career.)

Luke’s second point, “Parity of Opportunity,” is probably where I part ways with him. Our school, like Lukes’s, doesn’t erect any barriers, per se, to participation of evening students in law school activities. We are eligible to participate in student government, law journals/review, moot courts, trial teams, etc. My issue is really more practical. While barriers to participation are not erected by the law school, necessarily, there are practical barriers for the evening student who continues in a job that places legitimate demands on his time – i.e. one that is more than just a token position to keep earning money; one that places demands and expectations and management responsibilities on you. The reality is that you simply can’t do all the things day students could do. You can’t always spend time briefing cases or double-checking your brief for your 1L writing class. You can’t make the cool career symposiums or devote much time to meeting with professors. If you are choosing an evening program, you need to go in realizing that there are opportunities you will need to forego and the law school will not always be cooperative in scheduling things at more convenient times for evening students.

This time issue is particularly important if you have a family. I don’t have kids, but I’m married. Part-time school is essentially a second full-time job for me. That’s hard on a marriage and it would be difficult with kids. That said, many of law school friends are married or in serious relationships. A surprising number have kids or are expecting kids. This is hard. Don’t fool yourself. They make it work. They make it work well. The point is that these things put grades in perspective. Whether you get good grades or bad, you realize there are more important things than what some stubborn, tenured professor thinks about your essay-writing style.

“Reputation,” as Luke calls it, is very important. Our school’s reputation is good and improving. It’s among those considered underrated by employers in town, because it graduates students that are ready to practice. This is a critical factor in choosing a law school. This is a little harder to gauge for evening programs. I suppose we’ll begin to get some clarity on this as the US News ranking begins to incorporate evening programs.

All this said, it’s manageable, if not ideal…

I must say that financially it’s helpful for me to continue working full-time. Though that doesn’t necessarily offset the extra year of school I’ll need by going part-time – that’s really a two year loss: one more year of tuition and one less of earning a higher salary.

It’s also helped me immensely with cutting out the extraneous crap of being in school. I can avoid a lot of the drama that can come with being a full-time student (at least that I think could come with being a full-time student). I don’t have a lot of idle time. You really learn to manage your time more effectively and ignore the drama of being in school.

While your employer needs you to be at work, you’d be amazed at how understanding most people are. I’d venture to say that my boss thinks I’m a moron for doing this to myself, but he’s always supportive in those times when we’ve talked about it.

All that being said, I’m coming to same conclusion Luke is about what, exactly, law school is:

On a related note, I’ve come to look at law school as a last chance to do things I’ll likely never do again. Legal education is not and should not be a trade school; it’s an initiation ritual and a process of indoctrination where one learns to navigate and engage disparate viewpoints to arrive at a sense of one’s own mind and develops the means to express it in a rational and persuasive manner. I would look for a place with a healthy divergence of thought.

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