Can anyone share their experience in working full time and going to Law School at night. We know several or more people who have done the part time MBA but Law School seems like a bigger challenge. Especially that he is interested pretty much only in Georgetown which is a top tier program.
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Is the only concern finances?
The work load?
Not sure this is possible at a law school like Georgetown. Or really anywhere considering the workload…required reading is extensive.
There are some more local law schools that do have programs designed for working adults. But these are local smaller law schools. Not for big law aspirants.
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My friend did it decades ago. It was difficult, but he made it through. He’s currently an equity partner in a highly regarded patent law firm (engineering undergrad). He went to a law school that no one outside of our state would know.
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My son right now would only do this at a “Tier 1” law school. As far as what he told me that Georgetown is the only “Tier 1” with a part time program. The company he works for does consulting for some top law firms so feels the Tier 1 is essential for real upper level advancement.
Georgetown has an evening law school program so it seems as if it is possible. Really depends on the student and the daytime job. I would think it would be tough with a demanding day job. Good luck!
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A friend of mine did this, although not at Georgetown. It was intense, but she got through it, and passed the bar on her first attempt. So it can be done, but far from easy. You need to be a workhorse with a lot of determination.
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The work load is punishing on top of a full time day job. Essentially, in most programs, you’re working your full 9:00 to 5:00 job, then going to class for three hours every night, often from 6:00 - 9:00 Monday- Thursday. These classes require extensive and dense reading that needs a lot of focus and concentration, and pretty soon, outlining on top of the reading to be prepared for final exams. This means that every weekend is booked to keep up with the reading/outlining. On top of that, he’ll have to take two semesters of legal writing in his first two semesters of law school, which requires progressively more complex, very time consuming memo and brief assignments. Then during exams he’ll probably have to take at least some time off of work to study - each semester. At a minimum, assuming he also takes summer classes, it takes around four years to get the JD. If he takes a summer off of classes, or decreases his course load any semester, it will be longer. It’s a very long, very tough slog, so it’s something to consider only if you have a really clear goal as to why you want to get a JD.
What does your son intend to do with his JD once he has it? Is he wanting to use it to leverage more opportunities with his current employer? If so, that’s one track. If he wants to use his degree to transition into a law practice career, and specifically at BigLaw, that’s a completely different track that is really tough to pursue while working full time at a non-legal job. To get a BigLaw job, it’s basically required to work for one full summer as a summer associate at a large law firm. There really aren’t many entry points without doing that summer associate position so he’d have to either 1) being able to take most of a summer off of his current job or 2) being wiling to leave his current job to take that summer position.
So overall, it’s possible - people do it. But it’s incredibly tough. Most people find they have to have at least some flexibility with their day job to manage the demands of being a law students, and also be willing to be on task, all the time, every weekday and every weekend, with no breaks for many years.
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I did this, at Georgetown, in the late 90s/early 00s. It wasn’t bad at all – I always had a fairly long commute, so I used my time on the metro to study. Since (at least back then), most classes only had the final exam grade, as long as I was diligent in keeping class outlines, it was very manageable. I found the students in the evening program to be laid back and interesting.
The biggest downside for me was not really being able to take advantage of clinic programs and summer associate opportunities, but that was because I had no outside support at all and needed to prioritize my year-round day job. If you have a more flexible job (or, tbh, a more flexible mindset than I did), that may not end up being a problem. Oh, and also, my gpa was not impressive – around a 3.3. I was cool with that, but if you want all As, you might find it a little bit harder to balance everything.
In case it matters, I was able to participate in the On Campus Interview program and landed a biglaw-type job (with more of a regional, mid-sized firm, but still, I got the job w/o ever having been a summer associate). The fact that I was working full time while paying my way through school definitely came up in some of my interviews, in a positive way.
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Very common at Georgetown Law. Pretty easy as the students are not hyper-competitive as one might expect at a Top 14 law school. (Well, okay, the 14th ranked law school, but still among the top 14 !)
Georgetown’s part-time law program is designed for working professionals. DO NOT WORRY !
Nevertheless, can be stressful for one who is working full-time, has a long commute,and has very young children at home.
If attending part-time, but not working, it should be among the easiest law programs in the country.
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A close friend did this in NY in the 80s/90s and had a successful legal career. With that said, it took a years during which she had little time for much of a regular life, at a time of life when even those of us with 70-80 hour weeks had relatively fun regular lives. Many of her classmates were much younger. She took time off to study for the bar, after which she re-entered the workforce as a lawyer.
Short version: if you want a JD, you can do it at night but the bigger tradeoff will be in your personal life. With that said, I have seen folks pursuing advanced degrees on a part-time basis switch to full-time status for the last semester or year to get their degree and sanity.
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I almost did it, but at the time, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the only program offering night school was a local one that would only allow me to be a member of my state bar (not that I was planning to relocate). So I decided not to do it. But it is doable. Good luck to him!
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Thanks for all the great input. It’s a smaller niche company he works for now. They do consulting specifically for law firms and legal departments some are the largest in the world. He’s building a tremendous rolodex. I believe the head of his firm is extradonarily kind so I think he would give him the flexibility to do both. Now he just has to get in.
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I went to law school at night while I was working back in the early 2000’s and with a few classes during the summer, it took four years to finish. It wasn’t easy, but I think it was helpful to not have the stress of needing to be on the Law Review or worrying about being at the top of the class (that wasn’t going to happen even if I was full time…) and that I did not have to go into huge debt to pay for school.
The work was challenging, but I found it interesting and honestly I think it was helpful to have a distraction from by job, while also having a distraction from a singular focus while in law school as well.
Please feel free to PM if you have any questions…
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