Money Mistakes You Can Avoid as a Law Student

Happy July everyone! Today I am SO excited to feature a new and amazing blogger from Legally Blonde and Broke! I always get so excited when I see a new law school blog, but then am disappointed when they never post a second post 😔 But not this blog!! Not only is she posting lots of new content, she's posting some great content, too. Like today, where she's taking over ze blog and is talking all about 6 things you can do to avoid spending too much money in law school!

You can find her on 

Legally Blonde & Broke

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A little bit about today's writer,

Current Law School: Northwestern School of Law (Chicago)

Undergraduate: University of Wisconsin Madison

Major: Political Science

Minor: Social Work

The first year of law school can cause be stressful enough with your studies alone, but when you factor in your expenses and bills, you may worry as to how you are going to make ends meet. The ABA restricts first year students from working more than 20 hours a week - if at all. Trying to pay bills while working minimal hours can be nearly impossible. While student loans are always an option, borrowing the least amount as possible is always desirable. You don’t want to graduate law school with a significant amount of debt. Many law students make common money mistakes that are highly avoidable, spending much more than is truly necessary. Here some proven tips that can help you save money and stress less about your finances in law school.

Don’t Buy Coffee Every Morning

During my first semester of law school, I bought coffee from Starbucks almost every morning. While I did not get the most expensive thing on the menu, I was still spending around $5 a day on coffee. When you think about it – this can add up to around $700 a semester.  

One way you can avoid this is to buy coffee from the grocery store. I am pretty picky with my coffee and prefer iced coffee or cold brew every morning. Almost every grocery store carries a variety of iced coffee (and other specialty drinks) for around $5 a container. I typically use one container a week and was able to save around $20 a week just by switching to grocery store coffee. I still buy Starbucks brand coffee (which in my opinion tastes the same as from the actual café) but don’t spend nearly as much as I used to.

Rent Your books Instead of Purchasing Them

One mistake that a lot of first year students make is to buy brand new law books. These books can range anywhere from $150-300 per book. While the idea of getting a brand new, crisp textbook might be enticing – it is not worth it. 

Rental books are a fraction of the cost and are usually in great condition (I have never had a problem with a book). On top of this, many times rental books are lightly highlighted with the important rules and details from cases. This gave me a great idea of what to look out for when I was reading a case and allowed me to take notes a lot more efficiently. 

Related: How to rent law school books and Where to get the best deals on law school books

Look for a roommate instead of living alone

If you go to school in a big city, then you know just how expensive rent can be. Studio and one-bedroom apartments are some of the most expensive apartments on the market. Despite their smaller size, living with a roommate(s) is far cheaper. 

While looking for apartments in Chicago, I was able to cut my rent in half by living with one other person. 1-bedroom apartments were around $1800, while 2-bedroom apartments (that were much nicer) were around $1000/person. 

With that being said, make sure you find a roommate that will be easy to live with and allow you to study without any significant distractions. Living with someone in law school is a lot different than living with someone in college.

Even better than getting an apartment, if your parents live close enough to your law school, live at home for a year or two. This can save you thousands of dollars on rent, food, and necessities. But make sure to budget for the commute because this can add up as well.

Related: How to get free rent in law school 

Apply for scholarships offered by your law school 

While it seems like an obvious piece of advice, almost 80% of the students at my law school did not apply for scholarships that were offered throughout the year.  Typically, firms and organizations will send your school scholarship opportunities that are offered exclusively to your school or your area. Most scholarships are easy to apply for and are well worth your time.

Many students are deterred from scholarships that require a personal statement or letters of recommendation. One thing I did was obtain generic letters of recommendation from my professors that I was able to use for multiple scholarships. I also wrote a personal statement that was versatile enough to be slightly tweaked to be used over and over again. Often these scholarships will have little competition and you will have a much higher chance of getting them (& many times they offer more money).

Related: How to negotiate your law school scholarships and Where to find law school scholarships 

Work Every Winter and Summer Break

Most law students are able to find great opportunities for summer break but choose not to work while they have off for a month in the winter. Even if it is not with a law firm, working at any job while you are off of school for a month can help you save a significant amount of money. You may feel as though you would rather have a break from work and school than make money. If this is the case, then maybe choose to work part time. You can still save a good amount of money and it will keep you from feeling over-worked while you have off from school. 

What I did my first and second year was work every Friday throughout the school year (because I did not have class on Friday), as well as full time throughout winter and summer break. At times, I will admit that I felt tired and sick of working, but without it I would have struggled to pay my bills or even have the funds to have fun with my friends. 

Save, Save, Save

Law school can be a truly difficult time financially. While many of your friends have already started their careers, it can be difficult to budget and make money when you need to focus so much on school. These simple tips can help you save a significant amount of money without having to give up your favorite things. Remember to budget and plan for expenses you plan to incur. Trust me, your future self will thank you. 

Related: How to make money in law school 

How to Switch Careers if Being a Lawyer isn't for You

Hello again everyone! I know you're probably surprised to see me again and are probably wondering shouldn't this girl be bar prepping instead of blogging?? Well yes, but I somehow got ahead this week and had some spare time so ta-da! 

Anyways, this post has been a long time coming but I actually think now is the perfect time to share this post because I'm sure at some point in this life, at least one of you is going to be doing the whole lawyering thing and think, wait, what if I should be doing something else with my life??? And this post is for you! Or really, anyone just curious because it's nice to know that you always have an out. Or maybe that's just the Bar-prep cynicism in me haha! 

So backstory... today's post is an interview/kinda guest post with Andrew Lynch of Jackson Wayne. He reached out to me last semester about his amazing briefcases (mentioned in my gifts for law school grads post) and I was really intrigued when he told me that he was a former lawyer now in the leather business and I figured that some of y'all could benefit from his story. I guess also an alternative title for this post could have been how to switch from a lawyer to an entrepreneur because he's got such great advice. So, here's the interview! 

from JacksonWayne.com

What law school did you go to?

University of Iowa

What type of law did you practice?

Litigation mostly. Early in my career I worked at a large law firm and represented large corporate clients in commercial litigation matters. Once I started my own practice, I represented mostly small businesses and individuals in business and consumer litigation.

How long were you in law before taking on Jackson Wayne?

I was in private practice for about 10-12 years, but started to transition out toward the latter part of that.

What made you decide to switch from law to leather goods?

I always enjoyed entrepreneurship more than law. I had started side businesses very early in my legal career. I just had a sense that I would end up running a business someday and not involved in the traditional law practice. I wasn’t sure exactly what form that would take. But I knew I wanted to start trying things early on in case it took awhile. I never saw myself practicing law for 30+ years. I have a lot of respect for the law and what lawyers do. But I knew it wasn’t for me long term. Also, my personality lends itself more to creating, building, entrepreneurship, etc., rather than litigation.

The leather goods business is something that had been floating around in my head for awhile. It was sort of borne out of my own experiences carrying briefcases as a litigator. We did a press release that explains it a bit more here.  

How did you make the move from lawyer to business owner?

It wasn’t easy. I would say most of my lawyer friends (probably 75%) aren’t particularly happy with their career choice. But they don’t know how to change because the pay is pretty good and hard to replace. Also, the longer you do it, the more you are sort of pigeonholed into that – it’s just how people see you.

I only worked at a law firm for a couple of years before starting my own practice (my first toe into running a business). As a young lawyer with no book of business, I had to figure out how to generate clients, fast. At that time the Internet was certainly around, but not like it is today. Most lawyers had a basic website that was really just a glorified business card. I decided to learn everything I could about web marketing. I started generating my own content and clients pretty early on.

I used that web marketing knowledge to start a couple of other Internet businesses that did pretty well. Over time, that momentum allowed me to transition out of law and to pursue Jackson Wayne Leather Goods, which is really where my passion is.

Did you have any debt from law school? If so, did this make it hard to have a career change?

Yes, I had student loans. I was fortunate enough to lock them in at a low interest rate, but it was certainly a factor in my early years as to how much risk I felt I could take on.

Does your legal background help you at Jackson Wayne?

It’s funny, the law license both helps and hurts you in business. It helps for the obvious reasons because it’s easier to form an LLC, handle a lot of the business admin, avoid legal battles, draft documents, etc. But it hurts because law school and litigation in particular trains you to be risk averse and to anticipate all the things that can go wrong. This is the exact opposite of what an entrepreneur needs to do. Every day you have to take risks, do things outside of your comfort zone, etc. If you approach business like law, you’ll never get anything going in business. So I had to sort of “untrain” my mind a little bit and act more like my clients! I recently went to inactive status with my license.

What advice do you have for a lawyer that wants to make a career change?

The best piece of advice I could give is to not put it off. I can’t tell you how many lawyers I’ve talked to over the years that are interested in a career change but just end up putting it off and becoming perpetually miserable. It doesn’t get easier with time – it gets harder. So get started now. You shouldn’t give up the income just yet but you need to start taking steps that will eventually lead to your exit. That may mean starting a business like I did, or it might mean getting retrained for a different career or simply applying for non-law jobs.

Also, while planning your exit, be sure to avoid the “golden handcuffs.” It’s very natural for young lawyers to want to enjoy the new income they’re receiving. It seems many law firms actually encourage it, at least implicitly. Ramping up your lifestyle/expenses can be a killer for getting out of law. If you’re monthly living expenses are high, it can be nearly impossible to get out of law because other jobs may not pay as much or other businesses you start may have a growth period where you’ll have no income from it. So living beneath your means will give you a great shot at getting out of law.

One last thing, I don’t mean to be down on the legal profession. I do know lawyers who are genuinely happy with their career, even litigators! I think most people will have a sense early on in their career. Thanks!