The law student’s guide to balancing a side job

Southampton Uni’s Maddy Nicholl shares her top tips

Being a law student is hard; very few people would disagree with that statement. What can make it ten times harder is needing to have a job too. Many law students are not fortunate enough to be able to rely on financial support from family, and for many, the government student maintenance loan does not even cover the cost of rent!

So, with that in mind, how should a law student really go about managing to be a full-time student, working part/full time, and managing the additional challenges involved in entering the legal profession? Coming to the end of my first year of being a full-time law student whilst managing a job on the side, I’m sharing my top time management tips for law students in the same position.

Stay organised

The most important thing you can do is to stay organised. Where possible, treat your law degree as a 9-5 job. Get up at your desk/in the library for a nine am start. At the start of the day, take five minutes to sit down and note exactly what you want to achieve today. This gives you plenty of time to complete readings, assignments, extra tasks, and admin that would otherwise build up.

Don’t forget to also take those regular breaks you would in the workplace or even more regularly if needed. Reading those long cases can get really dreary! This means that you can also work a job in the evenings and/or weekends without the additional stress of being behind on your studies. Obviously, this isn’t applicable to all jobs where for example, you have an afternoon or a morning shift around lectures/seminars, but it gives you a goal and an estimate of how much time you want to be spending on each task. Most universities will provide guidelines on how much time should ideally be spent per module per week on their website.

One of the biggest time savers I’ve discovered is meal prep. Batch cook a variety of meals, stick them in the freezer in one-person portions. You won’t have to think about cooking after a long day at university/work, and it can actually save you money too!

Keep track

One of the main struggles of law students is gaining legal work experience alongside your degree. Many opportunities require travel to London, or other far away cities which can not only be expensive but time-consuming. To achieve a comfortable balance, I would highly suggest keeping track of all of the deadlines for all of the opportunities that you are interested in. This can be done in an Excel sheet or an app such as Notion so you can keep track of deadlines, where you’ve applied, when you will be hearing back, and whether or not you were successful.

Set yourself a goal. Personally, I aim to apply for at least one piece of legal experience per week, be it a webinar, online internship, mini-pupillage, pupillage, vacation scheme, or training contract applications (although the last few are likely to be much more time-consuming).

Keep track of deadlines, submitted applications, successful applications, unsuccessful applications, any application feedback, exam scores, exam feedback, etc. Record everything. Every success is a matter to celebrate, and every failure is an opportunity to learn and grow. Keeping a list of all of your legal achievements (no matter how small) means that when it comes to writing your applications, you have a range of experience to choose from to demonstrate your skills.

Take the path of least resistance

Not everything about gaining legal experience has to be difficult. Since the pandemic, a range of work experience has become available online. Some websites even offer more practical experiences ran by top law firms that allow you to gain a greater understanding of what would be expected of you as a trainee. The advantage of these is that they can often be completed in your own time around your work/university schedule. You can find lists of deadlines on a range of sites including Legal Cheek’s very own Key Deadlines Calendar.

This can save you lots of time searching through the websites of numerous firms. Consider creating an email account just for legal opportunities, that you can check regularly and use exclusively to sign up for as many legal mailing lists that you can find. This will allow you some peace of mind by not being constantly be bombarded by emails, and it will give you some amazing resources to work with when you have the time to go through them.

It’s also always worth looking into your local Junior Lawyers Division. They often host in-person and virtual events that are much more accessible with lower (if any) travel costs and a different perspective than big city lawyers.

All of these opportunities meet some vital criteria for those working alongside a degree. They can be done remotely, for example on the train home from work. Many organisations offer recordings of the sessions if you miss one. In-person events sometimes compensate travel costs too, so it’s always worth a look.

Look after yourself

Finally, and most importantly, look after yourself. You will not perform your best if you are exhausted and burnt out. Block some time out to do something you enjoy. Be it meeting up with a friend, painting your nails, playing a sport, or scrapbooking. It can be anything as long as it’s something that you enjoy.

Another one of the most important aspects of managing such a busy schedule is to get comfortable saying no. As much as many of us want to take on as many opportunities as possible, if you stretch yourself too thin, you will burn out or the quality of your work will decrease. Learning how to prioritise is one of the most important skills a law student can learn. Showcase your skills to the best of your ability to potential employers. Without taking the time to nurture your physical and mental well-being, you won’t be at your best, putting yourself at a disadvantage for potential applications/interviews. Be kind to yourself!

Maddy Nicholl is a first year law student at the University of Southampton, and an aspiring solicitor with interests in personal injury and medical negligence.