Top Law Students Needed to Fill PT Positions -- 167 LSAT or Better

[Stole Your Nose!]

This has got to be flame. 
1) For responding to all the posts.
2) For pretending to run a business based on stealing from Westlaw & Lexis. I'm sure the prospective "clients" of any such business wouldn't know that the stuff they are getting is stolen or out of date crap from some random hornbook.
3) I just can't imagine that anyone with an actual 167 anywhere wouldn't have better things to do than earn $10/hour stealing from Lexis for random bumpkin law firms.

[non parata est]

Do you really expect to get so many applications that you need to sort them by LSAT score and not give them a fair look?

[vap]

We are a legal services startup founded by two recent Rice graduates -- and we need smart, ambitious PT associates!

This position requires you to help small law firms with research/writing projects or other support tasks -- typical Summer Associate tasks, or even simpler.  You can work from anywhere in the world, as many or as few hours a day as you want -- you just log onto our website, and projects will be waiting for you.  And you get to pick the ones you want to work on!   

Not only will you get paid $25 an hour, but it's an opportunity to build a portfolio of projects, make contacts with firms, and explore different areas of the law.   

You will be an independent contractor and will have to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Here's specifically what we are looking for:

-167 LSAT or better*
-Law firm experience*
-You don't mind competing with others for projects (first come, first serve)
-Availability* (School-year? Summers? Post-graduation?)


Please include descriptions of the * items in the body of your email.  Attach CV. acelawstudents@gmail.com

Bob,

You raise a good point.  Our clients will all be lawyers, who are ultimately responsible for what they do with the research or other work-product they receive from the students.  We will not be offering "legal advice".  Clients will have direct interaction with the students, guiding the project in the directions it needs to go. 

Best,

Will
acelawstudents@gmail.com 

You guys are not lawyers, right?

What is your business name?

What is your fee arrangement with your clients (the firms)?

Do you perform any function other than maintaining the website and matching up clients with students? (ie., setting maximum hours billed or otherwise directing research)?

Are students paid by you or by the firms?

Thanks.

[Ricephilx]

Vap,

We are not lawyers. Our firm is called Insourcelegal LLC.  Our website is launching in 90 days. 

We charge the clients $50-$60 an hour.  We are the ones paying the students. 

We run the website, write the project management software, market and advertise, screen students, and manage any client-student problems.  The students just log in, do projects, and get a check in the mail.

Best,

Will

 

[Changed Name]

Out of curiosity, have you ever performed any type of legal research?

[Ricephilx]

Changed,

I worked for an oil and gas firm as a legal assistant for a year.  This required me to do extensive legal research.  When I noticed that I was getting paid to sit around and do nothing some days, I figured there had to be a better way -- one that would save small firms money while giving them access to more qualified talent -- hence, on-demand legal assistants, who happen to be top law students.   

Best,

Will

[Ricephilx]

Lazarus,

If a student associate of ours should choose to use Lexis/Westlaw despite the risks and our discouragement, it would be doubly imprudent of them to use it during summer break. 

Best,

Will

[nealric]

Assuming this is not a flame:

What college were you in at Rice? There is a high likelihood that I at least know people who know you if it was any time in the last 1-4 years.

In any event, I really think your business plan is a bad idea. The fact of the matter is that few law students would be too excited to schlep around the law library instead of using Lexis/Westlaw. Even if that's not the case, you are likely going to get some pretty inefficient/shoddy work, since few law students do much book research anymore. Alternatively, you are going to get people trying to cheat and possibly ending up screwed by Lexis/Westlaw. I know it's not technically your problem, but you could end up with some seriously unhappy campers.

I can understand why the LSAT requirement would vex people. I think you could probably be more expansive without it being difficult. For example, you could say either:

1. Top 10% 1L grades at a ranked school (none of the top schools rank)
OR
2. 167 LSAT
OR
3. T14 School
OR
4. Offer at V100 firm

Wouldn't be tough to filter at all.

[Changed Name]

I don't even think you need a "filtering" system, because as a poster above mentioned, how many people do you think would even apply for a "job" like this?

No law student is going to trek around in the library and do research (and our library here isn't even up-to-date on all the law around the country; just in our region).

I think it's an interesting idea, and I know that some other students had started something like this a few years ago (they even had a blog, i believe [i read about it, at least]).

Plus, this model doesn't seem like it will hold up.  You already said that the hours will be very few.  The money generated from those hours probably won't make it terribly worth it from a law student.  This also means that if you farm out the work to a law student, it's more than likely that these students will not end up finishing the work.  Or even if they do, they'll just provide shoddy research.  Which of course, the lawyers probably wouldn't use, but they also wouldn't use your services again.

[Stole Your Nose!]

Also, am pretty sure that no law firm in the country located within 30 miles of a law school is having a problem getting people to intern for free these days.