The unconventional way I got a job out of law school

This is an unconventional story, and it will not work for everybody. But if you are young and like me, who wants to create a better life for yourself, this is the roadmap I used.

I graduated from UMKC Law in 2021 and took the bar that summer. The relationship I had with the girl I started dating from school crashed and burned a week before the bar (don’t be surprised if this happens to you, too, as it will not be the end of the world; I’ve seen it many times with law school romances).

If you are anything like me, you have interests outside of law. I encourage you to keep pursuing the passions you have outside of school. Music is one of mine. I doubled as an audio engineer while studying for the bar and had a studio session the night before the exam. After I got out of my session, I drove from Kansas City to Columbia and tried to find a hotel room, but they were all booked. I went to 7 different hotels before finally finding an open room.

Looking back, it was no shocker that I failed the bar. I didn’t even bother showing up on the second day of the test. Instead, I went to the strip club to get my mind right and then sat in my hotel room the next morning and wrote up a resume. It didn’t have much on it other than a clerkship I did over the winter semester. However, a word of advice: when you create your resume, use a nice, hi-def photo of yourself. Don’t just submit a white piece of paper. You need to be creative. There are tons of colorful, eye-catching resume templates on PowerPoint and Canva. This will help you stand out, and it’s how I got the first job I applied for on Indeed: as a freelance writer for Blackdoctor.org (which is hilarious because I’m white, I also never got any tax documents nor did they submit a 1099 for me to the IRS, so you can tell what kind of job this was).

If you’re reading this as a law school grad or student, there’s a good chance you have a background in English. I do. I got a Professional Writing degree from Missouri State University. I was playing football at the time and had no idea what I’d ever do with a Professional Writing major, but I had an advisor look at my schedule and tell me that I could graduate ahead of schedule if I did it as my major. I had already been gravitating toward the writing classes for my electives, so I was decently far down this path by my sophomore year of college.

Having no other options after law school, I fell back on this degree and applied for as many writing jobs as I could find on Indeed. I set up email alerts for job postings containing the words “writer” and “freelance writer.”

If you fail the bar, set up these types of email alerts. People will hire you if you have a law degree, whether you have passed the bar or not. Most of the time, if you’re interviewing in an unconventional setting as a law school grad, employers are very curious and want to know more. It might even work to your advantage to not practice law right off the bat.

I remember having one opportunity available at a law firm for $50k a year. Most law firm offers you get coming out of law school will have laughably low salaries. $50k a year was not going to cut it for me, and it shouldn’t cut it for any of you if you have a similar offer on the table. You shouldn’t tough it out at a firm and wait for your employer to tell you that you can have a raise and make more money. You should hunt your own meals and decide your salary on your own.

By November of 2021, I was writing articles for Blackdoctor.org and SABER Magazine, a hip-hop catalog out of Kansas City I’d connected with on Instagram. Remember what I said about not losing your other hobbies while in law school? Don’t completely forget about your creative pursuits, as they can sometimes pay off in ways you wouldn’t expect. I would also leverage social media as much as possible. I no longer use Instagram because I hate Meta, although I do like Zuckerberg. So, I use X and YouTube.

I barely had enough money to pay my $900/month rent in Kansas City at this time. I even had to sell my desktop computer and iPad to pay off rent for one month. That’s how close I was cutting it. However, I got an alert for a Legal Writer position with LegalMatch. I applied, interviewed, and surprisingly got the job. I didn’t think the interview went very well because the interviewer and I had some awkward pauses in the conversation and kept talking over each other. But by December 2021, I was writing articles for LegalMatch’s legal library for $35 a pop, and eventually worked my way up to doing 8 of those per day by asking my editor for more work.

I’d always wanted to move out West, and my shitty KC apartment wasn’t cutting it. I typed “writer in Montana” into Indeed’s search bar and came across a posting for a newspaper editor position in Hardin, Montana. Only a few other people had applied.

I immediately submitted my application and looked up the company’s contact info. I left messages with a receptionist at the office and sent emails two days in a row to the owner of the newspaper chain. Key point: if you find a job you want, be proactive. Find as many people’s contact info at the company as possible and reach out to them to confirm your interest.

I interviewed with the newspaper company over Zoom while wearing a winter jacket. It was nothing fancy. They agreed to take a chance on me, so I moved to Montana and ended up working there as a journalist and newspaper editor for 2 years.

If you’re a law school student or graduate who feels unsure about the future or can’t land a job, I strongly recommend pivoting toward journalism. There are tons of jobs out there if you’re willing to relocate. Journalism also tremendously enhanced my social skills because I was constantly out and about talking to people. It improved my writing skills through daily practice as well.

My first stint as an editor landed me another stint as an editor, and by that time, the door had opened for me to start freelance writing at the biggest media outlet in Montana, the Billings Gazette.

That was over a year and a half ago. I’ve since taken an 8-month contract to write for Thomson Reuters FindLaw (would not recommend it), opened my own writing & content creation business, and started focusing more on freelancing for content agencies that service law firms. I still work for some other publications, but they aren’t necessarily law-related so I will not mention them here.

To have any success in today’s market, you are going to need multiple streams of income. That is unquestionable in my experience. I run a media platform called Duff Radio that streams music and interviews on YouTube, X, Spotify, Soundcloud, & Apple Podcasts. I also operate my own blog and have self-published a book. I would advise anyone out there to do something similar as far as making your own brand and having something for sale.

But above all else, use the written word. As a lawyer or law student, it is a skill you’ve likely been blessed with since childhood. Whether you decide to practice law or not, it’s the most powerful tool you’ve got. Practice your writing every single day, and it will catapult your career and take you to places you could have never dreamed of. That is the message I hope to leave with you today.