Anyone here ever gone back to school while working as an associate? I’ve always wanted to practice for a few years and then move into academia. I’m at the point where I’m ready to start working toward that transition and am considering doing an online PhD while I keep my role as an associate. Anyone done this or something similar? If so, what online program (university) did you do (attend) and what was your area of study?

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I think it will be difficult to find a credible online PhD program, especially one that would actually allow you to enter academia after you finish. Most universities would not view them favorably in the hiring process, unfortunately. Of course my comment isn’t a be all end all sort of thing, but my spouse is in academia so that’s what I’m basing my thoughts on here. I’d absolutely love to be a professor and I wish I had just gone the PhD route instead of law school.

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It sounds like you’re on the right track then. Now you’re going to renew my interest in pursuing a PhD! The professor life is truly great. It’s really hard work, but the autonomy seems amazing.

OP, I’m married to another lawyer who started his social sciences/quantitative PhD before law school and he did all of his coursework and comps before law school so all that was left was the dissertation, which mostly took a back seat until 3L year and wasn’t finished and defended for a few more years after. I honestly don’t know if all of that is possible while working as an attorney. PhD programs are such a slog in addition to the day to day slog of being an attorney. A highly motivated person could do it, but I worry about someone burning the candle at both ends losing steam- especially given how long it would take to do all of the requirements of the program. I know a lot of PhDs who took 5-8 years to finish and they were full time. Depends on your academic field I suppose, but most PhD students do it full time and get their tuition covered while teaching classes. If you don’t have prior university-level teaching experience, that is a really good opportunity to get it. If you really want to be a professor, a lot of schools value teaching experience and want to see publications. I have a few academic friends and the job market is just so so tough for certain fields. Not doubting that you can do this but just wanted to raise this for your consideration.

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Agree with the above. My closest friends are PhD candidates, and they struggle even without a separate full-time job. Also, depending on the type of PhD you get, you may need to do relevant internships/research that would be full-time. Not too sure if your firm would allow that kind of commitment.

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Doing online science classes while working big law to be patent bar eligible. WFH is great where I can work a little on school when I have some free time. However, when I get hit hard with work, I end up spending most of my weekend finishing class work. My recommendation is if you’re doing full time work, take one, maybe two, classes at a time

Good insight. My firm doesn’t do WFH, so that’s a a consideration. I’m already planning on evenings and weekends for class work. The program I’m looking at considers 6 hours at the doctoral level full time so I can easily take 2 classes per term.

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(Continued below)

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