Monday, December 13, 2004
Insight trumps income for law student
Fleet fingers rifle rapidly through a mountain of papers, only pausing for a moistening of the tips for better traction. Despite all precautions, paper cuts riddle these digits. They serve as constant reminders of Jennifer Bany's unrelenting battle to tame the river of information flowing out of the Topeka law offices of Davis , Unrein, McCallister, Biggs, and Head. She welcomes this challenge, all for $7.50 per hour without health benefits.
"The worst part of the job is that it is never ending. Just when you think the last file is put away, you turn around and another stack has sprung up in its place," said Bany, Lawrence resident and second year law student at Washburn University.
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Yet Bany's work affords her valuable insight into the legal profession otherwise unavailable as a second year law student. Largely overlooked by the sixth edition of the Jobs Rated Almanac, benefits such as this insight draw college graduates like Bany into jobs that lack traditional financial motivation. Evaluating 250 myriad jobs on criteria ranging from income to environment, the almanac does not account for "out of the box" concepts such as networking potential and job skills gained by working at the low end of the spectrum. Ranked 233 out of 250 jobs, the file clerk, and Bany herself, stand out as exemplars unrestrained by the almanac's conventional thinking. Growing up in Overland Park, Bany never wanted to attend college. The thought of more school did not appeal to her. A dual citizen of the United States and Australia , Bany seemed drawn to that most Australian of notions, the walkabout. "I saw school as getting in the way of life," said Bany.
After some intense prodding from her friends and family, Bany changed her tune. She matriculated at the College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe , New Mexico in 1997. Drawing on her background in theatre and film, Bany graduated in May 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. "I realized in my senior year of college that I did not want to work in "the business" like all of my friends were planning to do," said Bany.
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A job as a legal secretary in Tucson, Arizona followed three months of travel throughout the South Pacific and Australia. This jolt of the "real world," courtesy of working in a defense attorney's office within an hour of the U.S.-Mexico border, prompted Bany to reconsider her ideas about school. She now knew that a law degree was in her future, an idea first formed when she took a business law course during her undergraduate work. Bany also knew it was time to return home. Without hesitation, she chose Washburn University School of Law.
An expensive and time-consuming endeavor, law school provides a challenge unlike anything else in this world. In fact, the American Bar Association forbids all students attending ABA-accredited schools from working more than twenty hours a week. This means that law students need jobs that pay well in a short period of time. So why would anyone in Bany's loan financed situation opt to take the file clerk position? Eric Blevins, a friend of Bany's and a second year law student at Washburn, also applied for her job. He has worked as a file clerk in the past and felt it would be a good opportunity to gain more experience in a new firm. "Plus, as a file clerk, you leave your work at the office," said Blevins.
Striking the balance between responsibilities to school and your life outside of school can be a full time job in and of itself. This presents another compelling aspect of the file clerk's job: no homework. Many law related jobs require writing and researching of briefs outside of normal office hours. In addition to the work required at school, this juggling act quickly becomes too much for many law students. "School is stressful enough," said Bany, "I don't want to spend my few free hours on more legal issues."
![Jennifer Bany lifts a box of files onto a stack nearly as tall as herself. Click here for a slideshow depicting the busy workday of Jennifer Bany, File Clerk. [Quicktime 4.55 MB] Photography by Debbie Castner.](../site_elements/banyheavingboxessmall.jpg) |
According to the Jobs Rated Almanac, compiled by the editors of The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com, file clerks earn a starting salary of $14,000 annually and a mid-level of $21,000. Bany's $7.50 per hour, if figured on a forty-hour week, would earn her $15,600 annually without insurance. Taking into account the ABA restrictions, she actually earns less than half that amount. Surviving on this income, coupled with both government and private loans, she does not complain. "While I may not make as much as my friends with lucrative clerkships, I have the piece of mind that comes from going home at the end of the day knowing that I only have to focus on my schoolwork," said Bany. "Success in work and school is all about maintaining perspective on life."
This is true of many of the jobs within the lower reaches of the Jobs Rated Almanac. Whether a Bartender or a Farmer, a File Clerk or a Barber, financial gain appears to be only one factor among many that drive people in their work. While it takes all of her five-foot frame to heave huge files around for a fraction of what her peers are earning, Jennifer Bany has no regrets. As the Jobs Rated Almanac says, "most in this field achieve greater earnings only by using the job as a stepping stone to other positions." Bany understands this concept better than most. Her work, while lacking financially in the short term, likely will pay off in the end. "You have to pay your dues to get anywhere in this world," said Bany.
