Side hustles for lawyers may seem like an unimaginable tasks alongside an already busy practice. Law is an all-consuming profession, but that doesn’t mean that lawyers are limited to doing one thing for their whole lives. Far from it, on the contrary – while every line of work has the potential to allow for side hustles and freelance gigs, the legal profession is especially suited to side hustles.

Many lawyers have developed skills in diverse areas such as writing, research, management, and public speaking, meaning that they’re well equipped to take on many different side gigs. Not only can these part-time projects provide a welcome stream of additional income, but they can also deliver personal fulfillment and enrichment by shaking up the typical work week routine. The rapid growth of online work in recent years means that there’s no time like the present for lawyers to pursue extra jobs and projects.

If you’re looking to add some variety to your workweek routine, then consider jumping into these six excellent side hustles for lawyers.

Freelance writing

There was once a time when freelance writing was a risky business that required either working with advertising agencies or collaborating with elusive big-name magazines. However, companies across nearly all industries need high-quality written content to boost their search engine rankings, establish their reputations, and grow their audiences. With professionally honed skills in crafting legal documents and arguments, lawyers are excellent candidates to fill this need for freelance writing.

The best part about freelance writing is that it can be such a versatile and varied pursuit. Sometimes, you may have to write clickbait-y listicles for clients to help them earn more clicks. Other times, you might land a project writing an exhaustive case study for a client drawing from detailed data and real-world evidence. Whatever your specialties or interests are, there is an incredibly high chance that there’s someone out there willing to pay you to write about them.

Sites like UpWork and Fiverr make it simpler than ever to find freelance writing projects. It can be tough to stand out in these crowded marketplaces when you’re first starting – after all, tens of millions of people advertise their services on these sites every day. However, once you have a few successful projects under your belt, it’s easy to start gaining traction with a steady stream of additional projects. With the ability to tailor your workload to your interests and current capacity, freelancing provides a healthy avenue for lawyers to take on extra rewarding work.

If you’re not quite ready for freelance work, starting a blog for your law firm is a great way to exercise your writing skills and figure out your writing strengths.

Writing an eBook

If writing blogs and articles on a freelance basis isn’t enough to satiate your ambition, then you may be an excellent candidate to pen an eBook. Writing an eBook is incredibly accessible and removes almost all the barriers involved with publishing a book traditionally while still providing many of the same benefits. 

It might take more substantial time and effort to write a full-length eBook, but the results are worth the additional work. With a well-written eBook, you can open yourself up to long-term passive income and boost your reputation as a professionally published author.

Legal counseling

Legal advice is essential to help businesses of all sizes get off the ground in today’s economic landscape – and thus, it’s only natural that legal counseling has emerged as one of the most popular side hustles for lawyers. Everyone from entrepreneurs to executives can benefit from sound guidance in areas as diverse as trademarks, patents, finances, and immigration. The best part? On-demand legal counseling can be remarkably lucrative as well – frequent contributors have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year doing freelance counseling, for example.

Not only is it possible to find legal counseling gigs on popular general freelancing sites, but there are even dedicated platforms like UpCounsel that focus specifically on helping lawyers find legal counsel jobs. Just like any labor marketplace, it can initially be challenging to land a project on these platforms. However, once you start establishing a reputation with a solid track record of completed assignments, you can have some lucrative opportunities ahead of you.

Teaching online courses

Most legal practitioners have undergone more than their fair share of education between undergraduate studies and law school to get to their current roles. With so much expertise in their repertoire already, lawyers are a natural fit for sharing their knowledge with others through online classes.

You have countless options at your disposal if you choose to dive into the world of legal coursework. You could teach general interest law-related classes, such as a primer into real estate law, or deep-dives into the intricacies of niche topics, like a comprehensive overview of landlord and tenant law in your area. One prevalent option is to teach LSAT and bar exam prep courses, which are always in high demand among nervous prospective lawyers desperate for any help they can get.

Whatever topic you choose, it’s never been easier to start teaching a class of your own. Numerous viable educational platforms have sprung up online, such as Udemy and OpenSesame, which give users the flexibility to post and create diverse courses that suit their goals and needs. Whether you choose to create pre-recorded lessons or deliver live lectures online, getting into education can be financially lucrative and personally rewarding.

Public speaking

While not all lawyers spend their time delivering persuasive messages before a courtroom, many legal experts have finely honed their oratorical skills as part of their job duties. These skill sets aren’t just helpful in captivating a jury; instead, you can put them to use by exploring a side job as a public speaker.

Community events, business projects, and family get-togethers: these are just a few of the many different venues that can benefit from hiring a skilled public speaker such as a trained lawyer. Not only can public speaking offer a welcome change of pace from traditional lawyer job duties, but it can also help you develop skills of persuasion and presentation that can make you better at your existing jobs.

Side hustles for lawyers don’t have to be complicated

A side hustle is just that. It should operate in the background without being overly time-consuming or take away from your full-time responsibilities as a lawyer. Whether you have some extra capacity thanks to firm management software, or you’re simply interested in pursuing something new, there are plenty of reasons to try these side hustles for lawyers. Between writing, speaking, or teaching, you have bountiful opportunities ahead of you.