Sponsor A Law Kid

I launched Sponsor A Law Kid in November 2010 to help pay for my last semester of law school at Arizona State University.  Sponsor A Law Kid was an exchange program where my sponsors pay a little bit of money and in return, they get a blog post written on the day they sponsor in support of themselves, their business, or any cause they want me to support. The program ran from January 1, 2011 until July 27, 2011 with one sponsor allowed for each day.

Photo by Jamie Peachey

When I started law school, the average debt for a graduate of my program was $51,000.  Shortly thereafter, the economy tanked, the cost of tuition skyrocketed, and the average debt for an ASU law school graduate went up to $89,000.  I decided that there had to be a way to make my education more cost-effective besides working full-time in the summers and part-time as a research assistant during the school year.

I copied the price structure initially used by Jason Sadler of I Wear Your Shirt.  The cost to sponsor January 1st was $1, and the price for each subsequent day went up by $1 (Jan. 2nd = $2, Jan. 3rd = $3, Jul. 27th = $208).  This price structure allowed everyone a chance to participate in the program who wanted to participate in it.  Every person who sponsored a day received the same amount of my time, energy, and thoughtfulness in their blog post.

Sponsor A Law Kid garnered national attention.  I was pleased to see that the program was featured in the following publications:

• Above the Law
• American Bar Association Journal
• Nutmeg Lawyer
• LawCrossing
• Law Librarian Blog
• Law Actually
• Phoenix New Times
• Solitary Island in a Stream
• Busted Ceiling 
• St. Vincent High School Blog 
• Blind Drunk Justice

I consider Sponsor A Law Kid to be a huge success and I learned a number of valuable lessons about dealing with adversity and being an entrepreneur.

In all, Sponsor A Law Kid was a success because of my 35 sponsors who sponsored 46 days of my education.  Every sponsored blog post can be found here.