It's often valuable to make lemonade out of lemons, to turn a negative into a positive, to find the silver lining in a dark sky.

That's what many incoming first-year associates at BigTex firms are doing this fall as they deal with months of unexpected free time because their firms have delayed their start dates from the fall of 2009 to January 2010 or later.

Many of the law school graduates spent weeks studying for the Texas Bar Examination in July, and then decided to vacation or relax during the late summer and fall. But others found jobs, either on their own or with the assistance of their firms. Most of the deferrals were involuntary, but at least one of the 26 firms with the largest number of lawyers in Texas -- Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which has offices in Austin, Houston and Dallas -- gave students the option of delaying their start date to 2011 with a stipend starting at $60,000. What follows are five "What I Did on My Deferral" stories from incoming first-year associates in Texas.

JUSTIN ALMAND -- WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES

Texas Tech University School of Law graduate Justin Almand could have reported for work at Weil, Gotshal & Manges this fall, but he volunteered to defer his start date and work in the Southwest Airlines legal department.

Almand, who will join Weil Gotshal's commercial litigation section in the firm's Dallas office in January 2011, says he could not pass up the chance for an in-house experience.

"It's a good opportunity for me to see what it's like before going to the firm. In the long run, having this experience will help me," he says.

As soon as Weil Gotshal notified its incoming associates last March that they could defer their start date until January 2011 and receive a $75,000 stipend if they take a public interest job, Almand paid attention to weekly e-mails the firm sent to the law students about deferral job opportunities.

Almand says Weil Gotshal partner Yvette Ostolaza of Dallas set up an interview for him with Madeleine Johnson, vice president and general counsel of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. He started work five weeks ago, and plans to work at Southwest until right before he reports to work at Weil Gotshal.

Justin Almand

Almand says it was a "no brainer" to take the corporate job, particularly since he's single and can support himself in the interim on the lower income of the firm stipend. The market rate for first-year associates at large firms in Texas is a $160,000 base salary.

Almand sees the Southwest job as a way to "take what was otherwise a negative and stressful situation and turn it into a great opportunity."

While he awaits his bar exam results, Almand says he is essentially clerking at Southwest, but his responsibilities will increase once he passes the bar. Right now, he's doing case management support, by assisting with document and witness review and attending some depositions.

Almand sees a career as a litigator, but he says his stint at Southwest will help him know if he wants to go in-house in the future.

SHAY BRYSON -- ANDREWS KURTH

When University of Texas School of Law student Shay Bryson learned in late March that she would not start her associate job with Andrews Kurth until January 2010, she immediately started calling judges she had clerked for to see if she could line up a temporary job for the fall.

Shay Bryson

But then, a couple of days later, a friend suggested that Bryson could go back to France to finish an advanced legal degree she had started in the fall of 2008. She decided that would be her plan for her deferral, and she made arrangements to return to the Law School at University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in Lyon, France, to finish the LL.M. in International and European Law.

Bryson returned to Lyon in September. After taking the Texas Bar Examination in July, she moved out of her place in Austin and stored her things at her parents' house in Dallas. She will stay in France through mid-December to finish her LL.M.

In January 2010, Bryson will join Andrews Kurth in Houston, where she will do litigation. She says the deferral was fortuitous, because she didn't expect to be able to finish the advanced legal degree any time soon.

"With the deferment, everything lined up perfectly. I couldn't see myself being unproductive for four months," says Bryson, who graduated from UT law in May.

She says that with a $10,000 stipend provided by Andrews Kurth, and some savings, she is able to pay for the education without taking out student loans.

She has classes Monday through Thursday (in English), so she has been taking advantage of the long weekends to travel. That travel includes a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest, and a visit to Amsterdam. On Oct. 15 she was headed to Madrid.

Notes Bryson, "Overall, I'm content. I can't complain about getting another degree and traveling around Europe."

PRISCILLA DUNCAN -- LOCKE LORD BISSELL & LIDDELL

Even before she starts work as a corporate associate in the Dallas office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, Priscilla Duncan is learning the client's side of the legal profession by working in the Office of Legal Affairs at Southern Methodist University.

Priscilla Duncan

"I'm getting to see sort of what the client wants, what the client needs," says Duncan, who found a temporary position at SMU because Locke Lord delayed her fall 2009 start date as an incoming associate to January 2010.

Duncan, who is awaiting results of the Texas Bar Examination she took in July, is working as a paralegal for Paul Ward, vice president legal affairs, general counsel and secretary at SMU.

"I'm kind of doing the same sort of things I would do as a summer clerk. I'm not appearing in court, but drafting things ... doing background research. The university is kind of like a mini-city," she says.

Duncan, who earned a joint J.D./M.B.A. degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, says she got connected with Ward's office through a professor at her law school who knows the university general counsel.

"We ended up working out an arrangement where I am an independent contractor for Locke Lord and they have me shipped out as a paralegal through December. I'm here and just sort of coding research assignments and memos," she says, noting that her responsibilities may expand if she passes the bar exam. Results are expected on Nov. 6.

Duncan declines to say how much she is being paid for her paralegal work but she notes Locke Lord bills SMU for her services and the firm pays her.

"Luckily this is a very mutually beneficial arrangement. They are really helping me get some experience," she says.

Duncan says that after she found out that Locke Lord deferred her start date to January 2010 from September 2009, she knew she wanted to do something useful during the four-month unexpected break.

"Some people are just vacationing for the time, and good for them, but me, I'm not really good with free time. I'm learning a lot, the people here are great," she says.

LINDSAY SETLIFF -- LOCKE LORD BISSELL & LIDDELL

While waiting to start her associate's job at Locke Lord in January 2010, Lindsay Setliff is building her legal skills by doing some contract legal research, and building stamina and muscle by teaching group exercise classes.

Lindsay Setliff

Setliff says she started teaching exercise classes five years ago, even before law school. Since she took the Texas Bar Examination in July, Setliff says she has taught as many as 20 classes a week at gyms in Austin and San Marcos.

"I really love it. I played sports up until college, then started doing this ... ," she says. "It's been a really good balance in law school."

Setliff says she was disappointed last March when she found out her first-year associate job at Locke Lord wouldn't start until January 2010, because she was mentally prepared to start work weeks after taking the bar exam in July. In the spring, she started looking for temporary job opportunities in the nonprofit sector on a database maintained by the career services office at her law school, but "there wasn't anything that really caught my eye." Then, after discussing it with her husband, she decided instead to spend her time teaching exercise classes.

"It's turned out [that] I'm really enjoying the break," says Setliff, who graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in May.

She says she didn't receive a stipend from Locke Lord for the deferral, but she makes $25 an hour for teaching exercise classes.

Setliff says she leads kick box and cycling classes; Body Pump, a class using barbells; and BodyAttack, an intense cardio class. She teaches at a couple of Gold's Gym locations in Austin and at World Gym in San Marcos.

Before she starts work as a transactional lawyer in Locke Lord's Austin office, Setliff, who lives in Kyle, says she and her husband also are planning a trip to Costa Rica.

NATALIE SMELTZER -- WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES

When Natalie Smeltzer learned she could delay her big-firm start date until January 2011 and get paid to take a public interest job in the interim, she quickly decided to find a job at a nonprofit.

Natalie Smeltzer

"I was really impressed that the firm had taken this economic downturn and really created a very positive opportunity for me and my fellow classmates," says Smeltzer, a certified public accountant who worked at an accounting firm and at an energy company before law school, and wanted to try a job at a nonprofit before starting work at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Dallas in January 2011.

She will do corporate and transactional work once she starts at the firm, but in the meantime she is a sort of a jack-of-all-trades for Mother Administered Nutritive Aid (MANA), an Arkansas-based nonprofit formed in March with a goal of eliminating malnutrition in Africa by 2040.

She's helping MANA qualify for tax breaks under §501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code and also working on the fledgling company's business plan and its financial statements. She's even doing some event planning.

"I'm kind of wearing multiple hats, not just lawyering-type of things," Smeltzer says. "It's kind of a kick."

Smeltzer had some options at Weil Gotshal. The New York-based firm notified its incoming class of associates in the spring that their fall 2009 start dates would be pushed back until January 2010. Each associate would be paid $15,000 because of the delay, says Glenn D. West, managing partner of the Dallas office. But associates who agreed to wait until January 2011 to start would be paid an additional $60,000 -- or $75,000 if they took a public interest position, which includes jobs with judges, nonprofits or clients.

While Weil Gotshal helped provide possible jobs for the students, Smeltzer says she wanted to find her own position, and specifically wanted to "do something with children in Africa."

She learned about MANA from some friends at Harding University of Searcy, Ark., where she earned her undergraduate degree, and she contacted one of the founders, Mark Moore, to ask if she could work for the nonprofit while waiting for her firm job to begin.

"He was just astounded [saying], 'You are exactly what we need right now,'" Smeltzer recalls of her first conversation with Moore. "We just kind of talked about it through May, and decided that it would work."

Moore says there's no way the nonprofit could have afforded to pay an employee with Smeltzer's skills, and "it was a dream come true for us."

"We have so much to do and so little money. We are two guys with a really good idea and a little money," he says.

Moore says some big-firm lawyers have done pro bono work for the company: Gardere Wynne Sewell of Dallas helped MANA with its trademark filings, and Covington & Burling of Washington, D.C., is helping MANA with patent issues. But, he notes, Smeltzer is valuable to MANA because she will work full time for more than a year.

Moore says MANA plans to produce a nutritive food made largely from peanut butter and powdered milk, and expects to distribute it in Africa through organizations such as UNICEF. He hoped to launch the product and a fundraising campaign on Oct. 16 at a World Food Day event in Washington, D.C.

Smeltzer says she has been in D.C. this month working on the World Food Day event. She started work for MANA in August, while she was still living in Dallas after graduating from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. The company is based in Arkansas, but she will travel for her job.

Smeltzer says she isn't sure exactly where she will live for the next year, because of travel for work, although her home base is at her parents' house in Arkansas. "I've actually just moved stuff into storage," she says.

She says she can pay her bills on the $75,000 the firm will pay her to take the deferral until January 2011.

"It was worth the reduction in expected income to be able to have the opportunity to do something else, especially because I had worked before [and] really saw the value," she says.