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morethanonepage · 7 years

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hi, i don't want to be a bother but i just found out i got into law school (somehow) and i don't really know what to do?? so if you have any tips or something i would be really grateful tbh

OMG friend that’s so great! Congratulations and no worries, I love answering questions about this!

Okay first off enjoy your summer because it’s probably the last free(ish) one you’re going to have for a while – hang out with your friends, go out, relax, get into a headspace where you’re sure you want to do this and you’re sure what your giving up time wise for the next couple of years (potentially). Also, try and come up with a good elevator pitch (like, one or two sentences) answer for “why did you decide to come to law school?” Because ISTG you will be answering that question for the rest of your life: I’m two years out and my dentist literally asked me it last Friday. It’s also going to be the primary ice breaker for any like seminar/legal writing class you’re mandated to take (like, “Say your name, where you’re from, and why you decided to come to law school” round robin stuff), so it’s good to have at least An Answer beyond ‘idk I’m an English major but I couldn’t get work just with that degree’, even if it’s not the answer you stick with the rest of your law school career.

The culture of all law schools is different (mine was super liberal loosey-goosey without class ranking and minimal competition) but it’s good to get a sense of it before you even start, just so you’re prepared: if you can get in contact with a student who’s already been through a few years (I’d suggest a 2 or 3L over someone who’s just completed one year, b/c they’ll have a little more perspective at that point) and ask just like…how competitive are people with each other? are there class rankings? are grades curved? (this can be positive or negative depending on where you fall on the curve lmao).

Older students are also really good at giving you the dish on professors (but always take stuff with a grain of salt: I had professors that I just personally didn’t click with that everyone else loved and vice versa. Like everything else sometimes it is genuinely down to chemistry (also some professors are GREAT in small 20 people seminars but if you get them for a big foundational class like Contracts they are….less so.) But at least you’ll get a sense of what expectations are and what Hot Tips people might have (like, whether they’re particular sticklers for attendance or whatever – some law school professors dgaf because they assume you’re adults and if you’re missing class that’s your problem, but since it is your problem they’re not going to be super helpful later on if you have like questions for the exam that would’ve been answered if you’d gone to class).

Get to know your Student Affairs Office: they have a vested interest in helping you out and they’re never as busy as they want to be. Like it’s not out of the goodness of their hearts (well, sometimes), they want you to get through law school and graduate and get a good job, because that helps with rankings and looks good on brochures and stuff. Use the fact that law school applications are down right now: people in the administration want the school to look good and the classes to look good, they don’t want crazy attrition rates, they want to help you out as much as they can. Different schools provide different levels of support but use as much as you can: get the email address for Student Affairs and ask them to put you in contact with older students, if there’s some sort of mentorship program at least try it out once and see how you feel about it, if there’s a writing center try to take at least one paper to them to see if you get anything out of it. It’s never too soon to start thinking about your summer internships so go in to the Career Service Center and see what they suggest.

A major law school downside for me was that, no matter what people told you about how you could do ~almost anything~ with a law degree, and that you can figure things out as you go along, for most career paths you really have to get a super early start and practically certain of what you want to do right away. Or at least, it’s a lot easier if you do: I didn’t. I came in with the vague idea of I Want To Help People (And This Seems The Way To Do It) but I had no idea what path to take and it took some floundering and a lot of classes that ended up being not super helpful to my future plans to at least get a real sense of my strengths, and after that I just kind of bumbled into things. Eventually I was lucky enough to get a job, but it took almost two years from graduating, and my friends who came in knowing and who started building their skill set for that specific goal from year one were way more successful right away. So if you know you want to be a certain type of lawyer – like, you KNOW you want to do family law, or corporate law, or whatever – then start planing both your electives (this won’t really be a thing till 2L but at least have them in mind) and, in some ways more importantly, your summer internships. That’s where stuff really happens: law school teaches you a lot of things but an internship helps you make professional and personal connections in the job market that are invaluable once you graduate, and it’s best to start that early.

The usual format for law school classes (in the first year anyway) is: you do a ton of reading, you take a lot of notes, you go to class and get called on and have to answer questions with at least some indication you did the reading, and then what you’re mostly graded on is two exams: the midterm and the final. There’s almost no other assignments, so you really have to be prepared for the midterms and the finals. Some professors care more about participation than others and give you a few points on that – I know the temptation to just shut up & not participate until they call on you is significant (because what if you get something wrong! everyone will hear and mock you!) but for the most part if you answer a question earnestly and honestly wrong (as opposed to, because you didn’t bother to do the reading) you won’t get yelled at. They might be a little condescending about why you’re wrong but – you’re in the legal profession now, you’ve basically signed up to be condescended to (sometimes more kindly than others) for the rest of your life. It’s one of those things you’ve got to get used to.

There’s this weird culture in law school that kind of shames people for answering questions voluntarily and like, going up to the professor after class to ask questions? People get called gunners or podium rushers like – how dare they try hard? Anyway, it’s bullshit: you’re not showing people up, you’re doing the work and learning the way you learn. Don’t let people shame your process, whatever it is. And professors like it when people answer and ask questions – it shows you’re engaged with the material. Like, in my 2L year I raised my hand to answer a question on the first day of a huge (like, 100+ person) lecture hall class and the next class the professor came up to me to ask my name and I became like the go-to person to answer questions in that class. And like two years, I got the job I got (the amazing, perfect job I love and which fills my actual skill set and interests to a t) because that professor took an interest in me. You never know when things are going to pan out but it’s better to have a professor in your corner than be in the ~cool group~ in law school. Like dudes, its law school, you’re all fucking dorks, get over yourselves.

In general law students (and from my limited experience, lawyers) can be really cliquey and catty: partly it’s just stress (we’re all there all the time and personalities are amplified and everyone’s mad or anxious or both) but for whatever reason: there can be a lot of interpersonal drama. It’s easy to say ‘just rise above it’ and obviously a lot harder to do but: just don’t take it too seriously. You’re there to learn & make connections. Try to be friendly with everyone but if there’s people you don’t like or who are always starting shit for no reason, it makes sense to avoid them.

People not in law school don’t know shit about law school. Your non-law school friends & family will ask you dumb questions (‘what are you majoring in??’ is the most common) and won’t 100% understand the time constraints & pressure you’re under. It’s best to accept that early and not expect them to get it – accept also that you will be kind of insufferable about ALL the WORK you’re doing and HOW much STRESS you’re under – like, it’ll be true, but that’s also not super interesting to your friends, who haven’t seen you in weeks, and just want to talk to you about stuff you have in common.

This is why, btw, you make friends in law school with people you would otherwise have nothing in common with: you suddenly DO have something in common, and it’s all the work you’re doing and how tired you are and how you don’t even know if you want to be a lawyer anymore. Everyone feels that in law school at some point – it passes and it’s good to have comrades in arms to talk to about it & feel it with. Making friends is hard for me (I’m not very open) but I’ve never made friends more easily than in law school. So it’s important, even despite all the work you’re doing, to take the time and do social events – at my school the law review had a happy hour every start of the semester, other clubs did fundraisers and stuff. With the time constraints it can be tough but it’s important to at least consider joining those things – not because it’ll look good on your resume (though it will) but also they’re good places to find like-minded people to build connections with.

Okay, the time constraints: yeah, law school is hard. It’s a lot of work. The adage goes something like, in 1L they scare you to death, 2L the work you to death, 3L they bore you to death. But I promise you, you will have time for a life: I read all of Les Mis and Lord of the Rings my 1L year. I participated in fandom. I spent too much time on tumblr. I went out to bars with friends (drinking culture is strong among the legal profession & addiction rates are high so be careful, but you can definitely still enjoy yourself if you do drink – and if you don’t people DO tend to accept that. Like, it’s law school – we’re adults, we know people can have problems with drinking, it’s fine). It’s important to live and build connections and friendships in spite of the course load – it makes the course load bearable. Law school is tough and you don’t want to do it alone.

1L is basic law stuff that’s foundational for everything else: Contracts (usually two semesters), Criminal, Torts, Constitutional, and Civil Procedure. 2L you have a little more freedom and can pick a few more electives; 3L you basically pick up what you want/think will help with your career path, and you can do a clinic. YOU SHOULD DO A CLINIC. Both for the experience (getting used to helping clients one on one but in a controlled environment and usually only one or two per semester) and to be able to ~give back. Law school is a privilege not everyone is afforded and I don’t believe every lawyer who doesn’t go into public interest is a dick it anything, but if you don’t at least try and give a little back while you can, then I am a little judgey. Also during 3L, you’ve got the joy of bar prep, where my advice is: START EARLY. Do as many practice questions as you can. Do as many practice essays as you can. The Bar Exam is terrifying and exhausting (I failed it the first time) but it’s doable. Even if you do fail the first time it’ll be okay -- you can take it again, you can still get a job after, people won’t care.

They tell you not to work in 1L year and I am going to say that’s accurate: i had a friend who did work part time and managed it, and I know financial constraints are an issue. But if you can get away with not working (student loans, etc) then do it. I know it’s stressful to incur that debt but you want to give yourself your best chance since you’re paying the money anyway and that is the best chance: give yourself the time to work and concentrate and learn. 2L and 3L year you can maybe give a part time job a try, though ideally you can find a paying internship and go from there.

A general note on studying: learn how to do it right. There’s people who get into law school because they’re hard workers and did All The Right Things in undergrad and they already know what works best for them when they need to study. And then there’s the people who are smart enough to have managed to BS their way through undergrad and still do well enough on LSATs and other tests because of innate ability. It’s a lot harder to BS your way through law school – not going to say impossible because some people are that smart but GENERALLY: you need to know to best retain information for your own use later, you need to learn to take notes, you need to learn how to read case law. They’ll usually do some sort of seminar first year to help you out on stuff like legal writing and research and how to ~brief a case~ (like, knowing the participants, the holding, the facts of the case, etc, etc). Those seminars feel like a joke and sometimes they can be but try and get the most out of them: everyone learns differently but usually you get some good pointers on how to do law school that are specific to the school and the classes you’re taking and that can help a lot. Other tips that I think are universally applicable:

PRACTICE EXAMS. If the professor is giving you old exam questions to study from, do them. If the professor isn’t giving you old exam questions, ask for them. The more practice on the format you’re actually going to be presented with you can do, the better. It took me SO LONG to learn how valuable that was but the truth is there’s only so many ways you can be tested on certain topics, and there’s no better feeling than walking into an exam and being like ‘oh yeah! That’s just like that question I did a week ago while studying!’

READING. Do it. I know it’s a lot. At one point you’ll learn to skim and keep an eye out for the Important Stuff. And there’s always websites that’ll summarize the holdings for you. But remember: your professors know that too. They want you to do the reading for a reason and it’s not just so you can read the headnotes. Professors also love asking things about footnotes, especially on exams -- sometimes they’re just more citations to other cases but SOMETIMES they’re like interesting historical or policy notes that are actually important to better understanding of the law, so. DO THE READING.

WRITING. If you were a liberal arts major, you’re at a disadvantage when it comes to law school writing -- it’s an entirely different skill. English majors are supposed to have opinions on things and bring their own take to a text: in law school, it’s not about you or your #HotTake. It’s about what’s in the law and what you can do with it based on 200+ years of precedent. But at least at first you’re stealing borrowing theories and analysis from other legal scholars or established attorneys -- no one wants to hear your opinion unless you can back it up with three sources. So, it’s hard to adjust but the quicker you learn to stop fighting it the better. There’ll be time to be creative later in your career: 1L year is not the time nor the place.

OUTLINES are a classic Law School Thing: condensing a semester’s worth of doctrine into one or two pages is difficult and they sell ones for major topics like Contracts, but honestly the best ones are ones you make yourself. Some people like to do study groups -- I didn’t trust other people enough to make it worth it for me (I mean, I believe in being part of the social circles for emotional support but academically I’m still and always going to be loner) but if you do work well with groups, try that as well: you can divide up sections of the course to outline just like they do in Legally Blonde! It’s very cool stuff.

FLASHCARDS don’t work for everyone intuitively but so much bar prep material comes in that format that I think it makes sense to at least give them a try for basic doctrinal stuff. I used this app called Studyblue during bar prep, which I wish I’d discovered sooner: it’s all digital, you can cut and paste parts of your outline/notes, you can sort them by classes and topics, you can download them to your phone and practice on the subway or whatever, it creates multiple choice quizzes for you. AND what’s super cool (for me) is that if you put in your school name, you can see previous flashcards from other students who’ve used the app and sometimes you can use their cards too (and vice versa obviously).

GO OVER YOUR EXAMS. This was especially brutal for me because I hate acknowledging my mistakes (as we all do) BUT I swear to god this is one of the most useful tools for law school success. Once you take a test (quiz, exam, whatever) go over the professor’s comments on it -- even if it’s a final, email your professor and ask to come in and go over it with them. Figure out what you did wrong and why -- did you not understand the doctrine, did you run out of time, did you freak out because of the pressure, whatever. It makes it easier to prepare against those problems in the future. Also professors love it when you do this crap: like they write stuff on all exams and most students never bother to find out what they got wrong, so I think a lot of them feel it was a waste of time. SHOW THEM THEY’RE NOT WASTING THEIR TIME.

Law school isn’t for everybody. I know this is a dumb thing to throw out at the very end of ALL THIS STUFF I wrote but -- it really isn’t. This is why I discourage people who aren’t at least 95% sure they want to go to law school from going: there were times in school where I was utterly miserable and sick of it and I wanted to be there, like really really wanted to. Being a lawyer can be a great thing but even if you finish law school, it might not be for you. But there’s no, like, point of no return: if you get through the year and you decide you don’t like it, you can leave. If you fail out the first year, it probably wasn’t meant to be. There is absolutely no shame in that. It can be a terrible, stressful, competitive atmosphere but you can learn a lot and meet great people and you come out of it with a post grad degree and an amazing set of skills.

Like, I know this is a lot, but I had a really hard time in law school and I don’t want other people to have to go through that. I’m one of those people who mostly BS’d my way through undergrad on charm and certain innate abilities. I have an anxiety disorder -- I had to leave school for a couple of weeks because of severe panic attacks. I failed the bar the first time I took it, I didn’t make like amazing grades, I thought for the longest time that I wouldn’t be able to do anything as a lawyer if I couldn’t even take care of myself in law school without having a breakdown. But with the help of professors and friends and family and my own certainty that I wanted to do this and be there, I got through it. And honestly, I swear to god, If i can, anyone can. And if you have any questions once you start, let me know! I’ll try to keep it down to five points at most next time, lmao.

Oh also people suggested I read One L when I was starting out so I supposed I should pass that recommendation on to you, if for nothing else than to see how much has changed about being a law student (and how much hasn’t).

#anonymous #lawyered #anon i'm sorry this was so much! I don't want to stress you out!#it'll be fine! you'll have fun and be tired and grow as a person and learn so much!#congratulations and good luck!#let me know if you need any other advice more specifically!#longpost

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