A Conversation With My 1L Self

Follow my advice and your first year of law school will seem a lot less daunting. 

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with the collection of 1Ls I will be working with during their time at Vanderbilt — as I tell the students, our relationship will continue unless they transfer or I quit, neither of which are statistically likely.  This was my fourth time giving the introductory Career Services presentation; with the content becoming a bit more rote, when I looked out into the crowd of faces assembled before me, I could not help but have my mind wander for a second and think back to when I was in their position.

As I have mentioned before in this column, I spent my first year of law school at Northwestern Law and while I do not recall a specific CSO orientation — or for that matter, much interaction with Career Services in general during my year in Streeterville — I was still in the same position as my present Vanderbilt 1Ls, attempting to wrap my head around the sheer scope of law school while at the same time realizing in the back of my mind that I probably want to be employed by the time my three years are over.  More than a decade later, and with three-plus years at Vanderbilt under my belt, there is a litany of things I would share with my 24-year-old 1L self if I could go back in time.  And while I cannot actually go back in time, what is the point of having your own Above the Law column if you cannot trot out the time travel trope on occasion.  This is where I should make a Rick and Morty reference, but at the risk of alienating my entire under-30 readership, I have seen part of one episode.  So instead, let’s stick with the classic of the genre.

Hello 1L Nick, I am you from the future. 2018, to be exact.  Try not to get too caught up in the time travel details, we do not want to be here all day making diagrams out of straws.

I can tell you that 2018 is a . . . confusing time.  Bill Cosby is in prison for sexual assault and Donald Trump is in the White House.  Bet you did not see that coming.  To be fair, the latter threw most of us for a loop as well.  Anyway, I am here now because I know how confusing and daunting the first year of law school is and I wanted to teach you some lessons now, so you do not have to learn them the hard way later on.  To answer what I know is the most pressing question you have right now, no, it is not going to get any warmer here in Chicago between now and May.  And you might see the sun like three more times.

First things first, let us talk about academics.  Initially, understand that the grading system in here in law school is completely different from what you experienced in college or graduate school.  For the most part, the entirety of your grade in a class will depend on the final exam.  No quizzes, or class participation, or papers where you can use rhetorical flourishes to your advantage.  Everything boils down to that one exam.  Take it seriously.  I know you are hesitant to join a study group.  Studying on your own has gotten you this far, why change now?  That is a mistake.  This is not Literary Tragedy, the Anthropology of Popular Culture, or U.S. Nuclear Policy.  Trying to comprehend the entirety of Torts is too much for you to tackle on your own (btw, you are still going to struggle with Torts regardless).  Plus, not only are they going to help you do well on your exams, but you are really going to like the other three people in your study group.

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Second, grades are exceedingly important to securing the big firm job that drew you to law school in the first place.  Unlike the hiring process for the non-profit jobs you have worked at in the past, law firms want to know that you can excel as an attorney, and the primary way they can determine that, as of now, is based on your grades and using that to project your future performance.  Yes, you will get a chance to show off your interview ability at a point during the job search, but without the grades, you will find it hard to get your foot in the door.  A simple piece of advice that you are going to share with a number of law students in the future is that there exists an inverse relationship between grades and the amount of work you have to put in to securing a legal job.  The better your grades now, the less work you will have to put in later.

Next, capitalize on strong grades early on in your law school career.  Surprise!  You are going to make Dean’s List in your first semester.

Take advantage of this academic performance and try to secure position for the summer after 1L as early as possible.  Law firms are always scouting for top talent early in their law school career.  Reach out to as many of them as you can and see if you can lineup some interviews in January or February.  And since you are open to a range of geographic markets, make your outreach as broad as possible.  Firms in your time will not be as aggressive in the 1L hiring market as they are in 2018, but that does not mean there are no opportunities, you just have to look for them.  Make sure you take advantage of all the opportunities Northwestern provides including 1L OCI.  Landing a firm job 1L summer will not only give you valuable experience, but it will provide you with a nice salary, which is important because while all that student loan money feels almost fake at this point, I am here to tell you it is very real and will very really have to be paid off.  If you were starting your law school career in 2018, I would tell you to capitalize on strong 1L grades and land a judicial clerkship as early as you can, since the hiring plan is not nearly as strictly enforced as it is in your time.  Alas, you are a bit out of luck on this one and will have to sit tight until 3L to apply.

Next, get a bit more involved in activities outside of the classroom.  Yes, joining the American Constitution Society on Day 3 of school was fantastic idea and your being deeply involved in the organization will help you land a job in the Washington, D.C., office once your time in Biglaw comes to a close.  But there are other ways to involve yourself in the world of Northwestern.  Join some other organizations.  Get active in a few of them.  Legal employers not only want to see that you can excel in the classroom, but that you can do so while taking on external, non-academic, responsibilities.  Plus, it will give you something to break the seemingly endless cycle of studying, napping, and eating those skillets at West Egg Cafe.

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Get to know as many of your classmates as you can.  No, you do not have to be the guy from freshman year of college who introduced himself to every single person in the dorm on move-in day.  But that does not mean you cannot befriend those with whom you are sharing this once in a lifetime experience of law school.  And I do not just mean your sectionmates.  You are going to spend enough time with that portion of the class that you will feel as if you know all of them intimately by years end.  Get to know those outside of your section as well.  Your classmates are going to hold an array of positions in, and out of, the legal world including Biglaw partners, solo practitioners, and even a novelist thrown into the mix.  Not only will more connections now help you with job searches in the future, but it also makes the law school experience itself more enjoyable.  But while you want to get to know a wide swath of your classmates, you do not need to go to every bar review there, Bart O’Kavanaugh (that reference will make a lot more sense in 2018).  There is not a prize for perfect attendance, you are not at UVA Law.

The last piece of advice I will give you is so simple I can condense it to a single word, listen.

You probably think armed with your graduate degree and D.C. work experience that you have everything figured out.  I am here to tell you that is not the case.  Law school and the world of legal employment is unlike anything you have experienced to date.  So when someone from the law school, be it a 2L/3L, a member of the faculty, or someone on staff, tries to tell you something about a particular job opening or what classes to avoid, listen to what they have to say.  These are people who are trying to help you and want to see you excel.

So there you have it 1L me.  Follow my advice and your first year of law school will seem a lot less daunting.  I need to get back to 2018 so I can watch the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hold a hearing as to whether or not Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court committed sexual assault on multiple occasions.  Like I said, it is a confusing time.


Nicholas Alexiou is the Director of LL.M. and Alumni Advising as well as the Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt University Law School. He will, hopefully, respond to your emails at abovethelawcso@gmail.com.