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Hey 1Ls! Welcome to law school! We are excited to see you! You can tell by my use of exclamation points!
There is lots of advice out there. Just looking at Above the Law, I have estimated I’ve written nearly 3 billion advice columns about being a 1L. So, what I’m going to try to do today is to summarize all that great advice.
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1. Don’t do drama. There are so many paranoid distractions in law school you might be inclined to invest in one or many of them. Ask yourself this: Is it bringing you closer to your goal? Or is it a distraction from your goal? Are you succumbing to your inner demons? Chances are, if you are giving in to your Dark Side of the Force, it is because you’re insecure, and your classmates might be, too.
2. Don’t take shortcuts. If you take shortcuts now, you’ll take shortcuts later. Not reading cases carefully, relying on canned briefs, and the like will mean that you don’t understand the cases fully. 2Ls will tell you they do it all the time. Those who do take shortcuts are easy to spot. I know, because when I call on them class they don’t know the answer to any question I ask. You see, professors read the canned briefs too, quite often.
3. Write or type, but choose consciously. That in large part will depend on your professor’s requirements, but consider both sides of the argument if you have choices. Understand that it is a hotly debated issue in law school. And what works for others may not work for you and vice versa.
4. Keep a schedule. No, seriously, keep a schedule! Schedule time for goofing off, for family, for exercise, for play, and for studying (broken down by course). Remember that time is not fungible. Afternoon hours at the end of the day are NOT the same as hours in the morning when your brain is fresh.
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5. Cherish your mental health. If you came into law school with particular challenges, and we all have, then now is the time to address them. Law schools are finally getting savvier about mental health. And so is the ABA. There are resources. Use them. Your education in law school doesn’t have to be limited to learning the law. Mental Health Day is October 10th. But let us make it a daily thought.
6. You pay the overhead for the place. That means you should avail yourself of faculty office hours. We are there for your convenience, not our own. That doesn’t mean you ask questions that are answered on the syllabus, but if have struggled with a problem or a question, and you’re still not getting it, come visit us during office hours. If your faculty member treats you like you don’t belong, realize that is not on you. It means they aren’t doing their jobs.
7. Your peers and professors won’t remember, but you will. You are the only person who will ever remember what you said when you were on call. I still remember something boneheaded I said back in 1997. Then again, I remember a boneheaded thing I did in kindergarten. But no one else remembers. Only me. And so it is during class. Even if you THINK you said the most boneheaded thing in the world, chances are you’re being harder on yourself than your professor is. We can’t remember what you said. Now, if you were a fellow faculty member, we could remember some stupid stuff you said back in 1972.
8. Read. Think. Then ask. Sometimes reading is the fastest way to an answer. You don’t know how many times faculty members have had to reply with something from the syllabus, which we sometimes passive-aggressively blockquote.
9. Strive to learn and master the material. You can control how you learn and process material. You cannot control your grades. Now, let me be clear that there are some things you can do to improve your grades, but much of that has to do with mastery of the material. The rest has to do with a secret about law school, which I’ll call #10.
10. Engage your professors. Your professors have a variety of different experiences. Some have had practice experience. Some have not. Hopefully, your faculty members will have gone to more than just one of three schools. The wealth of experiences means that your finals are not likely to be graded the same way. Thus, it’s important to ask about what each professor values in a good exam. Much like judges you’ll encounter in practice, the answers will not be completely uniform, although there will be some degree of overlap.
Most importantly, remember legal education is a process. It is one that requires patience. That means being patient with yourself, too.
Good luck to all of you.
LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here. He is way funnier on social media, he claims. Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at [email protected].