Law Schools

Welcome To Law School, 1Ls: Try to Keep Your Wits About You

As you embark on this law school journey, remember it’s going to be a mental marathon.

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“There was a time America wouldn’t let us ball / Those times are now back, just now called Afro-tech / Generational wealth, that’s the key / My parents ain’t have shit, so that shift started with me.” — Jay Z

It seems like just yesterday we were compiling commencement address speeches. Now the first day of the fall semester quickly approaches us. A time to say goodbye to your old summer crews once again, and welcome the new 1Ls at your various law schools.

Last year’s 1Ls gave us plenty of reasons to be excited about law school. While those who just sat for last month’s bar exam may not be such Polyannas during this purgatory period for results. As my colleague Staci Zaretsky has written: Bar Exam Suicides Are Disturbingly Common Among Recent Law School Graduates.

Regardless of where you are in your law career journey, the state of your mental health should be actively cultivated and tended to daily. After all, the goal shouldn’t be to merely survive your legal career journey but to thrive in your pursuit of it. When life serves you lemonades, be like Beyoncé.

In a punishing profession, too many of us are paying the ultimate price. A few years ago, we wrote about Eilene Zimmerman, a Biglaw widow who is featured in the New York Times article, “The Lawyer, the Addict — A high-power Silicon Valley attorney dies. His ex-wife investigates, and finds a web of drug abuse in his profession,”

Just late last year, we covered Joanna Litt, an attorney and wife of Sidley Austin partner Gabe MacConaill, who penned an opinion piece for Law.com titled, ‘Big Law Killed My Husband’: An Open Letter From a Sidley Partner’s Widow.

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In Litt’s feature, I had the opportunity to speak with several experts on happiness, human nature, and mental health. Most notably, I had the chance to catch up with one of my favorite authors, Gretchen Rubin.

Through her research and scholarship, Rubin has emerged as one of the most interesting commentators on habits and happiness. A graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal and winner of the Edgar M. Cullen Prize, Rubin started her career in law. She clerked for Judge Pierre Leval and was clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized she really wanted to be a writer. Of everything she’s ever written, she says, her one-minute video, The Years Are Short, resonates most with people.

One excerpt from last year’s article specifically comes to mind:

Renwei Chung: Why do you think our profession is so prone to mental health issues?

Gretchen Rubin: There are many reasons, but I wonder if this is part of it: Many people who go to law school don’t necessarily want to become lawyers. I count myself in this group. I thought, “I’m good at research and writing, I can always change my mind later, it’s great preparation, it will keep my options open.”

In fact, law school prepares you very well to be a lawyer, and many people end up going into the legal profession even though they didn’t really intend to do so. Money and security play their part as well. In many other professions, it’s much less likely to be a default decision, so there’s a better fit between skill, interest, and expectations.

As you embark on this law school journey, remember it’s going to be a mental marathon. The rollercoaster of emotions you’ll feel in law school will be unlike any other experience you’ve ever had.

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To help deal with the impending existential crises of your legal education, here are Amal Clooney’s four bits of wisdom for law students and young lawyers. Here are other law school tips from some notable legal figures. And if the first semester happens to sucker punch you in the face, then sip some wine and rebound like Greg Popovich.

Please remember, with experiences like law school, it is easy to become one-track-minded and singularly focused. But it is important to regularly recognize people who have helped you achieve your personal success. And don’t ever become too busy to return your parents’ phone calls. They deserve to hear from you more often. In fact, call them right now and thank them for everything they’ve done for you.

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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