Good Advice for Incoming Law Students,
from lawprof Brannon Denning (visiting at InstaPundit); I especially recommend items one and three.
UPDATE: Orin Kerr has just posted some of his own advice as well; I also recommend it.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Advice to Entering Law Students:
- Good Advice for Incoming Law Students,
#2 keeps me sane. Nothing like pounding out a heavy bench press to ease stress.
1) Find 2Ls (and the very elusive 3Ls) who share similar interests or goals and ask them what you shouldn't sweat about. Apart from the obvious, each law school has its own sets of hoops and obstacles that incoming students place way too much importance on (and stress way too much about).
2) Although you can sense this point within the penumbra of various of the points already made, I think it needs to be specific and independent: Make &keep company with people who have nothing to do with law school - it's amazing how much law school traps you in a specific way of thinking about things, and it's always nice to spend time with people who won't always be complaining about the same law school issues.
I had two professors who did not count class participation and who had used the same testbooks, in certain revisions, for several years. And, from review of their past exams on file in the library, you could see that they asked about essentially the same key concepts - with variations - every year. I never sat foot in those classes except for the exams and did very well.
Of course, requirements re class attendance vary from school to school and some are quite strict, so you have to keep that in mind.
Not going to those classes and not doing the daily prep for class saved me hundreds of hours that I could use for other things.
How would you recommend that students prepare for exams concerned with application given that they've spent the entire semester doing speculation? Just curious ...
It is not possible to overstate how important 1L grades are to your life. If you do not do well 1st year you cannot make it up 2L and 3L years -- it's too late by then. Your fate will have been sealed. Don't be afraid to trade those 9 months of your life for a future of limitless opportunities.
You don't get to pick classes during your first year but here are some tips for electives during the second and third year:
1. Take classes in subjects that will be on the bar exam. You don't have to treat law school as a three year bar prep course, but you don't want to have to learn corporations, wills + trusts, evidence, family law, criminal procedure and income tax (all heavily tested on bar exams) in a few days of barbri prep. Don't make studying for the bar exam ten times harder than it already is.
2. Avoid classes that sound like undergrad subjects (ie, feminist issues in the law, jurisprudence, legal history, etc) This is the correlary to the rule above. Law schools bristle at the notion that they are a vocational school, but they ARE a vocational school. If you really want to learn about ancient Japanese legal philosophy, then get a book from the library and read it in your spare time.
3. Don't take summer school classes - use this time to work, build connections and free your mind of the clutter of law school.
4. Take an advanced legal writing class (in addition to the introductory one you will be required to take) and complete a writing certificate program if your school offers it. Legal writing is highly technical and specialized and it is the most important skill a lawyer can have. Writing is what we do all day - pleadings, briefs, memos, contracts, patents, SEC fillings, correspondence. The days of the handshake deal and country lawyer speech are over.
5. If you don't have a job lined up or any career plans heading into your third year, try to take classes in subjects that have proven marketability - like worker's comp, bankruptcy, etc. to make the job searching process a little easier.
I spent the first summer in a summer law program at Oxford (sponsored by a US law school) and that was one of the best times of my life. My law school gave me credit for the classes but didn't count the grades in my average. So those who went to the sponsoring school studied day and night but those of us from other schools partied every night and went sightseeing on the weekends!
Don't worry about the bar. Consider it a completely separate test that you will have plenty of time to prepare for. In fact, bar prep is enough--that's where they'll teach you black-letter law the bar demands. Classes are about learning how to argue different sides of an issue and may actually get in the way.
Take classes like jurisprudence and history of law. There's a lot more to law than cases and statutes, and if you don't take advantage of the oppotunity to find these things out in law school you might not get another chance.
Legal writing is very important and many law schools require it. But don't overdo it. You're likely to spend your entire career doing it--that'll be plenty.
If one were entering a PhD program, that is the time to seek guidance. But in law school, students should just employ whatever strategies they used to succeed in their undergrad courses.
The only significant differences between law school and college are (1) cold-calling in law-school classes, but one quickly realizes that this bears no relationship to one's mastery of the material or performance on the exam; and (2) the lack of evaluated work during the term, quite like the British system. So that just requires special focus on the final exam.
The only special tip I would give to new 1Ls is to buy a commercial outline and consult it throughout the semester as you go through cases.
Basically, I think the mystique of law school is hyped up way too much.
I also did some non-law reading, but not as much as Prof. Denning appears to have done. When I reached the breaking point during my first year, I bought a book to read so I could get away for a short while. I looked at lots of books and finally settled on Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich -- a very short book by a great author. Of course, when I got home and started reading, I discovered that Ivan Ilyich was a lawyer.
I went from a glorified community college to a name-brand law school, and the strategies that got me a bachelor's degree summa cum laude just didn't work out once I hit law school.
I did a lot of volunteer/pro bono work to fill up my resume. I went to events and met people. I got with the program, perked up my grades, and I have a sweet summer associate position right now and a judicial clerkship lined up for next year. Everyone SHOULD nail their grades their first year, but if I had read JRL's post a year ago, I might have dropped out.
Insofar as advice goes, I'd have to say that BarBri's 1L program is pretty consistently wonderful. So I've heard, at least. I thought I was too smart to need any help.