Before entering law school, it seemed to me like everyone around me had an opinion of what to do and not to do to be successful in law school. "Join this club," "ace research and writing," "ace civil procedure," "you have to join law review," "you have to join moot court," etc. It seemed to me as if there was some rigid formula you could follow for automatic success in law school. Once I entered law school, and reflecting on my experience with it as a 3L, I've become adamant that there is no "right way" to do law school or certain steps everyone can follow to be successful. Instead, I think that law school above all else is an investment, and how successful one's investment is really depends on what you set as your goal following law school.
Thinking about law school in this way, it becomes just a little less stress inducing. You have the power to define your own goal from law school, and then figure out what needs to be done to achieve this goal. Depending on what that goal is, certain "must haves" in law can become fundamental, but also completely irrelevant depending on what you are hoping to achieve from your law school experience. That being said, the main piece of advice I'd give to someone entering law school is to figure out what they want from it. Once that is done, figure out what you need to do in law school to meet that goal. In that process, there is no "right way" to do law school, but one way that works for you. That being said, never compare yourself to others while in law school, their goal could be entirely different from yours, just focus on yourself and what you need to do to meet your own goal.
At the end of the day, I don't believe there's a magic formula for success in law school everyone can follow. I believe this formula has to be crafted by the individual student based on what they want from it. Learning this early on can be liberating for a law student because it keeps one focused on their own goals and not distracted by what others are doing or pressure to emulate it because it's the "right way" to do law school. You define your own way.
I totally agree, John. I think this is something that should be told to every incoming law student. There is so much talk about what you "should do" during your law school career, but ultimately you have to find your own path. Congrats on almost being done!!
ReplyDeleteJohn, I liked that you said the best advice is to do things in law school that meet your goals for coming here to begin with. During 1L year, there are a lot of options and it can get overwhelming in deciding which ones to choose, especially when you have no idea what most of the things are. The advice in your post is also helpful just in general that way we can be more intentional about what we do particularly as professionals.
ReplyDeleteToo few incoming law students understand what the practice of law is really like. Too many think most lawyers practice in large firms doing corporate work. In fact, less than 1% of U.S. lawyers work in firms of more than 100 lawyers. About 80% work in solo and small (10 or fewer lawyers) firms.
ReplyDeleteIf incoming law students played the odds and realized they will likely work in a solo or small firm setting, it might take much of the pressure off. In that setting, GPA, class rank, law review membership, etc., are not very important. What really matters is developing so-called "soft skills" to relate to others, graduating with as little debt as possible, and passing the Bar exam.
I think this holds a lot of truth. If competitions, clubs, or law reviews arent an interest for you or other reasons, theres no point to force it onto yourself just to be a "good law student." That is because a lot of those extra rigorous things you put yourself through during the semester could have made classes and the experience more stressful and additionally, the accolades will pretty much be meaningless a couple years down the road.
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