Two Rules For Less Stress and Worry in Your First Year of Law School

November 26, 2006 by Michael Law
Filed under: 1L, Law Students

I have two basic rules for getting through the first year of law school with as little stress and worry as possible:

If you know 100% that you want to be a lawyer and hate school, then by all means, focus on the job search. Involve yourself with internships, clinics, practicums, etc. But if you find that you enjoy learning about the law, questioning things, figuring out the nooks and cranies of something that is mind-bogglingly complex, then don’t let jobs, employers, and especially the law school administration tear you away from that.

If it feels good, do it.
If it feels wrong, stop and think about it.

The first rule does not mean give into every little bit of pleasure that comes your way. It means that if your gut is saying what you’re doing is the right thing, it’s much more likely to be right than the nagging voice of worry in your head. If deep down you feel like joining a study group would be worthless but the little worrying Spidey-Sense we all have is tingling, tell it to shut up.

The second rule means that if you are doing something, and it’s satisfying the little voice but your gut doesn’t seem to like it, step back. For instance, you’ve been slaving over an outline, based on what a professor says your outline should look like, but your gut keeps telling you “Every time we go over this again, you can’t remember anything. You’re not learning.” The little voice is probably saying “Yes, exactly what the professor said. More work!” Trust your gut. Stop working on it. Review it, and ask yourself how you can change what you’re doing to learn better.

Remember this at all times, especially in the beginning: you’re very successful. About 1% of Americans will get any type of professional degree. If you’re in law school, you have excelled in school for at least 16 years (assuming you didn’t skip grades). Law school is not fundamentally different from other types of school. Do not get suckered into thinking you need to start over and rethink everything you’ve ever done. Do not reinvent the wheel unless you’re 100% positive that it’s broken. Law school is harder than college, and the work is different, but at the end of the day, it’s still school. If you never took notes in class, and preferred to just sit there and listen, just writing a couple things down over the course of an hour lecture, do not let the constant typing in a law school classroom get to you. It is true that very few people’s study habits in law school are “good enough.” But that refers to quantity much more than quality. “Not good enough” does not mean “wrong.” Some people do have terrible study habits, and will need to change what they were doing. You can be successful in school using smoke and mirrors. I should know, I did it for a long time. Luckily for me, high school was the wake-up call, long before law school. But don’t let people trick you into thinking that your past experience means nothing once you step into a law school. It’s true, you won’t know what you’re doing or how to do it, but you’re a lot closer than you think.

All of this holds true for exams. I read Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams and found it very helpful. As always, your results may vary. Law school exams will likely be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before. But that difference comes from the details, not the core. At it’s core, law school is an essay test. If you have natural test taking talent, it does not say “A law school exam? No way chief, I’m outta here.” If you’re good at essay tests, you will have a slight advantage. If you’re terrible at essay tests, you have a little challenge.

Enjoy these three years. Law schools put so much focus on the next seven years of your life after you leave the law school that the three years of legal education get lost in the shuffle. If you’re applying to law school, you’ve probably heard about the couped-up, prison-inmate feeling that a lot of 3Ls have. I personally believe that the law schools themselves are more responsible for this than anyone. A lot of people say employers are pulling students out of the school too soon, but I disagree. Law schools are shoving them out with as much force as they can. [The] point here is that you should enjoy the learning as much as you enjoy the training.

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