10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Law School

The truth is, you won’t be able to grasp what it’s like to be a law student until you start. You’re guaranteed a unique experience depending on what law school you attend, what your area of interest is, and the extracurriculars you choose to join. But I’m going to try to lay out the top 10 things I wish I knew before I started law school in a way that can apply to you, no matter where you go or what you’re interested in!

1. Good Things Take Time

If you’re reading this, you likely understand that law school is scary. Even if you’re not a law student, the way that law school is represented to everybody has that scary connotation to it. And so if you’re an incoming law student, it makes sense to be afraid. Are you wasting your time and money? Will you get a job? What if you fail? These are valid questions that even I asked myself before starting law school, but honestly, the hardest part is just starting.

It’s terrifying to not be able to tell the future, but if you look back on your life, you’ll likely recognize a pattern: good things take time, and they don’t necessarily come easy. Law school is an investment in yourself and your future. And while the return on that investment is impossible to quantify, you shouldn’t let that stop you from trying.

II. Your Interests Might Change

I came into law school knowing one thing: I care about public policy. I didn’t know if that meant I wanted to go into criminal defense, non-profit representation, immigration law, or one of the many other specialties that deal with public interest. But by keeping an open-mind and allowing myself to try different things, I found something that really challenges and intrigues me – consumer litigation. And I’m only going into my second year, so I’m still keeping my network wide and my interests broad in case I change my mind.

Let’s say you’re coming into law school and you don’t have any special interests. That’s more than okay, and honestly, you might be in a better position than you think. People who have an idea of who they are and what they like often will close themselves off to opportunities that could have really benefitted them. If you have no clue who you are (which, let’s be real, most of us don’t), you’re allowing yourself the possibility to try anything that comes your way. It’ll probably take some trial and error, but how cool is it that you can go into your practice later in life and know that you let yourself experience so many different things?

But if you come into law school knowing you want to be, say, a patent attorney, and you’ve wanted to be a patent attorney since you were 5 years old (that would be something!), and you put yourself on the path to pursue exactly that, I think that’s very cool too! To be so sure of your passion and where you want to go in life is not something many of us are able to experience, so take advantage of it. My one piece of advice is to keep the door open to other things, even if that means just cracking it. You never know where life will take you.

III. You Will Make Friends

It’s inevitable that if you are open to it, you will find people at your law school who become your friends, or at least close acquaintances. Being a law student is tough, so you’re honestly kinda forced to bond over the stress of it all.

I can’t speak for every law school, but in mine, all 1Ls were put into two sections: A and B. We spent the entire year with our section, in pretty much every class. Although it would have been nice to branch out and get to know some people better in the other section, it was also cool to go through a full year with the same people and become really close with them. By second semester, you’ll have found some people you at least mildly get along with and end up looking for them in every class. This doesn’t mean you have to go to happy hour with them or invite them over to watch a movie, but it’s nice to still have some sense of camaraderie with people at your school.

If you’re having a tough time making friends, join a student org that interests you. I’ve said it before, but one of the best ways to meet people is to participate in what you’re passionate about, because you’re almost guaranteed to find others who share those passions.

If you truly want to just show up every day, do your work, and head home with as minimal conversation with others as possible – you do you! I will say, however, who you go to law school with are likely to be people you’ll interact with throughout your career, so it doesn’t hurt to throw in a smile or a wave every now and again.

IV. You Are Not Your Grades

I won’t lie to you and say your grades don’t matter. They do. But your grades are not a reflection of you, your self worth, or your ability to be an amazing attorney. And depending on what kind of summer job you’re looking for or what area you want to practice in, they might barely matter. My job didn’t even ask me for a transcript! I got my interview solely because of the experience I had on my resume, which was mostly volunteer work. You’ll find where you belong no matter what your grades are.

The motto that I carried with me is one that I got from one of my favorite books, The Four Agreements. Of the four agreements that the author encourages you to live by throughout your life is “Always do your best.” That’s my favorite one. Because I know that as long as I am putting in my full effort and doing my absolute best, the outcome is never something I should worry about. Focus on what you can control, which is your study methods, your time management, and your commitment to being a law student. Everything else is out of your hands, so don’t be too tough on yourself. One professor might love the way you write and one might hate it. Do your best and then let it go.

If you have always wanted to go into Big Law, and you know you need stellar grades to get there, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to 2Ls or 3Ls who did well in a class you seem to struggle with. Talk to your professor. Go to office hours and ask exactly what your professor is looking for. People want to help you succeed, you just have to ask.

V. Cold Calls – They’re Real

I don’t know why, but I always thought cold calls were something exaggerated by the movies or TV shows about law school. Unfortunately, they’re not. Cold calls are a very real and very common part of law school, especially in your first year. But they don’t have to be as scary as everyone makes them out to be.

A lot of my professors made it clear who they intended to call on each day. One professor had a list he posted at the beginning of every class, one went row by row, and one would send an email in the days ahead. If you have professors who do this, cherish it, because not all of them do. Some will truly just look down at the seating chart, choose a name, and start firing the questions. There’s nothing like the immediate drop of your stomach the first time this happens to you, but if everyone else can get through it, so can you.

Get your readings done, have a good grasp on the general ideas of what you’ve been talking about recently in class, and you’ll be fine. Professors (usually) just want to see you give an honest effort – they aren’t looking for, nor do they expect, perfection.

VI. The Curve – What it Actually Means

I’m going to go much deeper on this in a later post, but it’s definitely worth touching on here, because it’s something I didn’t understand at all before starting law school. The simplest way for me to understand it was thinking about it like this:

You are in “competition” with everyone in your class. Your law school generally has a curve that they set, which means the average student will get that grade. For my school, our 1L classes are set to a B- curve. So, the majority of scores will be near that grade. This means that if you get an A, you’re pretty rare. Only a very small percentage of students in your class will get an A, because most will be somewhere near that B- curve.

I encourage you to take a look at this lengthier blog post by another author who explains it very well and uses the Bell Curve visual. Again, more to come on this later, but I for sure wanted to bring it up here!

VII. You Can Still Have a Social Life

It’s true! The summer before I started law school, I told all my friends who weren’t going to law school that I would probably be MIA until my first break. I was fully expecting to be head down in a book every waking hour of every day, but that wasn’t the case. I committed to a really well thought out time management schedule, and suddenly I had free time left and right! Sure, I had to book things I used to do spontaneously a week or two in advance, but that was honestly preferable to me.

Also, the people in your life worth keeping around are the people who support your goals and appreciate your effort. As long as you’re communicating with them about your schedule and actively trying to squeeze them in, they’ll be happy. And once you get into the swing of things, you’ll all get more comfortable with planning time to hang out and it’ll be so much easier.

I wouldn’t say allowing yourself to go to the bar every Friday and Saturday night and staying up until 3am is the best idea, but let yourself have fun! Law school is a lot, and you deserve to celebrate the small wins, even if it’s just that you made it through a really tough cold call. As always, find a balance. It’s not healthy to go on a bender every weekend, but it’s also not healthy to isolate yourself completely in hopes of achieving perfect grades.

VIII. Office Hours Are Your Friend

Some classes are going to be super hard for you to grasp. For me, it was Civil Procedure. I didn’t know anything about how to file a complaint, pleading standards, discovery rules, or the million other parts there are to the federal system, but I was committed to getting it. My professor had virtual office hours every Wednesday night, so every Wednesday night, I was there. I would take notes during class like usual, but make sure to highlight or underline whatever was giving me issues. Having one on one time with my professor allowed him to be able to explain it all really in depth, and I became pretty decent at civil procedure.

My law school doesn’t make 100% of your grade dependent on the final, which I know isn’t the case everywhere. But if you’re lucky enough to have a midterm, usually only worth like 15% or so, use that as a check-in point! If you did great, then cool – keep it up. If you didn’t, go to office hours!! Ask what you could have done better and identify where you struggle. Again, your professors want to see you succeed.

IX. Nobody Knows What They’re Doing

Nobody. Not the person who raises their hand every 15 seconds. Not the one who did great on the midterm. And not the one who already has a job lined up for the summer by September. Every single one of you are on a mission to do one thing: graduate law school. Whatever your plans or goals afterwards will vary, so why would you compare yourself to any person? All that will bring you is jealousy, stress, and distractions. Focus on your own journey and try not to get too caught up stalking everyone’s LinkedIn to see what they’re doing that you aren’t.

As I mentioned, your interests might change. And if yours don’t, I promise you that a ton of your classmates’ will. The whole purpose of law school is to further your education. To me, that is very cool. There’s no such thing as “mastery” when it comes to being a law student, that’s why we’re called students. Let yourself learn and dip your toes into anything that sounds exciting! That’s the whole point, at least for me.

X. If Not You, Then Who?

I was just speaking to a group of incoming law students earlier today. I was answering future 1Ls’ questions for a workshop, Navigating Public Interest, and one student asked about imposter syndrome. She wanted to know how we got over imposter syndrome while volunteering as first year law students. When it was my turn to speak, I told her the truth, which is that of course at first I was like, “who let me do this?” But after thinking about it more, it really comes down to: if not you, then who? If you don’t take on a project, then who will? If you don’t put in an application for that competitive job, then who will? There is absolutely no reason to count yourself out before other people can count you out. You deserve the same opportunities and the same success as everyone else who puts in the same effort – be confident in that.