Law Students

Today is the last day of law school. As I wandered around the empty building, my back seemed to weigh more and more. It is not quite time to sell my law books yet, at least not after my last final exam is finished. I still have Westlaw print outs littering my floor. Those probably will not be thrown out for another 1-1/2 weeks or so. The message I am constantly reminding myself yet is that it is not quiet over until the finals are done.

But the classes are definitely over. I will never sit in another law class lecture with all of my classmates again. On the very first day of law school the professor asked us a question that stumped me for three years. To this question, “Why are you in law school”, I still have no answer that would satisfy this particular professor, but I can tell you what I have learned about law school and why this three year journey forever changed my life.

Law school is essentially a vigorous training program designed to challenge your physical, social, cultural, intellectual ability. It is a test of endurance that exerts constant pressure to make sure you will eventually develop an automatic mechanism to “think” like a lawyer. The changes are subtle enough that you will not sense it until you compare yourself months after the day you started law school.

You will learn to make connections between concepts and facts. Little things that never stood out suddenly become the center of your attention. You will become superstitious, obsessive, compulsive, and competitive. If you already possess some of the above traits, law school will exacerbate them. Just as law school brings out the worst in you, it will also brings out the best in you.

Some people in law school will be decent, hardworking folks. Others will not. You will learn to distinguish who are the people you can count on, and with who you cannot work. The vigorousness of the curriculum will test your patience, chip away your confidence, and make you feel like a complete fool from time to time. Everything is predictable, yet nothing is predictable.

If I sound like a Buddhist philosopher, it is because that is how law school has been like for me. I cannot fully explain what law school is like because the details are different for everyone. You will not believe what law school experience is like until you have tasted it yourself.

The strangest thing of it all is that I do not regret this decision to go to law school. I probably would not want to do it all over again because — who am I kidding — law school is so intense that it is deservingly an once-in-your-lifetime experience. It is great relief and incredulity that I announce…

“NO MORE LAW SCHOOL CLASSES”