Law Students

Advice for Prospective Law Students

By Casebook Sherpa

Last week, we had a prospective law student sit in on one of our classes. It made me think of what advice we here at FTH (contributors and readers) have for prospective law students. What would you say?

For my part, I thought of:

Watch the movie, The Paper Chase. I may be alone here, but I really think it captures a part of law school you need to learn to deal with - it messes with your head and challenges your ego.

Go full-time if you can. I think there are a lot of advantages to the evening program, but it often strikes me as causing more headaches than it solves. Go full-time, sprinkle in some part-time gigs, and get done in three years. You’ll thank me for it and I’ll learn to live with FOUR YEARS of this crap.

Don’t be an ass. Yes, law school is competitive. It helps if you’re competitive too and can tolerate competitive people. But don’t be an ass about it. Law school will be much better if you learn to help others, study together, and form lasting friendships. Do your best, of course. But not at the expense of treating other people with respect. In other words, if someone misses class, share your notes. Don’t hide books in the library. You get the idea…

Be patient. That student in class who seems to have all the answers (and is eager to show everyone he has all the answers) probably won’t come exam time. Learn what you need to study effectively. Realize you don’t have all the answers… yet. Take exam-prep courses and writing workshops… or whatever you think you need to be an effective exam-taker and be patient in your preparation.

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on February 02, 2009 (boomark / email).