So You're Going to Law School...

Moderator Note (Andy): in honor of jdoasis.com's big relaunch today, here is a syndication from one of their most popular posts of late:

"Ninety percent of you bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young minds will not end up in the top ten percent of your law school class."

These words still resound in my head from the whirlwind of excitement, anxiety, and fear that was my 1L orientation in August of 2011. While certainly true, these words, proffered by a corporate law professor at my state law school, were a bit off-putting to me at the time. Primarily because of the stinging reality to them--and the attendant realization that high-paying megafirm work would not drop daintily into our laps just because we had scored decently well on the LSAT.

[At my law school, which is located in a secondary legal market that was hit particularly hard by the credit crunch, only students in the top 10-15% of the class will have a look at lavish summer associate positions and lucrative corporate firm work. And trust me, a lot more than 10-15% of the class wants these jobs.]

Even the most aloof JDO monkeys out there could pick up a copy of the Wall Street Journal and surmise that law school is barely a coinflip for gainful employment.

[And that’s using the term “gainful” loosely, as many schools commonly pay nominal stipends to newly-minted J.D.’s for their “services” as “research assistants”...which probably means they are getting paid to study for the bar and be counted as “Employed!” on the 9-month employment surveys.]

But I digress. The law school job market is the subject of considerable discussion on this website and others, almost all of which is conducted by people smarter than I am. And it certainly does not help all you over-eager and litigious monkeys out there who you are about to find yourself where I was a year ago: accepted in law school and sitting through a first-year orientation of your own. All this rabble about the economy and law firms imploding has no relevance to you any more. You’ve already buckled up and hit the gas pedal. You're going to law school. Damn the torpedoes of the Greek economy and that puny little financial "crisis".

So you’re going to law school... You’ve taken the plunge. You don’t care about the job market; perhaps it has always been your dream to be an attorney. Whatever your noble cause may be, one thing is important to remember: your first year grades will determine a lot about your professional career. All that needs to be on your mind now is acing your 1L courses and performing to your peak ability in the classroom.

Now I know the kinds of personalities law school attracts: over-achievers/Type A/gunners/etc. Primates are ambitious by nature. You may be curious to know if there’s anything you can do during the summer before law school starts to get a competitive edge on the curve. Most professors, law students, and attorneys themselves will tell you that there isn’t.

This is the biggest load of garbage I have ever heard. You DO have control over whether you end up making $3,100 a week next summer at a V100 firm or whether you're begging for an unpaid internship at PETA's legal department. You CAN take ownership of your preparation and forge your own route in law practice. Like anything in this life, success is always a choice.

BUT, take the following opinions with a heaping tablespoon of salt. What worked for me may not work for you, and it certainly won’t work for everyone. But there are some crucial steps I think you should take during the summer before your 1L year that can pay off large dividends by the time your school’s Law Review is announced.

1. Get tough.

Even if you do live under a rock and are oblivious to the dismal job market out there for mediocre law students, you are reading this now and are thus on notice. It sucks. You need to do well in school to end up with a job that provides you with meaningful work AND allows you to service your debt. That means high scores on your first-year exams.

For many bright-eyed and bushy-tailed students (usually from the liberal arts), school has never been such a competitive endeavor. "School is about inward learning and accepting of all viewpoints...Blah blah blah". For most, high school was just that, and college was an alcohol-induced daze. You're probably thinking you'll waltz through law school too en route to becoming a rich lawyer one day. Like this guy.

Most likely you have never been graded on a curve where only five A's are to be awarded to a group of 80+ students. Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics majors in undergrad probably have some familiarity with "weed-out" classes where curves are used to select who has what it takes to be a competent professional in that field. Organic chemistry, anyone? Those of you who skated through on "Communications Studies" degrees and had internships in "public relations" during college might find the cut-throat nature of tight law school grading to be a bit frightening. [Aside: this is why I personally believe that STEM students and those with technical backgrounds, having exposure to critical analysis and complex multi-step problem solving, are better suited for law school success over their liberal arts counterparts, but that's a topic for another day.]

While you should naturally be frightened, the key is to channel that fear into motivation and prepare buckle down on your studies from mid-August to December. You will be given an obscene amount of information to synthesize at the start of your first year, and you'll need every ounce of mental fortitude you have to grind through the cases and long nights alone in the library. Doesn't sound fun? Hey, at least you're not a first-year IBD analyst, right?

Continue reading the article over jdoasis.com >>>