Secrets to Succeeding in Law School: Advice to My Younger Self
If I could go back in time, I would share some secrets to my younger self about law school. After doing well in college, I thought I knew a lot more about academic success than I really did. No one told me about what I really needed to do during law school, and the resources I did find were sketchy at best. Okay, time to go back and share my ten law school secrets.
The Value of Always Considering the End Goal
Hello lawlings, this is Professor Beau Baez. The advice I share is based on my experience in law school and what I've seen teaching thousands of students at six different law schools. During college, my primary focus was to get top grades so I could get into law school. I graduated with a 3.96 GPA (for my non-US audience, that's out of a possible 4.0), two majors, one minor, a debate team captain, and significant public service. But I never thought beyond getting into law school, leaving me with a few regrets.
"Keep the end in mind" is one of the seven characteristics of highly effective people. In law school, that means focusing on the opportunities after law school. That might mean jobs with prestigious law firms, judicial clerkships, government, or non-profit organizations. And if your plan is to go work for Mom and Dad, maybe you'll change your mind. The goal is to have as many career options as possible. Now, to the ten secrets.
Secret 1 - Grades
Grades. Earning high grades means more opportunities, even at the elite law schools. The problem is most law schools have mandatory grade curves that professors must follow. After assigning a raw score to each exam, the professor then ranks every exam from top to bottom. For example, a professor might assign 2 A's, 4 A-'s, 7 B+'s, and so on. And if in one year, a batch of students does much better than in prior years, guess what, they still don't earn higher grades. During orientation, my law school's Dean told us that most in the room would not earn A's—there was a collective gasp from the 500 entering 1L's. Doing good work isn't enough. What you need is to outperform your classmates, which is outside of your control.
Secret 2 - Exams
Exams. At most law schools, there is one final exam with several essay questions. If you're lucky, the professor might provide a midterm exam, which may be graded or provided only as practice for the final. Law school essays are unlike anything you've seen before. In college, professors usually wanted to see how much of the course content you remembered. But in law school, course content—the law—is a small part of what the professor is looking for. The most important aspect in a law school essay is applying law to a set of facts you've never seen before—the skill you will use after graduation when preparing legal documents. But applying law to facts isn't enough, with the professor expecting the essay to be organized using the IRAC format, or something like it. I would tell my younger self to focus all my extra time and energy on preparing for the final exam.
Secret 3 - Classroom
Classroom. The law school classroom is dominated by the use of the Socratic method, also called the case method. The professor calls on students randomly, assigns students to be on call on a specific date, or relies on volunteers. I would tell my younger self that classroom discussion isn't that important for two reasons. First, few professors assign grades for classroom performance. And for those that do, it tends to be a tiny part of the course grade. And second, there is often a mismatch between classroom discussion and the final exam. One of my first-year professors spent so much time discussing legal theory that I prepared to discuss theory on the final. Not one question involving theory on the final exam. Younger self, don't stress out over getting called on in class.
Secret 4 - Classmates
Classmates. Some law students enjoy volunteering to answer questions in class. They often use sophisticated words and appear to be more knowledgeable than anyone else in the class. One of my classmates went so far as to research scholarly articles for each class, which scared the rest of us. But these classmates, who enjoy volunteering, often don't even have the best grades. My advice to my younger self is to spend extra time preparing for the final, not reading law review articles.
Secret 5 - Cases
Cases. Expect to spend most of your time reading dry, boring legal cases. Also, expect to keep a legal dictionary close by to look up all the new words, especially during the first year. My advice is to read the cases twice, but not more than that. The first reading should be quick, for context, then a careful second reading for your study notes and case briefs.
Secret 6 - Study Aids
Study Aids. I advise not going crazy using the thousands of available study aids. Find a few that make sense to your way of thinking and use those. Before reading a new section in the casebook, read a study aid that discusses that material. This provides context for what you are about to read. The one study aid I would tell my younger self to never use is the canned case brief, a resource where someone else has briefed the cases. By preparing case briefs, you understand the law at a deeper level because you had to do the work yourself. Also, canned briefs encourage students to not read the cases, usually resulting in lower exam grades. Younger self: case briefing is about the process of writing the brief, not the content in the brief.
Secret 7 - Study Groups
Study Groups. I regret not joining a study group. I thought I could do better on my own because that's how I studied. But joining a study group is beneficial if that group is focused on studying and not socializing.
Secret 8 - Practice Exams
Practice Exams. From day one, I would advise you to start thinking about final exams. This means practicing exam writing skills, especially the use of IRAC. Many faculty provide their old exams, which are pure gold in understanding how they think. Some prefer to write long exams with many issues, and others prefer the more detailed analysis. I would tell my younger self to convert multiple-choice questions into short essays, which I describe in another video.
Secret 9 - Law Review and Clinics
Law Review and Clinics. Law review is the most prestigious law student organization, with prominent law firms and judges often ignoring those who were not on law review. It's not exciting work, but a box to check off if you can. If you don't get on law review, clinics provide invaluable practical skills you can use after graduation. Clinics are basically small firms funded by the law school, where clinical faculty work with students in developing real-world skills. I would tell my younger self to join a clinic instead of taking more classes.
Secret 10 - Summer Before Law School
Summer Before Law School. Developing the skills necessary for a law school exam takes time. This means learning IRAC, nested IRAC, and case briefing, and then practicing those skills. I strongly recommend getting a head start, reading books that teach law school academic success skills, taking a skills-based online course, or working with a tutor. Unfortunately, once law school begins, there is limited time for exam preparation. I would tell my younger self to take a few weeks off after college graduation and then begin preparing for law school.
Conclusion:
Let me know in the comments what you are doing to prepare for law school or if you are in law school, what's working and not working for you. Don't forget to hit the like button, and check out my other videos to help you become a better student and a better lawyer.
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