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Tweak Your Personal Belief-System to Succeed at Law School

published November 26, 2012

By CEO and Founder - BCG Attorney Search left
Published By
( 21 votes, average: 4.3 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.
In this article, we are not discussing personal attributes like “leadership skills” or other soft skills and abilities that define the success of a person throughout his/her career, but some common factors that affect how law students individually engage with the law school as an institution. Worrying about the job market, or what else you could have done, is inconsequential if you fail to succeed in your primary role of a law student. This article mentions some individual factors you need to watch in order to make most of your time at law school.
 
Your personal belief-system to succeed at law school

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‘Engagement' is critical to law student success

When we talk about law student ‘engagement' with the law school we are not only talking about academic investment, motivation, and commitment, but also the psychological connection, comfort, and sense of belonging that the student feels towards his/her institution, peers, teachers, and administrators. Engagement with the school can be affected by how a student views and accepts the pressures of grades, the eccentric behavior of others, the acceptance or rejection by groups and individuals, and myriad other things. A student cannot change most of these factors, but he/she can change how he/she views or perceives de-motivating factors and thus can increase his/her chances of success.

‘Person'-centered variables that affect law student engagement

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Research has shown that how law students individually engage with their institutions or curricula depends largely upon three factors and individual differences with respect to these three factors. These are:
 
  1. Competence beliefs
  2. Concerns and expectations of bias around social identities
  3. Perceptions of and coping with contextual stress

The three factors mentioned above are critical for success as a law student. While in broad categories minority and gender bias can affect groups, individuals can break out of the situation and forge ahead if they could recognize the roots of their problems and learned to handle contextual stress.

Analyze your personal beliefs and tweak them

It is natural for individual law students to create belief systems around perceptions of individual abilities and personal characteristics vis-à-vis benchmarks or peer standards established in the law school eco system. Our personal belief systems provide the framework upon which we understand and value interpersonal experiences as well as academic experiences. Whether we see the system biased for us or against us, or whether we perceive something as stressful or not, depends largely upon our individual belief systems. Personal belief-systems determine whether we would withdraw and disengage in the face of academic difficulty, or re-invest and increase our efforts to cope with setbacks and failures.

So, tweaking our individual belief systems can spell success or failure in law school. To clarify, let's say many, if not most, of us believe that we are born with a certain IQ or level of intelligence and that ‘quantum' of intelligence is immutable and unchangeable. Holding such beliefs can prevent success, in as much as, such a student may conclude his/her natural abilities are not up to the task. On the other hand, if the same student believed that intelligence and the application of intelligence is something that can increase with time and use, they may not give up, even when faced with insurmountable odds, and just pile up efforts and keep going.

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References:
 
Bonita London, Geraldine Downey, and Shauna Mace, "Psychological Theories of Educational Engagement: A Multi-Method Approach to Studying Individual Engagement and Institutional Change," Vanderbilt Law Review 60, no. 2 (2007)

Alternative Summary

Harrison is the founder of BCG Attorney Search and several companies in the legal employment space that collectively gets thousands of attorneys jobs each year. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placement attract millions of reads each year. Harrison is widely considered the most successful recruiter in the United States and personally places multiple attorneys most weeks. His articles on legal search and placement are read by attorneys, law students and others millions of times per year.

More about Harrison

About LawCrossing

LawCrossing has received tens of thousands of attorneys jobs and has been the leading legal job board in the United States for almost two decades. LawCrossing helps attorneys dramatically improve their careers by locating every legal job opening in the market. Unlike other job sites, LawCrossing consolidates every job in the legal market and posts jobs regardless of whether or not an employer is paying. LawCrossing takes your legal career seriously and understands the legal profession. For more information, please visit www.LawCrossing.com.

published November 26, 2012

By CEO and Founder - BCG Attorney Search left
( 21 votes, average: 4.3 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.