Perhaps for that reason, many law students who love law school hate the practice of law, and many who hate law school love practice. As one lawyer put it: "Because you're not working for a real client, the abstract nature of law in law school can leave you cold. Thinking about civil procedure in law school seemed meaningless. But abstract problems become much more interesting when thinking them through with a goal to make them part of a client's strategy that you helped craft."
Law school is not like college. Everyone who gets into law school did well as an undergraduate, but not everyone does well in law school. That's because the teaching methods are different, the subject matter is different, even the language is different. And especially the exams are different.
Early on in your first year, you'll figure out some of the differences between college and law school. The most obvious is that there is a lot more student participation in even the largest classes in law school than is typical at most undergraduate schools. You will be called on. Not just if you raise your hand to interrupt the lecture. You will be called on by name, at random. (If you have an easy-to-pronounce name early in the alphabet, be ready on the first day of class.) When you're called upon, you will be expected to perform. State the facts of the case you read last night. What was the holding? (What's a holding? you're thinking to yourself if you're lucky enough not to be the one everyone's staring at.) How do you distinguish that case from the other one you read last night? Did both courts reach the right result? Why?
This ritual will be replayed every day of law school in almost every one of your classes. The process of live sacrifices of students by the professor in front of the class is called the "Socratic method." The approach of learning law indirectly by reading case after case and attempting to distinguish one from another (rather than reading sets of rules or "black-letter law") is called the "case method." The combination of the Socratic method and the case method can be a little daunting at first. You'll go home at night, read a bunch of cases for each of your classes, and often wonder what it is you are supposed to be learning. Some professors will pull it together for you eventually. Others won't.
This Is Only a Test
The uncertainty you may feel as a first-year law student will be magnified by the fact that you will probably get no feedback during the semester. At many law schools, in most classes there are no quizzes, no tests, and no midterms-only final exams. You will work your tail off all semester reading cases and trying to pick up whatever it is you're supposed to be learning in a class and have absolutely no idea whether you get it or not. Did you ever think that you'd crave a pop quiz? Want another test? You probably will before your first semester of law school is over. Something, anything to let you know if you understand what's going on in class. Instead, you'll walk into your final exam and have three hours or so to write something in a test booklet that will convince the professor that you understood everything perfectly.
One of the keys to taking law school exams, which often ask you to analyze legal issues buried in a lengthy and complex hypothetical fact statement, is "issue spotting." You'll get a certain amount of credit if you can identify what's important to resolving the legal problem presented to you.
The best and only additional advice on law school exams is to prepare yourself for what each of your professors is likely to throw at you. Ask students who took the course in past years what the final was like. See if they still have a copy. Or find out if that professor keeps a copy of past exams on file at the law school library, as is the practice at some law schools. Once you find out the type of test you're likely to get, and what types of information you have to be prepared to set forth on the exam, think about how you would attack it. If you have old exams, do a practice run. Be prepared and at least you won't be psyched out. Give the professor what the professor wants, and you'll get a better grade.
Survival Tactics
The first year of law school, especially the first semester, is the worst. The subject matter is new. The teaching method is new. The format of the exams is new. And you're taking courses that you did not choose to take. (Just about every law school has the same first semester: constitutional law, torts, contracts, civil procedure, and legal writing. Often criminal law and property law are required in the second semester.) Don't get discouraged. Every lawyer in America struggled to survive that same first semester. Just get through it. Band together with others into a study group, if that helps. By the rime the second semester rolls around, you'll be more comfortable with the process. After a summer working, you'll realize that you can do real legal work. By the third year, you'll be bored with it all and eager to get out into the working world.
What you must do to survive is keep up with your reading, especially that first year. If you drop behind, you will get nothing out of class discussions and will go into preparation for finals searching for even the most basic concepts of the course. If you are keeping up but still feel lost, there may be a teaching assistant in the class who can offer some helpful advice or explain what was going on in a case you read. Teaching assistants are usually students who did well in the class the year before and who help the professor prepare for class and grade exams. The TA can be your friend. Don't be shy about asking a TA for help before you become hopelessly lost.
Finally, don't shrink from class participation. Speak up. Take a position. Yes, it will be shot down or you will be asked a question that seems impossible to answer and makes you feel foolish in front of everyone.
But that's part of the process. You will emerge as a stronger student and more prepared both for the exam and for life after law school if you join the fray. Learn to think on your feet, to defend a position against critical questioning. After all, it's not unlike what you'll get from a judge or an opposing counsel out in the real world. There is a method to the madness of law school.
If you can just make it through that first year, you're on your way. The second year allows you to start taking some elective courses, focusing on the substantive areas in which you may want to practice. But unless you're sure what you want to do on the outside, don't become too specialized. It's important to understand different areas of the law so that you can make connections and know when your future clients have problems that they don't recognize. To a large extent, you may want to pick courses by professor rather than by subject matter. If you find a professor whom you relate to and understand, take another course from that professor. So much of what you're learning is how to think like a lawyer. Don't punish yourself by taking a course from a professor you find difficult just to gain exposure to a particular subject matter.
The Screening Continues
Once again, in law school, the goal is to distinguish yourself. Remember, three years later you hope to be employed somewhere.
The best ways to distinguish yourself in law school aren't too different from the ways you tried to distinguish yourself as an undergrad. For future lawyers, the best way is to write. Get on a journal of some sort. If not law review, then some other journal. The educational system is faulted at every level for failing to teach people to write. Law schools are no different. Legal employers complain that law school grads can't do much of anything. They can't even write. Working on a journal doesn't mean you can write. But people will assume that you can. And it probably increases the chances that you will learn how.
Another important way to distinguish yourself is to get good work experience. (If you can't get an outside job, try to work as a research assistant for a law professor who's writing in an area of interest to you.) You either have work experience or you don't when you start law school. But law school gives you at least two summers (three if you end up clerking for a judge) in which to add to that resume. You should obtain the type of summer work experience that will appeal to the type of employer you eventually want to work for. If you want to work in a corporation, spend the summer working at one. If you want to become a prosecutor, try to intern with a district attorney's office.
Most of you will probably seek work as a summer associate with a private law firm. There are lots of these jobs for second-year law students, but few for first-years. Summer programs differ among firms, but not significantly. The major differences are whether you will work in more than one of the firm's departments (e.g., trial, corporate, real estate, tax)-either by formally "rotating" during the summer or through less formal means-and whether you'll be assigned to specific lawyers for the summer. The less sure you are about what you want to do with your law degree, the more you should opt for the exposure to a variety of departments.
There are two schools of thought about where you should go for the summer. Some say you should, if possible, identify the city and even the firm you want to end up with. Most firms hire their permanent associates primarily from their summer programs. Others say you should go with the largest, most prestigious firm who will hire you for the summer. This is the keep-your-options-open school. The rationale is that, if you go with a big firm for the summer, you can still get a government job, a teaching job, or an in-house counsel position after graduation. The best advice is: If you're sure you know what you want, go there for the summer. Your chances of landing a permanent position will be greatly increased. If you're less sure, you may want to go to a safe, resume - building summer job.
Wherever you end up for the summer, treat it as a serious position. You may be wined and dined by some firms, but they will offer you a permanent position only if you excel at the work they give you. You want that offer even if you decide you don't want to return to that firm. Explaining to every other potential employer why you didn't get an offer from the firm you worked for last summer is tricky.
