Law School for Dummies

I am by no means an expert at the game of law school. I'm currently writing this entry as a way to avoid studying for finals* which is an indication of something.** However what is you need to know to succeed at law school you learn fairly quickly. Sure I may still be confused by what the hell a bailment*** is, but I do know some basics on surviving law school. If you're considering law school, I'd take these suggestions under your wing for the future.

Don't Live Alone There's a certain temptation, particularly if you didn't have the best roommate(s) experience in undergrad to live on your own at least for the first year of law school. This is a very bad idea. Particularly if you're moving to a new city (like I did) your roommates will be your first life line and even after you make friends will still people with whom you can bitch. If you're really lucky they'll be going to law school and even if it's a different school or they have different teachers you'll all be able to complain about how tough classes are and bounce ideas about what reasonable care**** is of each other after spending way too much time in the library. Living alone can be a death knell to your succeeding at law school because it can lead to introversion which in turn leads to insanity.***** You may not want to live with the same people once your lease is up in August or September, but having at least one other person to complain to will help immensely.

Make Friends, Even if it Hurts I am not an outgoing social person. It takes me awhile to make friends. However even the most introverted person will be able to make friends in law school for one very special reason: You're all going through mental bootcamp. It's a bonding experience that can't be underestimated. Making friends though, much like with having people to live with, will make the torture less torturous. Having buddies to moan to and drink with****** helps when the days get longer and the hours spent in the library become too much. Good friends will convince you that you're not making the biggest mistake of your life and may even help you get better grades. Humans are naturally social creatures, but law school proves just how valuable friends can be. So make some, even if socializing goes against every fiber of your being.

Don't Skip A Single Reading (or Class) Full disclosure: My freshmen year I did not have the best attendance record. I got better, but I always allowed myself to miss one or two classes in any given course in a single semester. Also, keeping up with reading was not always my forte. Just ask my Ancient Greek history professor. However if you want to have any hope of understanding the material presented in law school, let alone doing well on your exams, you have to do all of the reading. If that means sitting in the library for four+ hours so be it. First of all there is always the chance you'll be cold called on******* in class and trust me, it's not fun trying to explain a case you haven't read. Secondly, as confusing as some of the judges can be, reading the cases is vital to understanding the underlying principles at work. You can read all the chestnuts on torts you want, but if you don't at least know the basic outline of a case (which, depending on the era in which a case was written is all you're going to get) those summaries won't help you a bit. The same goes for classes. Yes sometimes it seems like the professors let students meander with no really direction into a land of slippery concrete,******** but ultimately it's to your benefit to go to every single class. You just never know when the professor is going to cut off the idiots and make sense of future interests.*********

Don't Freak Yourself Out Law school is hard. It's intense and all consuming. However you'll only make it worse for yourself if you psych yourself out. Whether that's by buying into some garbage BarBri is trying to sell you or watching "The Paper Chase" you're doing yourself a disservice if you let the stress get to you too much. Relax every once in a while, have a beer (or five) on a occasion.********** Go see a movie with friends or go to a museum if that's your thing. Spend an entire day doing nothing. People will go on about how you have to study every day or you're going to fail everything, but that's simply not true. Relaxation is just as important as studying if you want to succeed at law school. And not relaxing ends badly. Usually the people who burn out the quickest are the ones who didn't take sometime to do nothing. Law school is a marathon, not a sprint. Take sometime to smell the flowers.

So that's my advice. If you do plan on going to law school you'll hear a lot of variations on what I've said and some real gunners telling you to hole up in the library and never leave. Ultimately you do what's best for you, otherwise you'll leave school with a massive amount of debt wondering why ever thought this was a good idea. Best of luck either way.

*Evil, evil finals

**Namely not wanting to study

***Contracts. I'm pretty sure that's from contracts.

****Reasonable care is dependent on your judge. Much like everything in negligence based torts.

*****This isn't necessarily true. But it could happen. Law school does funny things to one's brain.

******The first of many times I will mentioning drinking. There's a reason lawyers are considered alcoholics.

*******This is when a professor calls on you out of the blue (aka you didn't volunteer) and asks you to explain the facts of a case. It is hell.

********True story. Someone brought this up in torts. It will never die.

*********Property. I could go on, but it's confusing.

**********So much drinking. Also, you don't have to drink like a fish to have fun in law school. It's just most everyone else will be because that's just how stressful law school is. However a designated driver/walker is always good, so if you don't want to drink that's fine.