I’ve recently started talking to someone who wants to go to law school — my god, I forgot how exciting a prospect that was.
Although I spend a lot of time writing about law school and the legal field in general, somewhere between attending my first Civil Procedure lecture and eating cold soup at 10 p.m. while reviewing a contract, I forgot the most simple truth: at one point or another, we were all that excited.
We stressed about taking the LSAT, sending in our applications and even overanalyzed what we were going to wear on our first day — some of us showing up in three-piece suits.
We all imagined what law school was going to have in store for us, all hoped we would be in the top 10% and all said things like, “I know it’s going to be a lot of hard work but that doesn’t scare me!”
But when you’re in the trenches of law school, surrounded by too much reading and cases that are barely distinguishable from one another, it can be difficult to remember: you chose to be here. While there are a lot of things law schools could do better, here are four positive takeaways even the surliest of lawyers can agree on.
You become the smartest version of yourself
Law school pushes people to their breaking points — mentally, physically and even emotionally. (Don’t believe me? Check the library for students silently crying or stress-chugging coffee.)
All of the hard work required just to keep up with lectures leaves little time for self-care or work-life balance; that being said, the intense workload forces you to read faster, write better and even grasp difficult concepts more quickly.
Know why? Because even though you are having trouble with the Erie Doctrine (which is normal, by the way) you still have reading to do for four other classes before you can sleep tonight.
You develop excellent prioritization skills
As mentioned above, there is a large volume of work to be done every day, often leading to the infamous student game of what really needs to be done vs. what can I get away with not doing.
Repeating this process daily instills excellent prioritization habits. After all, if you know you can get by in Criminal Law by not reading tonight but know you are likely to get called on in Contract Law, it’s clear which subject you should focus on. The only downside? Sometimes your priorities can be off and/or something happens you couldn’t predict — like being asked to brief a case for the class that you didn’t read. Whoops.
Law school doesn’t have to be super-competitive
If you ever get called on and don’t know the answer, the good news is someone else does and in a room full of overachievers you can be sure at least a few people will raise their hand.
Contrary to what you see on TV, law schools also don’t typically post a list of students and their ranking for all to see; the real process is much more reserved. The only time you will hear about a classmate’s ranking is if they are bragging about it or asking about yours — and to be honest, no one will know if you lie. In the end, you’re not really competing against other students, you’re competing against yourself and the amount of work you can withstand.
You might not end up where you predicted
When I signed up for law school I was 100% sure I wanted to be a corporate attorney. I knew I wanted to work in-house, focus on general corporate law, and deal with boards of directors. As a result, I focused the majority of my classes on these areas, and even took a financial regulation course in case I ended up in banking. While it might surprise you, I am in fact not a corporate attorney.
All the business law classes I endured serve as important background, but I do not process liens, issue stock, or deal with board governance on a daily basis. Instead, I practice health and privacy law — subjects I picked up in my third year to meet the graduation credit requirements.
For this reason, I encourage everyone to take a variety of classes — you never know what you might like!
They say law school is a marathon, not a sprint — but as you make your way through the race, don’t forget how excited you were to run.
