I’m about to start my first year at Michigan Law School (Summer Start). My first two classes with be Torts and Property. Do you have any advice on these classes or law school in general?
I keep hearing all these horror stories about first year. So I would like to hear how first year went for you. Did you spend 16 hours a day on class and study? Did professors try to embarrass you? Did the pressure get to you in any way?
Did you read any of the books on law school? I have heard good things about Getting to Maybe. Does anybody have any thoughts on that book? Do you have any recommendations on other books? What about commercial outlines and hornbooks - can you recommend any good ones? I have heard good things about Gilbert’s Law Summaries.
Personally, I am really looking forward to challenge.
Getting to Maybe is a great book - definitely read it before you start. I wish I had.
I never used Gilberts or other commercial outlines. I did like some of the Nutshell books, though - especially Antitrust and Corporations. But the process of making your own outline at the end of the term is important to actually being able to remember the material on the exam (or at least it was for me).
Remember that the professors aren’t out to get you. If you focus on the argument, not the personalities, you’re less likely to be flustered about being “grilled” when it’s your turn. Be good-natured about it if they back you into a contradiction - just think about how it happened and what it means.
Do your reading. I found it was much better to read the case, even if I had to skim, than to read someone else’s notes about it. Even if you don’t read it until after your class discussion, read it before the exam.
I read the book One L, by Scott Turow. It was about his first year at Harvard Law in the 70s. You should read it. It’s out of print, I got mine on Ebay.
I used commercial outlines and other students’ outlines (from the years prior) to make my own outlines. As said above, you need to make your own so that the material has a better chance of sticking in your brain.
I would also highly recommend Wentworth Miller’s exam-taking seminar, LEEWS. It was well worth the money. I went to the seminar my first semester, so I don’t know how I would have done without it. In any case, I ended up being able to stay in the top 5% and I always used the LEEWS method to attack exams. I also used it on the bar. In my opinion, this was not just another way to get money from frightened law students – it was well worth it. It took a lot of the agonizing terror out of exams. Of course, YMMV.
There’s probably a lot more I could think of if I wasn’t tired right now…
I’m just finishing up my first year, and I must say it was a lot easier than everyone says. Just go to class, read the material, brief as long as you need to (and you will know that day when it comes) and don’t study too hard. Do know your limits; don’t stay up all night and then think you’re going to be able to pay attention in a 9:00 class.
Really, just do what you did in undergrad, but do it right this time. It also helps if you hang out with the right sort of people.
Finals are in a couple of weeks, and I am looking forward to this summer with anticipation. Got a lot to do!
Have fun, both in and out of class. If the material engages you, you’ll find it a hundred times easier to succeed. And always put aside as much down time (movies, friends, television) as you can while still being able to keep up with your studies. It keeps you sane.
Stay on top of the summer job search. It starts shockingly early.
Try to get to know your professors–and try to make sure they know you. This works better in small-section classes and seminars, so you may have more success with it your second year. Knowing the professors (and contributing in moderation in class) not only helps with recommendations, which are crucial, but will often be the difference-maker when they’re deciding whether to give you the benefit of the doubt on an exam grade.
Don’t sweat the whole case-briefing thing. It’s important to know what the holding is (especially as a generally applicable rule) and what the reasoning is (so you can see how the rule applies in dissimilar situations), but don’t get caught up taking extensive notes on every aspect of the case. Reading cases is a skill you’ll pick up quickly; you just need to do whatever helps you retain the information.
Your legal research and writing class is, in fact, the most important one you’ll take your first year.
Here’s something I didn’t realize until mid-way through law school: You absolutely must do well in your first year. Your first-year grades mean absolutely everything to your future job prospects, and your second and third year grades (as well as your service as Grand Poobah of the Whatever Society) mean almost nothing in comparison.
I went to a school ranked at the low end of the upper-tier according to U.S. News and World Report. Students there either had several firms clamoring after them (upper 10% after first year) or they had to scramble and work any and all contacts to come up with something (everybody else). Maybe at Michigan the line will be somewhere south of the top 10%, but it will still be there.
Some people were bitter about this and thought that their first-year grades shouldn’t be given so much weight. Others just accepted it, studied really hard, and made the grades. If your goals don’t include working at a top private firm in your area, then high grades will be less necessary, but they’re nice to have anyway.
Also, no matter how you choose to study (i.e., briefing cases or not, making your own outlines or not), what really matters (IMHO) is how long you study and how early in the semester you start doing it. I think the broad concepts and ways of thinking you should pick up as a 1L have to be cultivated and incubated in your brain, which can only be accomplished after much thought and pondering over the material. I had many Aha! moments late at night after reading a case or a section of an outline for the third or fourth time.
Good luck, and have fun. The law school environment is really cool (i.e., good discussions about stuff with other people who care about it, great times relaxing with a bunch of people after we all went through the same stressful event, and the fact that law school does a very good job of rewarding success). I miss it sometimes.
Not to scare you off, but I hated the entire experience. But I stumbled into law school by accident, not knowing what to do with my life and thinking it would be a good place to wait out three years, while picking up some useful skills at the same time. Hell, I should have gone into the military instead, with that train of thought.
I graduated last summer, after only 2 1/2 years–I couldn’t wait to get out of there, and I was miserable for most of that time. I’m not looking forward to working as an attorney either, so I’m figuring out other fields I could go into with my J.D… You’ll do better in law school if you like it, but I never liked it so I never really excelled. I never adapted to the methods of studying, outlining, test-taking. I proved I was very good at research and writing and surprisingly comfortable in front of a mock jury, but my grades were merely mediocre. Doing well that first year really is all-important for the job search later, and I never had that going for me. I wish I had all that time and all that money back, honestly.
That said, I did meet some fantastic people in law school (as well as some not-so-fantastic people that live up to every negative lawyer/law student stereotype). I’ll probably have the friends I made there for the rest of my life, and I’m a better person for knowing them.
I took the BAR/BRI prep course before law school - and while I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it - I think it helped me hit the ground running. Decent grades, low anxiety, that sort of thing.
