10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Law School

The second round of admissions for the HLS Class of 2024 went out this week, and I’ve spoken to many excited admits in the past few days! Each time I chat with someone new, one specific question always comes up…

Do you have any advice for 1L???

At this point, I should have a perfectly crafted response. But I can’t put the 1L experience into words, and success in law school is very much a DIY situation. Nonetheless, there are a few things I’d love to go back and tell 1L Riley, so I made a list! This week, I present the 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Law School.

Surprise surprise, “memorize Latin terms in advance” is nowhere to be found 😏

1. Imposter Syndrome is real for everyone.

After meeting my talented, accomplished section mates in August 2019, I did not walk away thinking “wow, what amazing people! This is gonna be great!” No way. I went home thinking “Oh man, I’m not gonna make it. I’m not nearly as smart as everyone else…Harvard really made a mistake with me.”

It wasn’t until the second day of class (where I confessed my imposter-ship, and the girl next to me said she felt the same, and the girl next to her said she called her mom crying over the day’s assignments) that I realized we were all in the same boat. Everyone feels like they don’t belong, it’s part of the law school schtick! And the gunners who pose complicated hypos and throw around legal terms like they’re the next RBG? Chances are, they’re the most insecure of all.

2. Law school isn’t going to “click” like undergrad.

They’re totally different ballgames, bucko. Had I known this, the first few months would have been a lot less panic-inducing! No matter how many times I read the cases, or how many pages of notes I took in advance, I always left class horrified by all the information I missed. Plus, there are no homework assignments to “practice” legal concepts, or periodic tests to measure comprehension. That makes it tough to know if you’re “getting it.”

Long story short, you figure it out. It just takes time!

3. Stick w/the “tried & trues” of previous academic experience.

Notwithstanding #2, this has been very helpful. Right off the bat, I implemented the same general ‘rules’ I lived by as an undergrad (not Academy rules - my own personal rules).

For example, I have a strict policy against pulling all-nighters. I’m the kind of person who NEEDS sleep to function, so rest >>> reading the case one more time. I also know that exercise is crucial to maintaining my mental (and physical, obviously) health, so I reserved time for a run or yoga session at least every other day. And I kept the same general schedule from both my undergrad and working days - go to sleep early, wake up early!

4. It won’t always take an hour and a half to read one case.

But it might at first, and that’s okay! Reading cases is like reading Beowulf for the first time - the words just don’t sink in. And there is nothing worse than wading through 90 minutes of legal jargon only to reach the end and realize you have no idea what happened. Cue immense despair.

On that front, I recommend using a resource like Quimbee to double-check that you’ve grasped the important parts of each case.

Like anything else, you improve through sheer repetition - your reading time will drop at the same time your comprehension skyrockets. Plus, you really do pick up legal lingo as you go along…it’s like weird, law school osmosis. Just invades your brain. And for the bits that don’t make it in there, Google is always an option!

5. It’s not all about the law.

Although the law IS a critical part of law school (duh Riley, where are you going with this?) Law school doesn’t just teach you what the law is. It also teaches you why it is that way; illuminates the problems with that “why;” and pushes you to reimagine, and then question, reformulations of legal doctrines. There are “right answers” to a certain extent, but most legal analysis and application is conducted in gray areas between competing ideals - one judge may go in one direction, and another judge will do the exact opposite. And you have to figure out how that happened, and determine how it should have happened.

Bottom line - it’s basically learning a whole new way to think. And it’s much harder than just memorizing a bunch of laws. Yay!!!

6. A bombed cold call actually means nothing.

Apart from wounded pride, of course. But your professor has heard it all before, and your classmates don’t care what you say - they’re focusing on what they’ll say if called on next. Over drinks with a few friends last week, we reminisced on the funnier moments of 1L - none of which involved humiliation of our classmates. We remembered a few hilariously wrong answers, of course, but only because they was funny - not because whoever said them was dumb!

7. Law school = “Choose Your Own Adventure.”

In every respect possible - the way you study, the classes you take, the organizations you join, the goals you form, the faculty you connect with, and the opportunities you pursue. But the sooner you realize that it’s your adventure, not anyone else’s, the better. At HLS, it’s easy to feel like you’re failing if you don’t shoot for the Law Review or a Supreme Court clerkship. But those are super narrow paths, and aren’t a great fit for most people - so why are those THE goals??

Despite rolling into law school with a post-grad job and little concern about my grades, I still fell for that hype during first semester of 1L. It wasn’t until 2L, when I got to choose my own courses, that I realized I should take subjects I’m interested in and classes that will help me as a JAG - not what anyone else says I “should” do.

8. It’s okay to not like your 1L courses.

They’re basics for the reason, and that reason is the bar exam. That’s it!! Disliking them does not mean you’re going to fail at, or hate, being a lawyer. You don’t have to be a contracts attorney or a constitutional law scholar - you just have to learn the foundational doctrines. I didn’t truly “love” a law school course until my Trial Advocacy Workshop this past January, which was halfway through my law school experience. It’s normal.

9. It’s also okay to not “know” what you want to do with your life.

“Figuring it out” is not a pre-requisite for law school, nor a requirement before you graduate. The three years are essentially time to explore; confirm your old interests, discover new ones, or nix the plan you had in your head and go in an entirely new direction. I think most of my classmates have pivoted since entering 1L, and are pursuing slightly different (or totally different!) goals than the ones articulated in their application essays.

As a 2L, I have many friends who aren’t quite sure where their interests lie. For the most part, they’ve secured post-graduate jobs and are taking a variety of classes to explore - with full confidence that they’ll figure it out eventually!

10. You can’t take school, or yourself, too seriously!

I saved the best for last, and cannot stress this enough!!! Yes, school is a grind - but it’s also the last three years before you’re a full-blown legal professional. You are surrounded by AMAZING faculty, AMAZING people, and AMAZING opportunities - so take advantage of them!! Getting good grades is just a fraction of all you can get out of law school.

Also, leave time to be a Fun Human, not just a Full-time Law Student. I went on more (socially distanced) margarita dates and long brunches in 2L fall than in all of 1L, and fun fact - my grades didn’t change! But my quality of life has improved tremendously. Maintaining your perspective is critical to staying happy and healthy in the stress ball of law school, and that’s important to remember from the outset.