What are the top 5 tips you would give an incoming 1L?` Forum

[jdhonest]

Depends on the school. Most of these tips will be fine for most, but school specific tips are best. I attend a school where few of the top 10% take notes b/c profs have been there for centuries, repeat the same thing year after year, and there are basically transcripts of what is said in class (I mean each page being within a word or two). If a 1L could get their hands on one these, there's no way I'd recommend taking notes furiously in class.

[ahduth]

1. Be nice to everyone. Share notes, share outlines, and just be a good person. The legal community is small, and it's good to be known as a genuine and likable person.

Advice for life.

[Prometheus214]

Great tips, thanks for the advice!

[Ellie80]

Fabulous Thank you!

[Moxie]

Don't help anyone. Its graded on a curve, their success is your downfall. People will ask you to help them understand future interests, the rule of lenity, etc. Say "I don't know". No sharing of outlines, tutoring your friends, etc.

I'm assuming this is not serious, but if so, this is NOT the credited response. When you help people, they're willing to help you in other ways too.

I'm not a particularly big fan of group studying, but it can be very helpful in small doses.

[Journeybound]

Yes, a lot of people have mentioned getting good outlines from 2Ls and 3Ls. DO THIS. Find out who aced their first year, and beg for their outlines. Try to get 2-3 of these, and take the best parts to make your own. Like the post above said, often the professors have the exact same jokes and stories each year, and what they teach hardly changes. If you can get one of these legendary outlines, you're good to go...

[Knock]

Added to the Useful Links Thread.

[Cavalier]

I don't feel like thinking of five tips. Basically, the most important thing you can do is learn about what it takes to well in law school. This means learning what a law school exam is, what makes for a good answer, and things you should pay attention for in your courses. I recommend you at least skim Getting to Maybe and read the "success in law school" articles that are posted here. There's no "right" way to approach law school, but it's helpful to see what other people have done and then figure out what works best for you.

[aliarrow]

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[BruceWayne]

Seriously. For every time I've given someone something that could be helpful/useful for an exam, I've gotten something equally back for it. If anything, I learned in law school it's much better to work in groups and share ideas than to try and do it on your own.

You're seriously naive if you don't realize that there are tons of people who have the mentality that that poster mentioned. This idea that they don't, and that law school is this kumbaya experience is one of the biggest fallacies perpetuated on this website.

I'm thinking this is an issue for you, not other people. If everyone else is not having the same experience, perhaps you ought to examine what is causing you to have it.

So I'm guessing you think that stuff like the paper chase, the book 1L, and the ubiquitous negative stereotypes that exist about law school competition were all pulled out of thin air, while your personal experience (and those of a few anonymous posters on a website called "top-law-schools which will naturally have a self selection bias towards people who did well in law school) is representative and qualifies as "everyone else"? Am I understanding you correctly?

[northwood]

are legal employment cover letters similar to other professional cover letter? Should you write one generic cover letter for different type of summer work ( etc- at a DA's office, a firm, etc)? Or does each type of work have their own cover letters?

[aliarrow]

.

[keg411]

are legal employment cover letters similar to other professional cover letter? Should you write one generic cover letter for different type of summer work ( etc- at a DA's office, a firm, etc)? Or does each type of work have their own cover letters?

I'm actually curious on this too if anyone would care to elaborate on setting up 1L cover letters...

A bunch of schools have this type of info on google. Set up pretty much depends on what type of job you plan to apply for. I don't think 0L's need to worry about this right now; it's more like you should think about what type of job you want to apply for rather than starting writing resumes and cover letters (especially since some CSO's will pretty much re-do your resume for you).

[kalvano]

are legal employment cover letters similar to other professional cover letter? Should you write one generic cover letter for different type of summer work ( etc- at a DA's office, a firm, etc)? Or does each type of work have their own cover letters?

Harvard and Stanford have shining examples of the glory of cover letters on their websites.

[sundance95]

5. In your spare time, learn to love the areas of law you're studying troll for Duke.

ftfy

[dixiecupdrinking]

One tip: Take a few minutes and really think about why you're going to law school. It's okay if you don't have a solid answer, but think about what you want to get out of it. And when you're faced with decisions about what to pursue while in school, stop and think about it. Law school can get to be one big rat race, with people all gunning for the same grades and the same law review and journal spots and clinical spots and the same prestigious jobs and clerkships. It's easy to lose the forest for the trees. Before you kill yourself gunning for one brass ring or another, stop and think about what's going to make you happy and whether you're just doing it because everyone else is.

[BruceWayne]

One tip: Take a few minutes and really think about why you're going to law school. It's okay if you don't have a solid answer, but think about what you want to get out of it. And when you're faced with decisions about what to pursue while in school, stop and think about it. Law school can get to be one big rat race, with people all gunning for the same grades and the same law review and journal spots and clinical spots and the same prestigious jobs and clerkships. It's easy to lose the forest for the trees. Before you kill yourself gunning for one brass ring or another, stop and think about what's going to make you happy and whether you're just doing it because everyone else is.

This is the best tip of all.

[quakeroats]

5. In your spare time, learn to love the areas of law you're studying troll for Duke.

ftfy

UVA made ATL again.

[Borhas]

are legal employment cover letters similar to other professional cover letter? Should you write one generic cover letter for different type of summer work ( etc- at a DA's office, a firm, etc)? Or does each type of work have their own cover letters?

specific, enthusiastic, and substantive cover letters are the best

generic cover letters are a bad idea all around

I got a few 1L summer job offers, they came from the two sets of cover letters I refined over time (indigent criminal defense and consumer rights)... I got 0 for lame cover generic cover letters I wrote (AG, City Attorney, DA, Agencies)

[aliarrow]

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[emorystud2010]

Don't forget to have sex every so often, especially during ur first yr. It'll keep u from going crazy when the days start to run together.

[ndirish2014]

good stuff. thanks

[yngblkgifted]

thanks so far!

tag.

[Borhas]

are legal employment cover letters similar to other professional cover letter? Should you write one generic cover letter for different type of summer work ( etc- at a DA's office, a firm, etc)? Or does each type of work have their own cover letters?

specific, enthusiastic, and substantive cover letters are the best

generic cover letters are a bad idea all around

I got a few 1L summer job offers, they came from the two sets of cover letters I refined over time (indigent criminal defense and consumer rights)... I got 0 for lame cover generic cover letters I wrote (AG, City Attorney, DA, Agencies)

Is it possible to even set up a template for something like that before law school? Just because I've seen that advice floating around and I'm not really even sure where to begin.

yeah, why not?

You just have to know 1) why you want to the job and 2) what traits the employers are looking fo

just ask some people who have the jobs you want, what made them successful in their career (or what an ideal x type of lawyer would be like, etc)... then from that you'll have a few seed concepts to build your cover letter around... so you can just find a way to characterize yourself as someone with those exact traits.

[pleasetryagain]

I disagree with the overarching "don't worry about class preparation - focus on exams" mantra that permeates here. Sure, you don't need to know the color of the defendants hair or just how high her dress was when she was assaulted but you need to know the cases, and how your teacher feels about them - the only way to do this is to prepare effectively for class (or spend 2-3 hours a week in office hours and see your grade decreased for obnoxious gunnerism). This all holds especially true if your teacher wrote the textbook. I am not advocating only focusing on class but it is certainly more appropriate than the peple out here make it out to be.

I will qualify this by saying that it depends on the professor. Some f my professors got wet over the textbooks/material they use and seemingly wrote exams with the book/class materials in front of them; for these cases class preparation definitely helped me answer some questions on the exam. Other profs didn't even use the casebook and has us read random shit he pulled off westlaw; for his class I used e+e + treatise + lots and lots of work (granted this was Civ Pro). Also, I am bored and avoiding write on.