One of the aspects of a career in law that I find both appealing and frustrating is that the finish line is constantly moving. For example, when you first start thinking about becoming a lawyer, your goal is to get a good LSAT score and get into a good school. Then, the goal becomes to perform well in school, which can include a host of non-academic activities, such as journals and moot court.
Last week, the aesthetes of Architecture Digest published a list of the eight ugliest university buildings in America. And — unfortunately for those who are currently plugging away at the LSAT in the hopes of one day attending these institutions — law schools were disproportionately represented. Despite the fact that most law schools are just one or two buildings tucked away in the corners of otherwise sprawling collegiate campuses, three of the eight slots were reserved for law schools.
The University of Colorado Law School is putting on a “Law of the Colorado River” seminar. This is hilariously outrageous.
First thing you need to know is that a seminar is exactly like a class but no one does the reading and everyone has to speak, every class. So essentially, once a week you exchange completely uninformed opinions with about a dozen overly (passive) aggressive people who grew up priding themselves on the fact that they love to argue.
The third year of law school is regrettably still a thing. Most people will line up jobs at the start of their second year, which leaves you wondering what the point of the third year is. At any rate, here’s what I’ve been doing with my third year.
Traveling
Judging from Facebook statuses it seems like half the law school is studying or traveling abroad right now. I plan on taking my own trip to Japan in a few weeks. It’ll be my first time in the country and I’m extremely excited to try as much authentic Japanese food as time will allow.
Law school exams are very different from what you’re used to in undergrad. In a way, undergrad exams are more fair. If you study a lot, memorize the material that you’ve covered, and mange to demonstrate that you’ve done all this work on the day of the exam by basically regurgitating the material in a mad dash to fill as many blue books as you can, you’ll do really well.
Law school classes are very different from undergrad classes. Here’s how.
1. Cold Calling
One of the biggest differences from your undergrad experience is that most law school professors will cold call students from a seating chart or list of names. Law professors don’t like to wait for volunteers. What this means is that you’ll have to be prepared for most of your classes, instead of leaving things for last minute cram sessions at the end of a semester.
Law school is a lot like high-school. There are lockers, people carry backpacks, and everyone knows about everyone else’s business. We all know that high-school has certain defined social groups (see “The Breakfast Club”). This post is going to discuss the types of people that you meet at law school, both good and bad.
Now, we all know the classic variety of law students — the “gunners.” These are the students who stay late after class to talk to the professor, raise their hand for every volunteer question (and, evil of all evils, ask questions in the last two minutes), and brag about spending every waking moment in the library studying.
Heading into the second half of the semester, it was time last week to submit bids for Winter term courses. Six classes, ranked in order of preference, strategically reranked and fretted over to optimize the odds of a sufferable professor or subject, and – most importantly – submitted to Mrs. Burns promptly at noon on
I’m a rising 3L at Columbia Law, and I just completed a summer program at large law firm in Los Angeles. This post is going to discuss my experience at the firm. I’ve often heard that the time you spend as a summer associate is the best job you’ll ever have. I can now wholeheartedly
Your first year in law school will be full of standard courses in property, torts, contracts, civil procedure, criminal law, and legal research. These classes involve tons of reading and a single four-hour exam at the end. Most people don’t want to repeat this experience by taking more black letter classes in their second and third years. So as an alternative you can do something radically different by signing up for clinics.