Going back to school after being in the workforce for 10 years. Just got my schedule. In between classes I want to be able to go to the library and read, synthesize/update notes, work on outlines as needed etc. Any specific advice on how to fill this schedule out? I was also hoping to go to the gym at least 3 times a week before school in the mornings but now I don’t know if that’s possible except for Wednesdays. How would you approach this schedule if this was your 1L fall semester?

I’m a rising 2L. I have applied for moot court, law review, and the journals and did not get into any of them. Grades are average. Top 38%. Feeling down because I am trying my best but it just seems like it isn’t good enough.

I do have experience in a firm and am currently a summer clerk, but having the extra curricular could have helped with reaching the credit requirements and a resume boost.

Someone please tell me it’s still worth it. I feel like a loser.

Every week, some magnificent issue of law appears and I see a million people commenting their legal take. I have seen maybe a dozen people with no legal background talking about the applicability of the Israeli ICC warrants and the Rome Statute

ignoring you guys and forcing myself to accept that 25 hours/week of bluebooking is worth it

Man… I applied to a bunch of clerkships. Circuit, district, state Supreme Court across mostly less-geographically competitive areas. My GPA is pretty good, T6, and after all of this, not a single bite— even for courts where my clerkship office said my gpa should’ve made me highly competitive. I’ve poured over my materials— I couldn’t find a typo in my materials and everything looks good… what went wrong? Should I have gone out of my way to get my recommenders to put in a call for me beyond the few chambers I was excited for? I’m super bummed; I knew this process was competitive but given my grades and school I thought I would get at least a bite at one of the less-competitive courts :(

For reasons that made sense at the time but now seem inexplicable to me, I enrolled in Business Orgs, Federal Courts, and Evidence + 2 seminars and my GPA is probably cooked, but I’ll get three heavy lifts out of the way this semester. Honestly looking forward to it, but there’s still time for the dread to creep in. Anybody else play their 2L fall a bit more strategically, or is drowning just part of the journey?

Anyone ever notice that many phenomenal legal minds in the U.S. have a U.S. Bachelors and JD but in between (or sometimes after the JD) earned a masters from Oxford? Examples:
D. John Sauer

Stephen Breyer

Elena Kagan

Neil Gorsuch

Byron White

David Souter

John Marshall Harlan II

Cory Booker

Bill Clinton

Sarah Harris

Jack Goldsmith III

Virginia Seitz

Nicholas Katzenbach

Steven Engel

Karl Thompson

Any reason for this?

For context, I performed poorly my 1L year and am towards the bottom of my class so I'm not thinking about the Big Law hiring timeline. I talked to me career advisor about strategy for 2L Summer hiring and she said that I can focus on getting my grades up 2L Fall because 2L hiring is mainly in the spring. I want to confirm if this is true or not because I have seen discussion on this subreddit about applying now. I have also been told by older students that they started applying for 2L positions in the Fall.

Also, for those who performed poorly academically in their 1L year, was there anything you did to secure your 2L position aside from networking and targeting positions that don't ask for your transcript?

I am very late to the game on applying to 2L summer associate positions and I am aiming to get a paying one. Is it too late? What strategy should I take to get one?

This is my last semester and year in law school. Being specifically I’m from the Dominican Republic that means that my country’s legislation is pretty different to the US of others countries that appears in this community.

With that said, I’d like to get your advice guys for becoming a great lawyer and as I’ll graduate the next year I want to work hard on my path with all the things that requires what I want.

If you’re a lawyer which things and routine you can recommend me.

Is anyone else experiencing dread about returning to law school and coming out of this summer?

For me personally, there's a lot of frustration with my (T20) law school, a lack of community, lack of extracurriculars going into this coming year, mediocre grades, etc., so much so that I contemplated transferring at one point. But after seriously considering my scholarship and what I wanted from my life and career, I decided not to. But now, after this summer, I'm not so sure what I want...

I entered law wanting to do crim. I spent some time at a PD's office, and loved it, but thought that DA might be as rewarding if you can exercise discretion well. But now I've come out of this summer at the USAO feeling super worried about the thought of doing criminal law. I've realized that while there are great parts to the job, there isn't much that's really "legal" about it per se. You can get tons of courtroom experience, but your legal writing becomes effectively zero, and the only actual issues are questions of fact and whether the judge made a mistake in applying a sentencing factor. Just as concerning is that I've learned I'm not entirely sure that I believe in the U.S. prison system. Unfortunately, these same issues persist on the PD side as well... I want to try something else, but whatever job I take next summer is probably what I'll do post-grad, and either I completely passed up on the firms because I was so bought into doing public interest. Besides, even if I did get some other experience, then that would be the thing I would be signing onto, and while I would love to try transactional, Idek what is left in that arena and wouldn't feel confident signing onto that.

Does anyone else feel like this, and does anyone have advice? I'm not really sure how to turn this around at this point, and I have seriously considered taking a leave of absence to figure out what it is I actually want out of this career, and maybe buy me some time. I'm a KJD and have spent all year kicking myself for not taking time off... Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Legal writing 1 credit, Con Law 4 Credits, Trusts and Estates 4 credits, employment discrimination 3 credits, environmental law 3 credits.

Am I overdoing it? 15 credits and 4 finals.

I’m looking for some advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

I recently realized that I’m on track to complete all of my graduation requirements at the end of the upcoming fall semester.

The problem is that I don’t have a post-graduation job lined up, and finding this out has made me pretty anxious. I spoke with my law school, and they told me that I don’t have to graduate in the fall. Instead, I could intentionally delay graduation by taking my final required class in the spring, even though I could otherwise finish earlier. I’m trying to figure out which option makes more sense.

On one hand, graduating earlier seems like it gets me into the workforce sooner and lets me take the bar earlier. On the other hand, staying enrolled for one more semester would give me additional time to apply for jobs, network, participate in OCI or other recruiting opportunities if available.

For those who have been in this position, or who hire new attorneys, which would you recommend?
I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who intentionally delayed graduation or who graduated without a job lined up.

Currently trying not to freak out too much so thanks in advance.

New property hypo just dropped

I’m a rising 2L who’s in house this summer at a large company. I had a large research project that turned into a large memo throughout the summer. Today I just got it back and it was lowkey torn apart. Is this part of the normal 1L summer experience or is there an actual gap in my skill set? Gonna go over it with my supervising attorney this afternoon wish me luck.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the kind responses, just want to emphasize I’m not upset that it’s torn apart, I feel like if they didn’t tear it apart I wouldn’t learn anything. (Excuse earlier tone as I didn’t have my morning coffee yet) Just never did work like this before so I just want to address if it’s a skill issue or par for the course. It seems just mostly writing style with some places I could have pushed research further. Thanks for helping a first gen out :)

EDIT 2: Keeping this post up and not deleting it so future 1Ls can reference it. It was an internal transactional diligence memo and I was actually praised by my supervising attorney. They said “I can run it past 5 different lawyers and get 5 different responses.” It really is par for the course and actually very useful. Do not fear feedback!

to Teams messages and emails after hours? Like in the evening, at night, or on the weekend. Just curious

I actually like doing research and dont want ai to just pop up an answer. also ai often gets it wrong and its annoying to have to comb through it and find errors when it so confidently generates an answer that is misleading or just straight up wrong. id rather just do my own research and reach my own conclusions. it helps me understand the law better and develop the skills needed to actually work in the legal profession

Basically just title. I had good grades, too, and poured so so much work into write on (all spots are write on at my school). I have a job lined up and go to a well regarded school etc it’s just that I want to be a really strong litigator and it’s hard not to feel like a) some important doors have closed and b) I’m not as capable as I was hoping I’d be. I know I’m lucky in the grand scheme of things and I’m grateful for so much. It just stings.

Edit: really appreciate the comments. Unfortunately there is no second opportunity write on (I would be all over that but alas) BUT I’ve been involved in another journal and hope to stay involved

kind of what the title says, im playing around with my schedule and tbh the only classes that interest me are the specialized 2 credit classes, how bad would it look if i have a bunch of 2 credit classes instead of 3 credit classes

Made my school's flagship journal. I hate it. The way my school handles its editing feels so archaic and a huge time suck. Editing the notes isn't even what's taking me the most time; it's the fact that I have to include every single page and point exactly to what I'm looking at in my edits for lead editors to review. Does anyone have any advice to make this suck less, or is it just a doomed masochist ritual for the next two years of my life?