If you made it past the grueling processes of studying, taking the LSAT, and applying to law schools–AND you’ve gotten into a law school–then YAY congrats!! Be super proud of your accomplishments and take the summer before to relax! Trust me, you’ll need to take a few months to rest and recharge…because you’re about to enter the best (lol) year of your life!!!
Anyone who has been through law school or has a close friend/family member who has gone through law school refers to the first year of law school as pretty much the hardest or worst year of your life. A lot of it is exaggeration, but some of it is unfortunately true.
As long as you go in with the right mindset and keep the right perspective throughout the two semesters, you will be fine. So just breathe, you got this! And I want to make sure you know what you’re going into so you’re not faced with a bunch of surprises like I was pretty much every week of my first semester.
ORIENTATION
My school had a 1-week-long orientation! I think this is the first time they’ve done a full week, and hopefully it was the last because it was totally unnecessary! Most schools have orientation for a few days to welcome their students to the school/city and host events (informational, social, service, etc.) to connect students with their peers, resources, potential mentors, and connections to the law school.
At my school, we had an introduction ceremony, discussion groups, mock 
classes, introductions to legal education, workshops for professional development, a community service day, dinners with alumni, organization sponsored social events, and other activities.
EXTRAS
To start off on a somewhat happier (for some) topic, there is a lot of socializing in law school. The legal field involves A LOT of networking–whether you love it or hate it (like me!). There will be networking events from the first day you step onto campus. The career center and other organizations you join will constantly send you emails about firms hosting receptions, guest speakers coming to school, bar association events, etc. Even during breaks, you’re asked to go to events to continue building your network!
Our first year is supposed to be intense, so we’re not expected to take on other loads–such as not being allowed to get a job or not holding too many leadership roles.
But there are a lot of organizations and opportunities for 1Ls to get involved. Most organizations have a 1L Rep position or some other leadership role that does not mandate too many responsibilities. For example, I attended various events hosted by different student groups (which usually involve free food!) and became the Secretary of SALSA (South Asian Law Student Association). However, none of those activities involved a large time commitment.
CLASSES
The first year of law school consists of taking these mandatory doctrinal courses: Contracts, Property, Torts, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, and Constitutional Law. Each school also requires some form of Legal Research and Legal Writing (at my school: Research Methods, Objective Analysis & Reasoning and Advocacy). Schools may have additional requirements of their own (at my school: 1 credit Negotiation course during an intersession).
Three doctrinal courses will be taken each semester (at my school: sequence varies and were each 4 credits). For doctrinal courses, we don’t necessarily have assignments that we turn in or continuous quizzes to check on our progress.
Instead, we have casebooks for each course that are full of opinions from 
over the years. Every night, we are assigned about 15-30 pages of reading per class. That doesn’t seem too bad, right?!
Except that a lot of the reading is dry and can be old English that takes a few reads to fully understand! (Read the next post for brief/notes/reading tips). And as you’re reading, you’re making sure that you actually know what it is that you’re reading. Because you can’t just rely on figuring it out the next day in lecture.
COLD CALLING
Instead, anxious thoughts build up up as you anticipate being “cold called” on by your professor. The Socratic Method is a teaching tactic that facilitates a dialogue with critical thinking. Every day, law professors (especially 1L professors) call on a handful of students and ask them a range of questions that allow them to critically think about and analyze the readings and concepts.
Sounds scary, but read the next post for how I stopped caring so much! This is just a way of learning and rather than getting caught up in trying to have the most perfect cold calls–just do your best. (Most) professors will guide you and will use their own methods in helping you think more critically about the material. And in most cases (unless you’re always unprepared), the cold calls do not affect your grade!
PASSES
My professors had a set number of “passes” that we could use throughout the semester. These “passes” (anywhere from 3-8 in my case) were used for any absence or unprepared class. If something came up, you did not have time for a reading, or really felt like you did not understand the material at all, you could write the professor a note before class asking them to use 1 of your passes. And they won’t call on you. However, if you do not write a note, you get called on, and you are not prepared–most professors will count that as two passes. Any pass used above the professor’s standard will usually result in a deduction in your grade (except in emergencies).
GRADES
For Legal Practice, the majority of our grades depended on two projects each semester. The first semester we wrote memorandums and the second semester we wrote briefs. Each paper involved new clients and different writing methods. The professor graded the papers against one another and grades were determined according to our school’s set mean. Grades can be affected by factors such as attendance, poor drafts, research presentations, etc.
For the six Doctrinal courses, our only grade (which can be affected by factors such as attendance) depended on our final exam (and a midterm if your school or professor uses those as a grade). SO for people like me who hate exams, this is a nightmare.
Your 1L grades are the most important in helping you land summer jobs and to set you up for your future as a legal student. However, those grades depend on one exam that is taken at the end of the semester. And that one exam covers material you have learned throughout the entire semester.
It sounds horrible, but honestly, the way we learn in law school (for the most part) allows you to retain and reorganize concepts we learn with the addition of each new piece of material. While I studied, I definitely felt like I was recalling the concepts and understood the material.
However, taking law school exams was (and still is) quite an adjustment for me. I was used to taking several multiple choice or short answer exams that had a definite right/scientific answer. In undergrad I used to love taking exams with essay questions because I believed I was able to do a lot better on those. However, the majority of law school exams involve essay questions (and depending on your professors’ preferences may involve short answers or multiple choice).
But these are not like my undergrad essays at all. Professors typically like answers written in a specific format and generally have a certain way they would like concepts to be explained. So it’s important to be able to think critically about the fact pattern, analyze the various concepts, and present a coherent and compelling argument that would persuade your professor.
Under time pressure, I’m the worst at this! However, the more you understand how the various concepts fit together, the more likely you are to present a better argument. Most professors tend to not take points off, so you’re likely to get a few points for at least identifying the issues the professors are trying to get you to spot! But don’t ramble on about anything just to rack up points (which I have been guilty of) because more likely than not it will just irritate the grader.
As long as you keep up with the readings, pay attention in class and stay on top of outlining (discussed later on), YOU WILL BE FINE!
1L END OF THE YEAR SCHEDULE
I genuinely enjoy studying, so when classes are about to end and Reading Period is about to begin, I get excited. Being able to sit down and just go over the material–on my own terms is something that helps me figure out what I need to work on without having the added stress of classes, readings or cold calls.
By this point, I generally have at least a rough outline completed and focus on modifying the outlines, studying concepts, and taking practice exams if I can. The 1L Exam Schedule is set, and at my school, we get about 3 days to study for each exam. (I’ll discuss Outlining and how I spaced out studying in the next post).
Grades are released about a month or so after our last exam (we get emails with the date and time they will be released so everyone can have one more thing to freak out about for weeks!).
After the fall semester, we have winter break when they tell you to work on applications for your summer jobs (well, they actually say to submit those by December 1st but you’re studying then so why do that to yourself?), update your professional documents, and attend networking events.
Right after the spring semester, my school had a clerkship (which occurs after graduation) bootcamp and the week long Write-On Competition (to win a spot on one of the Law School’s journals).
Final Thoughts
Clearly, being a 1L is busy. What makes it seem busier is the competitive nature of the law school system. But what I’ll talk about in the next post is what I learned, what I wish I knew, and how I realized that the first year does not have to be as bad as everyone makes it seem!!!
Just breathe, it’s like any other step you have to take for your future. There will be inevitable bumps, but you don’t have to self-create any unnecessary obstacles along the way:)
