Garrett Coleman ’25
Executive Editor
Another year, another opportunity for me to preach to 1Ls reading this paper. As a 2L, I had to write the annual 1L advice column, but I chose to be painfully abstract. While enjoyable to read, it left little in the way of practical guidance. So, I have returned to fix that and offer a list of easy to digest tips for 1Ls who want to start their legal careers on the right foot.
1) Use Friday or Saturday morning as a time to review the previous week. I know . . . reviewing is the most tedious form of studying. But it is also the most helpful. These weeks will fly by, and many of your classes will jump between topics. What an end-of-the-week review session offers is a chance to solidify those ephemeral concepts into real understanding. I suggest incorporating your best class notes into your reading notes and adjusting each for any discrepancies or redundancies.
2) Take a law school [s]abbath. At least in the beginning of the school year, you should have the time on either Saturday or Sunday to completely disconnect from your legal education. Ride a bike, play pickleball, or read about the Roman Empire. Drink some fluids if Bar Review was the night before. The important thing is that you give yourself some time to rest and enjoy the things and people you loved before law school. While things feel busy, 99 percent of you have the time to do this with proper discipline during the week.
3) Start the 1L summer job search early but lightly. Do not stress about it, since there will be very few opportunities before Christmas break. However, if you have some down time in October or early November, I recommend brainstorming some ideas and lightly drafting your application documents so you can launch as quickly as possible. The Office of Private Practice will have more concrete suggestions. You won’t want to push this until after finals, when your brain is mushy.
4) Prioritize health. Eating well, exercising, and sleeping improve your mental performance. There is no way of getting around that. And, again barring unforeseen personal issues, 1Ls should have the time to work on those three pillars. During my 1L year, I tried to cut corners on some of these. But life, including my academic performance, would always improve when I got them back in check.
5) Do the reading before class. You think it would be simple. But life gets in the way, and you will be tempted to push it off. The problem with doctrinal classes, though, is that topics compound on one another. So your skipped days compound into serious gaps in understanding. When outline season comes around, and you see a two week gap in your reading notes, you will hate yourself. Try to avoid this by doing the reading before class.
6) Ask upperclassmen questions. We don’t do much! And we love giving advice, as you can tell from this article. For the big events of this year, like exams or journal tryouts, talking to a 2 or 3L over coffee can be very helpful. If anything, we can calm you down, since your imagination will make these things scarier than they are.
7) Don’t be a[n] [insert preferred expletive]. First impressions die hard. And the people around you are more than classmates–they are also future colleagues, whose referrals you will need. Not to mention, they are people deserving of respect. Share notes; invite others to study groups; refrain from preaching in class, etc.
8) Go to office hours. I am personally terrible at this. And that is mostly because I worry about having enough questions to ask. When I don’t understand something, I usually can’t formulate a question in the first place. In my experience, though, professors are more than happy to help if you just point at a topic and grunt. Okay, maybe more than that, but an acceptable question could be: “I have not understood personal jurisdiction since Pennoyer. Could you please briefly explain what the court is trying to do at this step?” And even if you somehow manage to ask an irksome question, we have blind grading!
9) Play a full roster on your section softball team. Don’t be that team that restricts the batting lineup to the nine most athletic players.
10) Have fun! Hopefully, you came to law school because you have some interest in reading, writing, speaking, government, politics, or ethics. Law school is a great outlet for those types of people. Many of the cases have fun stories–like when a single plank blew up an entire ship. Being called on in class will test your speaking abilities under high stress. And everything you study will have some impact on the lives of ordinary people. Enjoy the opportunity to spend three years thinking with a group of brilliant people.