Subject: “How should I improve time management as a 1L?”
Counsel’s Counsel is the world’s preeminent advice column for law students. Written by recent UVA Law graduate, Jane Doe, J.D.
Question:
Hi, I’m a 1L, and overall, I’m having a great time at school. I like my classes and professors. I like all of my classmates and the sense of community here. However, I am really struggling to manage my time. I’m enjoying the content of my classes but having a hard time keeping up. People’s collegiality and involvement here is great, but sometimes I feel like I am being pulled in so many directions. I wouldn’t say I’m drowning…more like treading. Regardless, it’s early in the semester, and I’m already worried about spreading myself too thin. I am particularly worried because I want to work at a BigLaw firm after graduation, and I have heard horror stories about BigLaw work demands. How would you recommend getting on top of time management during 1L?
Best,
A Busy Beaver
Answer:
Thanks for writing in! It’s good to hear you like all of your classmates; UVA must have changed its admissions policies since I graduated.
I feel for you, I really do. 1L Fall is tough. You want to have a life. If you’re at UVA Law, you’re probably used to academic success.
Time management is something all lawyers struggle with. But in law school, there is no such thing as “spread too thin.” As a BigLaw lawyer, you will have unreasonable demands on your time. You must acclimate to this reality if you are going to succeed. In BigLaw, if a partner needs your help, are you just going to say no?
Firms sell clients the promise of immediately-accessible labor because they can deliver. Legal education and industry incentives work together to create a School-to-BigLaw Pipeline, so to speak.
Much of the Pipeline is built on a series of initiatory rituals that are functionally hazing for firm-bound law students. Yet, these rituals also provide valuable insight into a future associate’s productivity. First, applicants must take the LSAT, a test where high scores often correlate with an inhuman ability to sit in one place quietly and work. Then, 1Ls are told that their success in OGI is determined largely by their 1L grades. This helps already competitive students to compete just a little harder. Journal tryouts show firms which students are willing to work all weekend for the opportunity to do two years of free labor in exchange for some prestige. Nobody likes status seekers who undervalue their labor more than prestigious firms.
Recent graduates then must take the bar, an exam based mostly on stuff they learned two years prior. Like the LSAT, this ritual has the added benefit of keeping potential lawyers out of the field, increasing legal job security. Then, partners haze associates by assigning them more work than is humanly possible to identify associates who are obedient. A willingness to compromise other areas of life for work is great for client retention.
Overall, these initiatory rituals push lawyers to feel like underdogs, despite being amongst the wealthiest people in the world. Lawyers without a chip on their shoulder are more likely to lateral out. This, my friend, is how the American legal industry separates the wheat from the chaff.
An alternative would be to hire more attorneys to reduce attorney workloads, but that will never happen because share partners, reasonably so, appreciate money. Until you retire, your relationship to time simply will be unreasonable.
All I have to say is that 1L Fall semester is an excellent time to get used to unreasonable time demands. Your future is likely made of them. So, spread yourself thin. Study hard. Participate in as many clubs as you can and then some. Go to social events. In the future, you might not have enough time to practice not having enough time.
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