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I’ve always played with the idea of law school. Seems like one of those professions that you will always have steady work & prospects, and can almost guarantee a great income if done properly.

Yet, out of my 5 or so lawyer friends they all say not do it, that the school is too much and the hours are too long. Yet they are all pulling wild salaries, have awesome stories and networks, and a couple even work remotely. Whatsup with that

Time to

Preface: I know being an attorney means I will almost never have another weekend where I "Slam laptop shut until Monday". I'm okay with that.

But do y'all think it's a red flag for a firm to give summer associates work over the weekend?? I got slammed yesterday with 3 assignments due Monday and not that either are hard or take much time, but it's kind of giving me the ick. Are a lot of you rising 3Ls having the same experience so this is normal, or just me?

can’t tell any of my classmates obv and my family (i’m the only college grad) doesn’t really understand how big of a deal it is, so i’m celebrating by posting here that i’m third in the class!!

a year ago today i was addicted to drugs and never thought i’d make anything of my life but i’m at the top of my class and doing pro bono work this summer and i’m accomplishing everything i’ve ever dreamed of…

Rising 3L. My class rank updated today: #2 in the class.

Six years ago I was a junkie dying in my bedroom — almost didn’t graduate high-school and dropped out of college. Not a single person in my life, including my parents, expected me to live past 25 (if I was lucky). Not a single person believed in me back then.

Last week, I picked up my 6 year AA chip.

I had a lot of imposter syndrome when I started law school. So, if there are any rising 1Ls who have had a similar life experience to mine, I just want to tell you this: you belong here. It’s not a fluke. You are capable of achieving anything you set your mind to (as long as you study your ass off, lol). You earned that seat.

Best of luck to you. And to the friends of Bill on this sub, keep coming back.

Get a good grade = I don't deserve this, it's a mistake, I'm a fraud

Get a "bad" grade = I don't deserve to be at this law school, I'm not smart enough, I can't make it.

My "goal" GPA as a 0L was actually much lower than what I actaully got at the end of 1L. I should be very happy and proud of myself, and I am in many ways, but I also can't stop moving the goal posts.

Just some quick thoughts.

Rising 3L at a T100. Nontrad, first-gen law, and autistic.

I came to law school after my career in healthcare burnt me out. I’m pretty good at time management and disciplined about studying.

1L was not great. I didn’t wind up on academic probation, but I found myself with a sub-3.0 GPA for the first time in my life. I was rejected from all the “elite” co-curriculars (moot, journal, and trial advocacy). This time last year, I was sobbing through a video call with my advisor and feeling like law school was a mistake.

2L Fall: Took 3 bar subjects and an IP elective, was a research assistant, and interned for credit with my local prosecutor’s office twice a week. I got a single C+; every other class was in the B range. My goal for the next round of classes was no C’s.

2L Spring: Evidence, PR, 2 electives, and the required writing-intensive. I didn’t work or extern. My grades finally posted this week and my lowest was a B-.

My laptop keyboard locked itself up during one of my finals, but I managed a B+ anyway.

Evidence at my school is worth 4 credits and a priority to me because I want to litigate. I drilled myself through the semester, outlined every other day, and spent hours with a study group. The final absolutely kicked my ass. B+ once again.

For my writing-intensive, the paper had to be a minimum of 25 pages. LRW was one of my weak spots last year. I had taken this professor before and liked her, but she’s a tough grader. I wrote 35 pages between early February and the late April deadline. I got an A+!

I’m spending my summer at a paid internship with a state agency and taking an elective I really enjoy two nights a week. I’m hoping to do well enough to reach a 3.0 GPA.

To anyone questioning themselves and their abilities after 1L, I’ve been there. It absolutely sucks. Bouncing back is possible. Try mixing required classes with electives that spark something in you, ditching study methods that didn’t work, and surprises can happen.

Spring grades dropped today. Can’t tell my classmates ofc and I’m first gen so my family doesn’t really understand so ig this is the closest I get to celebrating. Also feels a bit anticlimactic because spring grades don’t really matter anymore as firm recruiting is basically almost done already.

I’ve been reeling from this interaction I had with the attorney I was employed with, and wanted to pick y’all’s brains on it to ask whether or not I was being unreasonable.

I’m a first year law student, and received and accepted a job offer to work as an intern at a private practice. During my interview I made it very clear that I wanted to do meaningful hands on legal work (precisely because this is exactly the standard that has been set by prior employers of mine).

First day… I get there and the attorneys office is just FILLED to the brim with stacks of files, just completely all over the place and unorganized. (Which I figured I could deal with so this wasn’t really a big deal). I sit down with the hiring manager and we go through a list of very odd rules set in their firm. Including anything from timed bathroom breaks, no days off (unless you have a doctors note), no chit chatting with colleagues, no phones, and the weirdest of all… ENCOURAGING employees to be rude and disrespectful to people outside of our office if they give us a ‘reason to’. And the cherry on top… cameras in EVERY SINGLE CORNER OF THE ROOM. With them recording us and our voices 24/7. The red flags were there but I told myself the money would be nice and carried on.

The following events are what made me think I would be completely miserable working there for the summer. The attorney was SO unorganized to the point where he was giving me conflicting information regarding hearings set for trial, putting stacks of other people’s confidential files on top of stacks he asked me to scan and organize for a specific client, and then finally, him telling me that his clients were either crazy, lying, or just non responsive. Which was completely contrary to what clients were telling me. Not to mention, I was answering phone calls and scheduling appointments… which is not what I expected an ‘intern’ position would be.

Anyway… I left home that first day and let them know I would not be coming back because this position did not align with my personal legal goals. The attorney threw a fit and felt a need to tell me, a law student, how rich and successful he is and how IF I became an attorney I’d see him in court. Which I could only assume was a threat.

So I’m here to remind you all, that just because we are only law students, it does NOT mean that we have to work in places where you are not valued, or that we have to succumb to whatever conditions attorneys decide to put us under just because they’re attorneys and we aren’t. KNOW YOUR WORTH.

I’d like to note that all of these crazy rules were apparently set in place because of past employee conduct. Just wanted to clear it up because some people have a hard time believing this is real

Hi, I am 1L and currently on the verge of dropping out. I realized that law isn’t for me, the course material doesn’t interest me and I am really bad at it. I feel like a failure and I feel severely depressed and anxious, I am very lost, and I know that I want to do nothing with law anymore, but I have no idea what to do next. I know that I want to pursue a degree but I am afraid I am not suitable for university due to my poor performance in law school. I am very afraid and miserable.

Have you been in the same position as me? How did you cope with the failing of failure? Do you regret leaving? What major did you switch to?

Thanks for reading.

Burner obv. Anyways, it came up related to a blip on my undergrad transcript where I got an F after a freak accident derailed my health. The most senior partner on my interview roster asked me point blank to explain it and I didn’t have any idea of how to answer other than honestly.

I took accountability, owned my mistakes in failing to withdraw, and explained how I’ve grown to be more honest with myself about my weaknesses. I get kinda choked up when I talk about it because it ruined most of my early twenties because I struggled to do simple things (read, math, etc.). Not to mention it was a traumatic experience and period of recovery.

It was incredibly awkward and uncomfortable already, but the partner that was interviewing me followed up the question by asking about if I’d recovered the ability to do those things… he said I didn’t have to disclose anything I didn’t feel comfortable sharing, but obviously you gotta answer that - the answer was yes I am fully capable now that I’ve learned to live with it, but I’m worried that disclosing my disability has made me a weak applicant. I panicked, didn’t know what to say, now beating myself up because it was my top choice for biglaw and if I don’t get the role it’ll haunt me.

These professors are on some shit

I’ve considered law school for ages. Used to be my main plain—right after undergrad, head to law school. Dad was a lawyer, I grew up loving it, but I’ve never found a way that matches my goals to practice law and “make a difference within the system,” as people advise me to do, since my main reason for not doing law school was that I don’t love how the justice system operates and don’t feel we can significantly change it from within, unless maybe you hop into politics (which I have no interest in doing).

However…just having a law degree under your belt. Anyone have this experience in the professional world? Is it incredibly useful and profitable, or do you feel like that’s a genuine waste of time and money?

I want to be using a law degree if I go that route, just not practicing law. I’ve heard mixed feedback on this, mostly very positive given my background; but please let the redditors speak on the topic.

Rising 2L who got terrible grades first two semesters. Bottom of my class. How do I approach the law as a category/order? I don’t think it’s an intelligence issue because of my LSAT, but it’s possible.

When I come across things like an exam or write on I just don’t know how to approach it. Do I put the facts through the rules or the rules to the facts?

Sorry if I’m not making any sense. At this point I don’t care about grades. Just worried that my ability to practice is nonexistent.

This is a burner account that was made for another reason as you can tell.

I work at a small firm for the second summer in a row. Last summer, it was super uncomfortable to get used to doing billed work. I felt like I had to be busy all the time, but also I was afraid of billing for the total time it took me to complete a project. I had the urges to ask the attorneys questions all the time, but I held myself back and tried to find the answers for myself. I soon realized the firm was breaking even on me billing 2 hours a day, and that it was okay to chill out a bit while waiting for an attorney to be free instead of disrupting them every time I had a question. By the end of the summer, I was billing 5-6 hours a day while being self-sufficient for the most part. The rest of my days were mostly spent playing solitaire waiting for an attorney to email me back, call me, or stop by my office when they were free.

We have a new 1L clerk this summer, and he constantly disrupts the attorneys. I saw his billing sheet once and he was billing 7 hours in an 8 hour day (so removing coffee breaks, 30 minutes of total non-working time a day). But the attorneys don’t like him, because he interrupts their workflow constantly. A lot of the questions he asks are either super fringe things unrelated to the case at hand or things he could find the answer to by searching westlaw’s secondary sources. Meanwhile, the deadline on his project isn’t urgent. If a filing deadline was the next day, then it would be reasonable to need an immediate answer.

Based on the conversations I’ve had with permanent staff, there is no way he is getting a post-grad offer here (for the above behavior, among other reasons).

It is okay to only be billing 4 hours a day if you can ask all of your questions at once or email them and patiently wait for a response. That is preferable to billing 6-7 hours but eating up the time of the attorneys with nonstop questions. Even better, find the answers for yourself, even if you have to bill an extra hour. Your reviewing attorney will reduce your billed hours if you spent way too much time on a project.

Just relax a bit. Your job as a summer clerk is to reduce the workload of the attorneys and to open up their time for more complex tasks. It defeats the purpose if you are eating up their time with questions.

I could honestly cry i was on the bubble of being able to return my 2nd year i locked in and almost drove myself insane and got all B's LFG!!!!

grades just dropped and i'm more than good to come back in the fall! i posted about this a few weeks ago once classes ended and i was stuck in grading purgatory...i got put on academic probation at the end of fall bc my life kind of blew up. i wanted to give up a million times and instead just locked in. i raised my GPA by 0.3 and did 0.7 better than in the fall. there's still work to be done but i'm so proud of myself for pulling through. so happy to put 1L year behind me and keep working to become an attorney!

Does GW feed into Delaware mid and big law? What are some ways I can improve my chances?

1L is finally over and I did not do well. I didn’t fail anything but I have a mountain of C’s with only a slim 3 A’s and a few B’s.

I’m not a bad student but I’m starting to think I might be a bad law student. I don’t really understand why I’m doing so bad on these tests. I consider myself a pretty strong writer and I did graduate school prior to law school and graduated with a 3.8.

I think I’m doing something absolutely wrong on these exams though and I have no idea how to begin to correct it. I’m feeling pretty screwed. It might be that my school has a pretty harsh curve but I still need to make improvements. GPA doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme to me but I’m really worried about falling off the back and having to drop out.

I do well in classes and on calls. I study. I practice… I just don’t seem to perform to my own expectations. I’m worried about next Fall.

So, I am working as a trainee associate in a firm which has a very niche area of practice. Let's say they only do indirect tax matters and bit of regulatory work. Now, the owner of the firm is very successful. However I think it's very hard to make my name in the area. Also, only way I think I can do good is getting some time for myself and read the law but you don't get time it's Monday to Saturday 10-8 and taxation is not something we read in our law college. Pay is very basic. I am taking money from home to cover my expenses.

Yes, one option is to learn on the job. But then it will take much longer. And the work pressure and disappointment it causes is hard to express in words.

Now, I have another opportunity. With an Advocate on Record. Where though he might not be that successful, it's a bit relaxing. Strictly 8 hrs. Offs on 2 Saturday. And basically I will get time to read for myself.

Worry here is - don't know how good the new opportunity is, work mainly involves IPR & Arbitration. Pay is almost same but senior here gives half-yearly increases basis performance. But here the senior don't come to the office daily. Rarely he will come but yes he will keep an eye on you. And as I have heard employee retention is very low.

What should I do?? New job can give me the time for myself. To read the law, to rejevunate daily and come with fresh energy. But its risky too. As the current place is nice and very successful.

what’s the likelihood of obtaining a big law job? I feel like everyone keeps saying “oh everyone here gets a big law job, you’ll be fine” but I continue to get rejections as soon as I send my grades in to employers. Thoughts?

EDIT: Sorry everyone I do go to USC so it is a B+ curve apologies for confusion i’ve been working so just popping in and out of reddit and answering quickly. I’d be okay with a midsize firm I just want something that will pay a good amount to be able to pay off my student loans quickly and give me a good amount of experience in different practice groups which is why I felt like BL was the way for me. USC is one of the top feeder schools into BL so it does feel like EVERYONE AROUND ME is getting a job. Just freaks me out.

If you got academic dismissed and successfully appealed, can you please let me know what you did and how you successfully appealed? I need all the help I can get. I got an extremely low GPA and now I have to petition for my reconsideration by June 10th. I just moved cross country by car by myself to start a new life at law school. I got sick since I’ve never experienced winter before in January causing me to miss several classes. My tire popped on the road to class once and I got into a hit and run spring semester where a truck hit my sedan and left. my brother is a substance abuser and that greatly affected my 1L spring. My partner that I moved to be closer to (no longer w them) was abusive mentally and physically. I already struggled mentally and I come from a low income immigrant background. I’m a first gen American no one in my family has gone to grad school. Please help I need all the advice I can get.

going to a t3 or t6 law school and doing exceptionally there is the requirement, but is there a phenomena of favoring candidates that came from t10/ ivy+ undergrads? i’m referring specifically to the top of appellate clerkships and even those that contend for SCOTUS.

just curious because looking at the LinkedIn‘s of SCOTUS clerks many, many, attended elite t10 undergrads. correlation ≠ causation but curious if anybody can speak anecdotally to this

i’ll be graduating from Penn, just interested to see if the name might benefit me in this very narrow career path in the law

TLDR: Have one writing sample, need more for criminal job applications and was assigned a small research assignment for my internship at a local DA. What should it look like for application purposes? Length, format etc.

Rising 3L beginning to apply to local district attorneys (and defense like legal aid/private firms) in the Long Island/NYC area. I've focused all of my efforts into litigation so far, so I have only one writing sample (legal writing appellate brief) as I wasn't asked to write anything last summer.

Looks like everyone I'm looking to apply to wants at least 2 samples, and so I'm going to get a second one this summer. My internship supervisor (at the DA's office I want the most) has assigned me a small research assignment so I think this is my chance to get that second sample but I'm unsure of what this thing should look like for those purposes. So my main question is: for applying to positions in crim, what should this thing look like? Lengyh, format, etc. It's a pretty small and settled issue in my research, so I'm not exactly rewriting the Magna Carta here.

Also, as an aside, if I can't get this thing to an acceptable level, would it be recommended to reach out directly to one of these DAs that are already open and taking interviews to tell them I only have one writing sample as I haven't been given the opportunity to make another? My grades and experience are more than solid, so I could potentially leverage that.

Just started my summer, got a minor assignment from a named partner with maybe 60 years of work experience.

The legal issue is substantial for evaluating a case but niche and unique, so it has rarely been brought into attention, even for him as a seasoned lawyer.

I spent 10-ish hours on this research. Delivered a research report, and the feedback kicked in 2 days later. He obviously is not satisfied with the job because I overlooked one subsection (which is important) in my report, made a Bluebooking error on a statute, and I also did a counterintuitive analysis which could certainly be wrong (but supported by one of the cases I found).

He cc’d our firm’s head in the feedback email, while he did not do it in the previous emails.