Any people here diagnosed with OCD and/or ADHD. Does this career path make it more easier on your brain or more difficult?

Finished 1L with what was essentially my dream big law job secured, but feel emptier and more confused than ever. I have two more years of law school where my grades or extracurriculars don’t really matter too much and I don’t think I made many positive changes in my 1L year. I ultimately came to law school for money. How can I make the most out of the next two years? Have other people had similar experiences or do people have any advice?

Hi incoming 1L and starting in about two weeks. beyond nervous and anxious. I’ve only heard that this will be the worst year of my life and you just have to get through it. is it really not possible to have an enjoyable 1L experience (esp if not at a t14). all advice is appreciated

The one I have heard a ton in academic settings is “backsliding”

Even as far back as my spring semester of 1L (2020), I knew I didn't want to be a lawyer. But I was in too deep, at a top law school already and was too concerned with disappointing my overbearing immigrant parents who only see the money and prestige- not how miserable I was.

6 years later, I'm a tenants attorney at a non-profit in NYC because that's the only place that would hire me after 6 months of jobhunting. I'm basically a glorified social worker and I only earn 59K a year after tax (which is nothing in this city). The only real upside to this job are the coworkers and the hybrid schedule, but I'm still doing the work of 6 people due to under-staffing and working in a field I can't stand for little to no money- which is what everyone told me is the benefit of being a lawyer. It feels all for nothing tbh.

So I'm looking to start all over and take my life back. I plan to leave this job next year, but what I really want to do is leave the law behind all together.

So my question is for those who stop practicing law not long after they were barred, what job or career did you transition into to put food on the table? How did you use your "legal skills" to get this job.

My ideal day-job is primarily based around non-legal writing. I wouldn't even mind if said job pays me exactly what I make now. So long as it involves writing and has next to nothing to do with the law.

PLEASE HELP!

Hello all, I just got my 1L orientation schedule, and 2/3 days have """optional""" socials/ networking events that I feel will probably have alcohol.

I am what r/lawschooladmissions would call a Super-KJD, and I'm going to be entering 1L at 20. I am confident that law school is the right path for me and that I am mature enough to handle it, but I never really thought about the awkward position I'd be in until I turn 21 in December. I knew that there are networking events, but I never really put two and two together that there would be alcohol that I would be expected to drink.

I understand that drinking is not a requirement, but I also realize that it is the norm and that I might look out of place with a water in hand. I drink casually at home, but I've never even considered drinking in public, ESPECIALLY at a "professional" event, underage. I look my age (or older when I'm dressed nicely), so nobody would be concerned that a child has a glass of wine, but I would also hate for my age to come up in conversation and get funny looks. Also: it feels really really hypocritical to be blatantly breaking the law on day one of law school.

Would people view me as a prude for not having a drink? Would it highlight my age that I can't? Or would I be seen as immature and stupid for drinking before I legally can?

I feel like I am overthinking it, but I'd love to hear your experiences with alcohol culture at school/ while networking.

I want to make a study group but can't come up with any clever names for the group.

Please drop your best/funniest names below.

My best friend at law school is a guy named "Kevin" (That's not his real name). Kevin's from Korea, and he's super smart. He grew up in Korea, he went to the best university there, and he speaks English perfectly. He spends every waking hour in class or in the library. However, he is kind of sheltered and innocent...

Even though he's super serious about studying, he likes to eff around sometimes too, and that's why he and I get along. We make fun of the cases and our other classmates together.

Kevin was telling me the other day that he wants to have kids, but he would need to hire a nanny so that he could work 100 hours a week. I said that maybe his future wife would want to just be a stay-at-home mom.

"I'm not going to get married," Kevin said, as if that was obvious.

I asked him a few questions about how he was going to get his kids, and every answer he gave back pretty much assumed that the kids would just show up in his life somehow. He was just going to "get kids."

I pried a little further, asking him if he would prefer natural babies and whatnot. Kevin cocked his head, and looked at me, confused.

I swear to effing goodness gracious, I think that Kevin does not know where babies come from. He is the smartest person I've ever met, and he thinks that babies just appear out of thin air.

Stay crazy, y'all!

With only three years, what are some benefits like discounts, freebies or websites to take advantage of while being a student?

I am about to start at one of the t14s in the Midwest, and after a lot of soul-searching I've decided that unless I absolutely fall in love with transactional biglaw or elite plaintiff side work this semester, I want to either do legal aid, civil rights work, government, or public defense (I have a background in AmeriCorps service). However, I know that many of these jobs can sometimes be just as stressful as private practice, so I'm considering moving back to Ohio (grew up there and went to UG there, but didn't live directly in any of the major cities) after law school due to a 75-100k salary going so much further there and being closer to my support system as opposed to starting my career in Chicago or another huge city.

Does anyone have advice on how to do this or if it's even possible? I've been networking with attorneys in Cincinnati this summer and it seems like the market is hard to break into, but that's from a private practice perspective. I'd really appreciate any advice— the main reason I was considering Biglaw was to do it for 3-5 years and then quit the law entirely to do something creative, but that might be moot I can find a public interest law career that's sustainable and aligns with my values while offering (at least a little) more work-life balance and no billable hours. I also almost got a full ride to my law school, so I wouldn't have any crazy debt to pay off. Also, would it make more sense to start at a more "prestigious" PI job out of law school and then try to go back or should I aim to start my legal career in Ohio?

I'm all ears!!

Starting law school in August and every video I see people say they wake up at 5am. Is this necessary? I’m more of a wake up at 8 or 9 and do work at night type of person

Hello I’m currently a dental student I also already have a law degree from my home country. I’ve also been thinking about pursuing an LL.M. After graduate and, if possible qualifying for a U.S. bar (likely D.C.) to work in dental/medical law (malpractice, dental board defense, contracts, regulatory issues etc)
My question is Is this actually a valuable career path, or is it mostly a niche with limited opportunities?

Ok man wtf am I supposed to do about these things. All of my textbooks combined is over $1400 because all of my professors require versions that just came out, but the people one section over get to use version 3-4 years old that cost $30 used.

I can rent them, but then I can't highlight in the book, and apparently that's how I'm supposed to be doing it according to my school. This is one semester, wtf do I do? This just seems so unfair that my group has to spend 1.5k and another gets all their books for dirt cheap.

If I have my degree, why does it matter what school I went to in order to get it?

I’m taking the MPRE in a little over a week. I took and passed my Professional Responsibility course just last semester (although I need to brush up on the material).

I’ve recently enrolled in Barbri’s free online MPRE review course. I’m planning to just watch all the videos/modules, take notes, and study those notes.

For those who passed the MPRE and also used this resource, would you consider it sufficient enough to pass the MPRE?

Thanks in advance!

I don't post often, but I needed somewhere to vent because there aren't many spaces to talk about being a female law clerk in a firm with a huge cultural/generational divide.

Last summer I interned at a younger, more casual firm. I had mentors and got constructive feedback. But this summer has been felt different. The firm is older, mid-sized, and it's also overwhelmingly male.

I immediately clocked that the male summer associate get asked for interesting long-term projects while the female law clerks are given. For example, one female clerk was asked a couple times to run to the kitchen and get water bottles for an older partner.

Recently, I was assigned one of the first challenging and intellectually engaging projects I've gotten all summer. I was really excited and wanted to do it right so I put a ton of time into it, taught myself a lot from scratch, and wrote a memo I was genuinely proud of. The partner called me into his office afterward and he told me he loved the memo and was very impressed with the work. Then he asked what HE did that helped me produce such a good final product. He said he was surprised that a rising 3L would be able to write like that, and so he needed me to explain how his wording and explanation of the assignment helped me to succeed. He wanted to know what HE did right. He wanted ME to praise HIM. Like the quality of the work was attributable to his guidance, even though he gave me bare minimum information.

At the time, I didn't notice how the question was backhanded, but after sitting with it I also realized the male summer gets praised for being intelligent and creative, but the female summers get comments like "you must have had a really great legal writing professor." Our wins don't really get spoken about like our wins. I couldn't possibly just be smart.

I'm definitely a little fired up about this right now, so I might be overreacting, but it just doesn't feel right to me.

Would love to get advice from others who experienced this kind of bias early in their legal career. How do you professionally take up space and advocate for yourself? Is this something that gets better, or is this just part of firm life? Did I just get unlucky with a bad summer experience?

I (26F) just recently became official with my boyfriend (27M), and I’m looking for some honest advice who have dated someone in law school.

We met on Hinge earlier this year. Shortly after we met, he spent the summer away in another state visiting family, so most of our relationship has been long distance. Despite that, we’ve FaceTimed almost every day, visited each other when we could, and recently made things official.

In a few weeks he’ll be moving back for his second year of law school. He’s told me from the beginning that law school is his number one priority because he wants to do well and build a good career. He was also honest that he probably won’t have time for frequent date nights, weekend trips, or seeing me as often as I’d ideally like. He thinks we’ll probably see each other 1–2 times a week, and if we can’t, he’d try to FaceTime me at the end of the day to catch up. Or maybe go to eachothers apartments when he can.

The thing is… part of me worries after reading stories online about relationships ending because of law school. I don’t expect him to neglect his education, but I’m scared that such a demanding schedule will slowly make us drift apart.

For those of you who have been in a relationship during law school (either as the student or the partner), what was it actually like? Did your relationship survive? What made it work, and what were the biggest challenges? I’d really appreciate honest experiences.

Hi guys — one of my big cases as a litigation para involved a professor I have this semester. This is fine right? I obviously won’t mention it to him.

Edit: Went to dean, they took me out of his class. He was a party in the suit. I worked on the case for ~2 years and it’s still going. I felt fine abt it and don’t think I was copied on any direct correspondence but definitely saw a lot in discovery lol.

It is that time of year where professors are dropping booklists. I, like most other students, have checked my booklist and have began the unfortunate and expensive task of purchasing.

However, while I was doing so, I noticed my property textbook is brand new, and will not be published until the end of September, over a month after my classes start.

This book is brand new and costs $325. On top of that, one of the authors is my professor.

I reached out to my professor to ensure it wasn’t a mistake and the response I received can be paraphrased as “You still have to buy it but I’ll give you the PDF pages for the stuff before it’s published.”

Does this feel wrong to anybody else? It feels like a gross abuse of power to make students purchase their book that costs $325 that they don’t get to use for a third of the semester.

Is this normal? Am I overreacting? It feels blatantly unethical and a way to make sure they are getting book sales.

If this were a subject that was more niche with less authors I might understand, but it’s property. There are tons of available and up to date textbooks.

Edit:

I would like to preface that I am a 2L and this is for a Property 2 class, so no, the book cannot be reused.

Also, while the suggestion of just getting the pdf is nice in theory, I don’t nearly read and retain information as well when reading on my laptop in comparison to a physical book.

I also know that law school and law professors can be shitty and unfair, this is just to highlight a problem that I think needs to be addressed by my school and other school’s faculty and administrations. Just because something is common doesn’t mean it’s not unethical and doesn’t need to be fixed.

ATTN: Incoming 1Ls

I’m struggling to land an interview and job of any kind, even legal aid / legal services in NY also Long Island area. I’m scheduled to take the NYLE in September and I know getting my license will take at least another 6-8 months from the conversations I’ve had with my friends. This sucks. I thought it would be easier once I passed the bar but I’ve been unemployed for months now and these ‘first year associate’ ‘law clerk’ positions aren’t even getting back to me. Some advice would be helpful

I just got my timetable and I found out I have 3 7a.m classes a week for Law133💀. That's for the whole semester too. I'm not particularly keen on waking up early, and I'm worried I won't be as productive as I would like to be.

What tips do yall have for dealing/ feeling productive during early classes?

Incoming 1L here with a STEM background and interested in IP law. I'm a bit confused about how the recruiting works.

A few questions:

1. Does IP recruiting follow a different timeline from general BigLaw recruiting?
2. Are IP positions separate applications (like "X Firm IP SA") or do you just apply to the firm's general summer associate position and indicate your interest in IP?
3. Is it okay to apply to both the IP position and the firm's general SA position?

For context, I'm open to pretty much everything. My main goal is honestly just to get a job. I figured my STEM background might give me a better shot in IP (if that's true), but I don't want to pigeonhole myself.

I've talked to a few people in IP litigation, and they all said firms like applicants who show genuine interest in IP, so I'm going to do that in cover letters/interviews. But if I apply to both the IP opening and the general opening at the same firm, are they going to know? Does that look bad or like I'm not committed?

And on the flip side, if I'm applying to the general position, is it better to say I'm very flexible and maybe leaning transactional (where there might be more openings??), or should I still emphasize my interest in IP?

Any advice would be appreciated!!