Dear 1L: Stay Away from Law School Gunners
💌 Dear 1L,
There will be some people at the start of law school who try to brag about how much time they spent on the assigned reading before the first class.
🔹 They may say they met with one of your professors already.
🔹 They may mention that they already copied all of a professor’s sample final exams from the library.
🔹 Or they may even say something like they disagree with the point made in some random footnote in a dissenting opinion in some court case that was part of the assigned reading that you now worry you didn’t understand, or even read.
Every law school class seems to have a few folks like this. Their behavior can deflate even the most confident, new 1L.
▫️ These days, people call such folks “gunners.” (If it helps, I used to refer to one of our class culprits as “sweater vest, briefcase guy.” The image kind of stuck in my mind and ended up helping me to chuckle and block out this noise more generally.)
* * *
THREE TIPS:
1️⃣ Stay away from sweater vest, briefcase types at the start.
🔸 They usually quiet down after a few weeks, and some can even become great connections. In all likelihood, they only acted obnoxiously because they themselves are not confident.
🔸 No one who is really confident needs to brag about it.
🔸 You need all the positive energy around you to keep imposter syndrome at bay early on, so it’s critical to block out all unnecessary sources of stress or insecurity.
2️⃣ Don’t burn any bridges.
Although your instinct may be to loathe gunners and shun them permanently, do not.
🔺 Consider every single member of your class to be a future, potential colleague, employer, or referral source.
🔻 Be smart. This isn’t high school or college, and exclusionary clique behavior will get you nowhere fast in the legal world.
3️⃣ Please don’t be a gunner.
Enough said.
* * *
Did you have gunners in your 1L class?
What are your tips for dealing with them at the start?
Fondly,
💌 Amanda
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