Dear 1L: Summer Before Law School
If you are starting law school this fall, here are seven tips for summer.
Source: hundreds of lawyers and law students
who offered a comment to my advice seeking-post (Thank You!!!).
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🔹 1: Enjoy Your Summer.
🔆 “Relax and have fun” dominates, hands down. 🔆
🔹 2: Get Yourself In Order.
Start (and maintain) healthy mind & body habits.
💌 This is my #1 tip for something that targets performing better during 1L. I am convinced that my regimen was key to my success.
A related tip I also love is this:
Have a “go-to” for daily breaks (including outlets for stress).
E.g., exercise, meditation, dancing to fun music, or whatever suits.
🔹 3: Get Your Affairs In Order.
Take care of all doctor’s appts., housing arrangements, school supplies, etc. You will have no time for such things once law school starts.
Insider Corollary:
Buy your textbooks as soon as you know your professors. Watch for important email announcements. Don’t spend tons of time searching for bargain used books.
Reading may be due for 1L Day 1.
Prepare an updated resume and list of references names. Avoid a last-minute scramble in December, when applications for 1L summer jobs start.
🔹 4: Read.
That you read matters more than what you read. The key is to hone your concentration skills, even if you’re reading “junk,” but it’s best to read well-written writing, as doing so also hones your writing skills.
Corollary: learn & practice speed-reading/skimming skills.
⭐️ I will circulate a separate post on recommended, pre-law book titles.
💌 My personal tip is to invest in a good reading light. I ruined my eyes in law school.
🔹 5. Prepare Family & Friends.
1L is not just “another year of college.” I liken it more to going away to a remote country, starting as a doctor in a busy ER, or going off to military boot camp. There will be stretches of time when you are simply incommunicado.
Unless you come from a family with lawyers, no one is going to really “get it,” but you will need as much unconditional support as you can get. Start preparing people.
🔹 6. Network
Prepare a solid LinkedIn profile and start talking to lawyers. If possible, watch some in action. Reach out and learn insights from incoming 2Ls and 3Ls at your law school.
🔹 7. Hone Your Writing Skills.
You will absolutely need to have excellent grammar and sentence structure for 1L legal writing. Nevertheless, students tend to forget basic writing rules when trying to write about abstract legal doctrine.
Refresh and hone your skills this summer. The investment will pay off in spades—in 1L and beyond.
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Thread of original sources for the above tips is linked in the comments.
Fondly,
Amanda
P.S. Follow —> #Dear1L (1,009 members) on LinkedIn to receive future letters.
P.P.S. For parents of incoming 1Ls (like me), or of those thinking about it for the future, feel free to join our “Parents of Law Students est. Sept. 2011” FB group (530 members). Link in comments.