Today is Day 6—and last—of my Dear 1L® 2026 summer cohort for incoming 1Ls.
It’s been amazing!!
I built the course to address two surprises that will otherwise blindside new students:
🔹 1: Recruiting is happening before you even start.
In 2026, law firms (esp BigLaw) will already be eyeing incoming students and assessing early signals of professionalism.
The best defense is for 1Ls to use their pre‑1L summer to start building relationships in the legal industry.
🔹 2: You can’t get legal‑writing help once school starts.
Most law school honor codes bar 1Ls from getting outside help on graded writing assignments.
The big fall memo (usually most or all of your grade) is something you must write on your own. (Apparently you can’t even tell anyone your memo topic.)
Yet every year, I hear from exhausted 1Ls who are drowning in that memo.
At that point, there’s very little anyone can do.
So the best (and really only) chance to learn how to write a 1L memo with outside guidance is before school starts.
⬇️
These surprises are why I created the Dear 1L® Academy and structured my 6‑week summer cohort the way I did.
From Day 1, we focused on doing now what will be hardest to learn once classes begin:
Career and networking foundations—
▪️Preparing a résumé and LinkedIn profile for the legal industry
▪️Using LinkedIn search to find alumni in law in different locations
▪️Thinking strategically about what they might to with a JD
▪️Developing and starting a targeted networking plan it
Reading, writing, and exam skills—
▪️Reading & writing clear prose about court opinions
▪️Writing an IRAC‑style essay for doctrinal exams
▪️Writing a research memo for the writing course
▪️Applying 20 core grammar, usage & punctuation rules that 1Ls notoriously get wrong
***
My goal has been simple:
I don’t want any member of this cohort to walk into 1L fall surprised by early recruiting, heavy reading, the fall memo, or the curve.
I want them visible to the legal community, comfortable with opinions, equipped with memo and exam structures they can adapt, and ready to hit the ground running.
Today we wrap up our last Dear 1L® 2026 session, and I couldn’t be more proud of this group.
💌 Amanda
#Dear1L
