Today Dear 1L spotlights retired chemical engineer Renee Austin — the first in her family to attend college or law school.

Renee started law school as a part-time student in Michigan, but she was also working full-time as an engineer. She quickly realized that institutional barriers and insufficient program resources meant no good opportunities for her as a part-time student. She withdrew after two semesters.

💌 Today is my birthday (53), so I’m feeling brave. Here’s a bit about me.

I am a mother and a wife. My daughters have always been my biggest source of pride, and my husband my biggest source of support. I am very lucky. But this September has been challenging.

▪️ Mom has really been aging.

▪️ This fall is also my first with an empty nest.

Dear 2L,

When you are just starting to “network” in the big, legal world, it may be a bit intimidating. You may feel like you’re asking for help, or for a favor, from the person you reach out to.

—Reaching out to anyone “cold” takes guts. You really have to put yourself out there.

Dear 2L,

You’re often advised to first choose where, geographically, you want to work. Then, make and invest in a networking plan. Although that order makes sense to me, if you’re struggling with your location choice, remember that your choice today very well may change.

It may feel like you are making a decision about where you will spend the rest of your life.

Dear 1L,

You all must be getting quite sick of hearing, “It depends.” That, plus you keep reading virtually identical cases with diametrically different results.

Exasperating!

It seems backwards. You got into law school because you showed you knew how to find “correct” answers.

Dear 1L Writer,

I’m seeing students use “proscribe” and “prescribe” interchangeably. Wanted to make sure you were clear that the words are near opposites.

🔷 To “prescribe” means to direct or instruct a rule (or course of conduct) to be followed (e.g., a doctor prescribing medicine or exercise). But “prescribe” comes up in law, too.

Dear 1L,

When I worked in BigLaw, I worked with a lot of new associates. One mistake I saw over and over again was this:

They did word searches on Westlaw or Lexis, found a bunch of cases, and then thought they had done “thorough” research.

Don’t be one of those associates.

Dear Legal Writer,

When you write a legal research memo or brief, you spend a lot of time writing about how your case compares to other cases. A dilemma you face is how to refer to your case.

You have many options, including:

➖ In this case

Dear 1L,

Here are 2 tips I shared yesterday, when I spoke with 1Ls in the Ole Miss Black Law Students Association. Thank you so much to Nivory Gordon III, M.Sc. for inviting me to speak.

1:  Start looking at practice exam questions and answers earlier rather than later.  I regret my delay in starting. 

Dear 1L,

How are you holding up? At this point in the fall of 1L, I remember things still feeling exhilarating, but also exhausting and scary. I wasn’t sure what was coming next. Here are some recommendations.

🔹 When your class notes start to build up and you’ve completed a topic, such as intentional torts, you really need to start regrouping.

Last September, I had less than 600 connections and more than a little self-doubt. But I shared my first original post.

I’ve gained a lot of insight into networking on LinkedIn this past year. I’m still very much a learner, but here are 5 tips that I hope will help you.

***

Dear 2L,

Please don’t overextend yourself with extracurriculars.
If it’s all fun, fine.
If it gets frenetic, though, step back and evaluate.

🔸 I know, the something-something student leadership organization has a meeting tonight, or the something-something bar association hosts some event you “should” attend.

If you write “Thus,” “Therefore,” or similar words to start a sentence, elevate your style by moving such words to the middle of the sentence.

Here’s an example of each:

1️⃣

▪️ ORIGINAL: “Thus, we decided to delay the deposition.”

Dear 1L,

“If everyone chipped in to help those coming after them, the law profession could easily be filled with amazing lawyers. . . .  And law schools could be filled with more confident, happy students.”

I almost fell from my chair.  What refreshing words to hear from a new law student!  Our broken profession may have a chance after all.

Dear 2L,

We spoke a lot about IRAC essay exams last year, but it’s been several months. I thought a refresher was due.

Key Reminder: You must do an IRAC analysis for every Element of every Claim and Defense raised by the exam hypo. Only then, do you maximize your score.

Below are 10 Steps.