💌 Dear 1L,

I really don’t want to raise this topic with you before exams, and you still have time, but this past week, I’ve started to see postings for 1L summer jobs on LinkedIn.

—A simple search for “1L” under “Jobs” here also reveals dozens of new listings. Although many pertain to diversity scholarship jobs at big law firms (which may or may not be an option or interest for you), there are other, interesting-looking postings, too.

The below is simply one approach of many, but it’s based on what I used in law school—as honed during the process of taking and passing three different state bar exams over the course of my career, coupled with feedback from 1Ls who have found success with it after working with me.

That said, there are, of course, many ways to approach and write a successful law-school exam essay.

✏️ Rewriting the same sentences over and over again.

If that happens to you, try this:

🔸 Revisit your outline.

—If you didn’t make an outline at the start, definitely make one now.

✏️ Legal writing always takes so much longer than you think it should.

In an effort to help, I share 4 things for the memo that many 1Ls aren’t clear about.

1: Check your capitalization of “court.”

🔷 1: Convert sentences to active voice.

Eg
“The boy hit the ball.”

—is shorter than—

❌ “The ball was hit by the boy.”

I am WAY outside my comfort zone, but I know you all are too.

Aiming to spread cheer and extra energy to help carry you through the crunch time ahead.

Fondly,

💌 Amanda

One thing that’s hard is that you don’t get to talk to many people in person during the day.

And so, it was especially nice to have someone drop by my house today—@ Monica Muehsam. If it hadn’t been for posting on LinkedIn, we never would have met!

Monica is a paralegal who recently went out on her own. She’s going to be helping me with a few projects.

�� Most say it’s a fool’s errand to try to keep up with the LinkedIn algorithm. That’s probably
sage advice, but I admit I get curious!

And so, when the great Richard van der Blom published the 2022 Algorithm Report yesterday, I read it.

There’s a ton to unpack, but here are my top ten takeaways:

Dear 1L - Spotlight

Today I introduce Amelia Hamman, an immigrant from South Africa by way of Canada, who credits her work ethic and adventurous spirit to the sacrifices her parents made to give their children the best possible future.

Here’s some backstory:

▫️ Amelia grew up speaking Afrikaans before she spoke English.

Law students: Here is an excellent vocab primer to improve your understanding during networking conversations with attorneys. Read the thread, too, as there are other handy terms mentioned. Hope you find helpful!!

🔷 1: Using “utilize” for “use” won’t make you sound smart.

More likely, you’ll come off as “trying to sound smart” — perhaps smarter than you really are. That’s a bad look.

⭐️ Unless you are positive that in your legal context, your Reader prefers “utilize” to mean “use” — does anyone? — just write “use.”

You’re feeling

anxious
overwhelmed
confused
lost
drained
prone to procrastination
exhausted
Imposter Syndrome.

✏️ Dear 1L Writer,

Your professor is prone to boredom and distraction.

That’s not some big revelation.

All Readers are, and it’s especially true for Readers of legal writing.

It won’t take long to improve it dramatically, but you do need to be proactive. Here are 5 steps.

1️⃣ Follow people whose content you enjoy.

▫️ If it’s someone from whom you never want to miss a post, tap the bell icon in the upper right corner of their main profile page.

✏️ And so, in that spirit, here are are the top 10 writing mistakes I see 1Ls make:

1: Too much passive voice. (Prefer the active.)

2: Needlessly long sentences. (Keep ‘em short.)

3: Needlessly complex sentence structure. (Keep ‘em simple.)