Dear 1L,

When you get tired from reading—and you will this year—you’ll want to have some go-to podcasts to turn to.

-That way, you can keep learning even when your eyes simply cannot read another word.

You need a plan.

Sleep must be a key component.

Start a non-negotiable, full-night-of-sleep schedule, and start it now. You’ll likely need to practice & get acclimated so you can hit the ground running on 1L Day 1.

It’s official trademark status for Dear 1L!

I don’t quite know yet where I’m taking any of this, but it makes me feel proud to be building something that’s helping so many people.

Your support has meant the world to me. Thank you. Writing to you has brought me great joy.

But no law student wants to have to work at a firm only to find out it’s a mismatch.

You really need to do some detective work first.

Here are 6 markers of firm culture to look for & some ideas for how you might go about uncovering them:

Today I aim to help lawyers & law students network on LinkedIn.

🟢 BONUS for law-related content creators & others who post: 
  —>  Drop a link to one of your recent posts. I will reciprocate by engaging with it, and I bet others will, too!

🔵 LAW STUDENTS:  I know that LinkedIn can seem scary sometimes. I still find that today.

Learn this lawyer lingo:

IN-HOUSE COUNSEL:

This term refers to lawyers whose employer is an entity (such as a corporation or organization) that is not “in the business” of providing legal services to clients. In-house counsel typically serve one and only one client: their employer.

Every year when law-firm recruiting season starts, law students start buzzing about the enormous starting salaries at Big Law firms. (It’s $215,000+ in NYC now, I understand.)

A heavy dose of reality is needed.

At my 10-year high school reunion, I spoke with a classmate who’d gone straight from college to a T14 law school, and then to a top-ten, “white shoe” firm in NYC. He’d just finished three full years as an associate there.

Dear Rising 2L:  Please see this video I made just for you.

I lost ~400 followers overnight.

Luckily, I know why, and it’s nothing “bad” I’ve done.

In fact, it’s a good thing. Why?

Because LinkedIn is cleaning house.

It is going through all accounts, figuring out which are dormant or fake, and removing them from the network.

Dear Rising 2L, This legal resume tip explains how to make all your date entries line up perfectly, flush with the right margin.

Instead, I know, you’ve been tabbing and spacing over, trying to get it “just right” so your dates look straight.

Well, they don’t.

When I was 24, I was single, broke, and childless.

—All I said to myself was, ‘I can’t wait to finish law school & start making money,’ and ‘I long to get married and have children.’

When I was 34, we had 3 girls under age 5.

—We paid for 1 full-time nanny & 2 full-time daycare programs, at an after-tax cost of ~80K annually.

Hypothetically, let’s assume it’s a non-diverse, male candidate, and that he’s coming straight from a small, rural college, with

- a 164 LSAT,
- a 3.8 GPA, and
- a need for full scholarship help.

Dear 1L (Rising 2L?),

It seems cruel. Your “reward” for finishing the hardest year of law school is staying around to do an onerous Bluebook test and—yet another—big legal-writing project.

I would be SO tempted to skip the whole thing.

Mother’s Day

I’m starting a list of tips for students and new graduates who’ll be starting their first “lawyer” jobs at law firms soon.

I hope you can help me add to and improve the list.

There have been times in my life that were very, very serious.

20 yrs. BigLaw. So, so serious.

When a daughter would say,

Mommy, come play—

I would say no,