🔹 Dear 1L - Summer Spotlight: 🔹This week, I introduce rising 2L, AnnaLisa Hamann.

AnnaLisa’s 1L story started with exciting news. We all know that the 1L academic year takes roughly 9 months. Sound like a familiar length of time?

That’s right: Baby John Woods Hamann (DOB May 9, 2022) was cooking the entire, wild ride.

Dear 1L,

Just listen. Listen to lawyers’ stories. LinkedIn’s a virtual open door to legions of them. Everyone likes to talk about themselves. For you, this means:

 ⭐️ June is a month of opportunity!  ⭐️ 

July will get busy again with lawyers’ vacations and your OCI. Seize this day!

Dear 1L,

When finalizing your writing samples for this summer’s law-firm recruiting (aka, OCI, or On Campus Interviewing), please aim for as near perfect as possible.

As a still-recovering perfectionist, I am hesitant to recommend that anyone strive for perfection in anything. I know the perils of such pursuits well.

Dear 1L,

I said start with cites.

Why’d I start where I hate?

For the time it’s a ticking,

Have you looked at the date?

Move on next to writing,

Dear 1L - Summer Spotlight:

I’m starting a second series. It aims to connect law students and lawyers. But first,

🔷 PREFACE: Do you follow Alex Su? You should.

Here, on Tik Tok, he’s brilliant. He’s also a master people connector whom I admire greatly. He inspires this post.

Dear 1L,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I feel so happy inside for all of you. 1L is a mammoth milestone in the life of every lawyer. You’ll take your 1L with you forever. We all have.

So, in a way, I say welcome to the club.

Sure, there’s graduation and the bar; those will come later.

Dear 1L,

I’m working on an end-of-exams congratulations letter,

but I know you have a big legal writing competition first.

Below are some initial thoughts for you.

🔹 First, don’t panic or get defeated. You’re going to receive a huge competition packet, and you’ll run out of printer toner making a hard copy.

Dear 1L,

I’ve never been good at promoting myself publicly.

I know it’s a shortcoming. It holds me back professionally. But there’s an internal struggle.

On one hand, I don’t feel comfortable talking about myself in big groups.

It was only four days ago that we connected, yet in 45 minutes, Barb taught me more about writing online than I could imagine gaining in any course.

🔹 She assessed some of my Writing Law Tips.

🔹 She pulled up “analytics” tools I’d never heard of.

⭐️ And she derived a half dozen or so tiny word tweaks to stop Google from blocking people from seeing my Tips.

Here are book and movie titles that lawyers and law students have recommended for the summer before law school.

⭐️ Note that “Enjoy Your Summer” and other tips rank above reading any particular book. (See original post with top 7 pre-law summer recommendations, linked in a comment below).

Reading is recommended, but you may prefer to read other fiction books, newspapers or magazines.

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!!!).

*    *    *

🔹 1:  Enjoy Your Summer.

It is hard on moms when babies leave the nest. At least, it has been so for me, this Mother’s Day weekend, with all three now off on their own.

Thank you, Heather Harrington,

for brightening my grey.

It was rainy and dreary here,

but you made my day.

Dear 1L,

As you get down to the wire,

You’re feeling bleary-eyed,

Too tired to study,

Yet too much to do,

More content to review,

Is your brain goo?

Dear 1L,

I had a productive session with a 1L yesterday. The tips I shared there would help you, too.

Here are two.

FIRST: You have to “show your work” on the exam. (You’ve likely heard this before, but it can be helpful to hear something this important again.)

Dear 1L,

I did three things that got me success in the end. I did all of them during “exam week” of every semester, for all three years of law school. Maybe they will work for you, too.

Consider trying one or all of them for your next week or so.

1. MAP YOUR TIME