The Girl's Guide to Law School®
Get In, Get Through, Stay You
This week we welcome back guest writer Alexandra Muskat to talk about the best way to go about choosing your 2L classes for next year.
When you first start law school, you are required to take a specific set of classes – criminal law, contracts, civil procedure, legal writing and research, property law, constitutional law, and torts. But, towards the middle of your second semester 1L, you’ll be able to pick your own classes for the following year. [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer Shirlene Armstrong to talk about keeping up your momentum during second semester of law school.
Do you remember the start of the school year or even the start of law school? When you were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? When you were excited for what this school year would bring you? When you were looking forward to the next steps of your legal journey? Ah, those were the days, right? Now you are a seasoned law student, hardened to the outside world and just chugging away to the end of the school year. It is the law school slump. The time of year when the end of the semester seems so far away, but you are already burnt out. I get it, I have been there too.
Law school is a stressful and difficult time. There are so many cases to read, activities to be a part of, and classes to attend. You fall into a pattern of just trying to make it until Friday (trust me, that doesn’t end with law school either) But there is a reason you went to law school, and you once had joy and excitement about being a law student. Allow me to give you some mindful reminders and tips on how to keep yourself going and help you fall in love with law school again!
This week we welcome guest writer Alexandra Muskat to talk about handling criticism from a professor and bouncing back.
Early in my law school career, namely first year, first semester, about halfway through, we had a civil procedure midterm. Up until this point, I hated law school. I felt like everyday my schedule would shift, or swell. I felt overwhelmed by everything; I hated taking the train in and out of Boston, and my weekends were filled with a noxious amount of anxiety.
Then this midterm approached. I can still remember staring at the essay question and my blank page on Examsoft and thinking, “What the heck am I doing with my life?” [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer Mark Livingston to all about maintaining relationships with your professors and other faculty after school.
Law school is all about connections. Connections with your classmates, faculty, and supervisors and colleagues at internships, externships, and clerkships throughout law school. The people you interact with in law school represent the foundation of your legal community. If given the right amount of care and attention, you can cultivate these relationships and feast on the fruits of your labors for years to come. [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer and recent law school grad Mark Livingston to discuss how to learn from your mistakes and move forward.
Fortunately, law school is only three years long. Unfortunately, law school is a long three years. Although you only have a finite amount of time to get things right while earning your JD, there is room during those three, long years to make mistakes; learn from those mistakes, regroup for the next exam, paper, or semester; and grow as a law student. When I began my law school journey as a non-traditional student, I was certain I knew how to study, what my learning style was, and that all of the things I learned from my previous career had provided me with all I needed to reign supreme in class. I was in for a painful surprise. My initial feedback was less than I had expected, but exactly what I deserved. I needed to regroup and adjust if I had any hope of avoiding failure. Here are a few tips that apply as well to life as they do to law school. [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer Alexandra Muskat to talk about dealing with the adjustment to law school as a 1L.
The first few weeks of law school are over for many of you, and I’m sure that the “out-of-water” feeling is starting to set in. When I first started school, I was totally overwhelmed by the feeling that something was wrong. I had a tremendous amount of anxiety and couldn’t comprehend why I had decided to put myself through this experience. I also had an incredible bout of imposter syndrome – I constantly felt like someone was going to pull off the shroud around me and decree to my classmates that I was a fraud. [Read more…]
This week we welcome our guest write to talk about how to set yourself up as a law student to be a trial lawyer later on in your legal career.
The first kind of lawyers almost all of us are introduced to are trial lawyers. On those TV shows all aspiring lawyers seem to watch, we see trial lawyers yelling “objection!”, pointing determinedly at the defendant, and (improperly) telling juries to “send a message.”
For those of you who want to pursue a career as a trial lawyer, be it as a prosecutor, defense attorney, or some other kind of litigator, there are steps you can take in law school to prepare. These practical steps can help prepare you to come into the courtroom ahead of the game. [Read more…]
We welcome back guest writer Alexandra Muskat, to talk about positivity in law school and why it can help you in your law school career.
Even before law school starts, you will have been inundated with messages from people in your life telling you how hard law school is – how hard the curve can smack you down, how scary cold calling is, how grades can make or break your career, and how ridiculous the bar exam feels. Then you start school, and it’s just as hard as these people made it out to be. [Read more…]
This week we welcome back guest writer Kathryn Blair to discuss what Imposter Syndrome is and how you can deal with it if it’s something you’re facing.
“Imposter Syndrome” is a term that many of us have heard in recent years. And many of us that have heard of it, regardless of age, race, gender, or educational accomplishments, have had an instant “Aha!” moment. It is especially common among women and minorities, and it is prevalent in high-stress, high-achievement environments like law and academia. [Read more…]
We welcome back guest writer and current 3L Shirlene Armstrong to talk about dealing with finals approaching and what to do if you’re worried you won’t do well.
One of the most daunting parts of law school for many students are final exams. You spend an entire semester trying to learn the law and apply it to real life facts. However, the law is confusing, and it is very easy to be left frustrated at the end of the class, still trying to figure out what the heck you were just taught. So, what happens if you feel like you are going to fail your final exam? And what should you do? You probably are feeling extremely stressed and no matter how much you prepare, you believe your grade is a lost cause. While it is understandable to feel discouraged, you don’t have to give up and feel like you’re going to fail! Instead, here are some tips to help you through this exam season and help you get back on the success track. [Read more…]
