What is law school actually like?

[Kobe]

From those of you in it now or have completed it in the past, what is the experience like in terms of workload, difficulty of the program, and intellectual satisfaction. Most importantly was it enjoyable? 

Part of the draw to me, outside of being an actual lawyer of course, is it appears to be a pretty enriching experience. It was mentioned on here how some people's expectations of law school were different than what they actually encountered so I am interested to here about this.

I am collecting anecdotes to have a better idea of what this will actually be like.

[CleanHands]

Caveat: Opinions on these questions seem to vary a lot. Which is why I think it's great that you started a thread but take every individual perspective (including my own) with a grain of salt, because I expect divergence in responses.

14 minutes ago, Kobe said:

what is the experience like in terms of workload

Generally overstated. It's a full-time sort of commitment but not significantly more than that. As evidenced by the amount of volunteering and other extracurriculars the vast majority of law students are able to do. I worked in a variety of capacities before going to law school and I had more free time and less stress in law school compared to most of my prior endeavors.

14 minutes ago, Kobe said:

difficulty of the program

Intellectually the material is less complicated than most undergrad programs.

The problem is that you are competing on a strict curve against people who almost universally achieved excellent undergraduate grades and high LSAT scores. So almost everyone has a good handle on the material and your exam is being directly compared against those of 50 other smart people who wrote almost the exact same thing. This is a rude awakening for many. If you're reasonably smart, you will get As in undergrad if you put in the effort. This is not necessarily true in law school.

14 minutes ago, Kobe said:

intellectual satisfaction

Very low. You learn what the law is, you create CANs, and you reference them during open book exams. Your opinions on what the law should be don't matter (except to the minor extent that you get to play with the existing frameworks in policy questions).

Paper-based courses allow you to engage in more critical thinking and be more creative. But they also involve far more work than exam-based courses. And they are only a thing in optional upper year courses at most schools; with 1L being mandatory exam-based courses.

14 minutes ago, Kobe said:

Most importantly was it enjoyable?

Personally I enjoyed 1L as it was new and fresh to me and I saw value in a foundational understanding of black letter law, while I hated 2L and 3L with the exception of clinics.

My opinion is a minority one. Most people hate 1L because it's more demanding and you don't get to choose your courses. But personally I was able to secure an immensely satisfying job doing exactly the kind of legal work I wanted to do by 1L summer, so 2L and 3L felt like an irritating and pointless waste of time and money. There were very meaningful and interesting real-world cases I could have been working on instead of engaging in academic masturbation. I would have been learning more, making instead of spending money, and had more of a reason to wake up in the morning.

14 minutes ago, Kobe said:

Part of the draw to me, outside of being an actual lawyer of course, is it appears to be a pretty enriching experience. It was mentioned on here how some people's expectations of law school were different than what they actually encountered so I am interested to here about this.

 I suspect this is (at least partially) in reference to something I wrote recently. haha

Edited November 1, 2021 by CleanHands

[Jean-Ralphio Saperstein]

Kobe asking the important questions! Maybe they can pin this thread once there are more responses. 

[LMP]

42 minutes ago, Kobe said:

From those of you in it now or have completed it in the past, what is the experience like in terms of workload, difficulty of the program, and intellectual satisfaction. Most importantly was it enjoyable? 

Part of the draw to me, outside of being an actual lawyer of course, is it appears to be a pretty enriching experience. It was mentioned on here how some people's expectations of law school were different than what they actually encountered so I am interested to here about this.

I am collecting anecdotes to have a better idea of what this will actually be like.

I'll begin with the caveat that I'm in 1L, take from that what you will (good and  bad).

First off, some good news. Law school doesn't seem that hard. I say that having received no final marks or exam grades back but I'll try and explain myself anyways. With a moderate amount of effort it's possible to always be fully up to date on readings and assignments. I work while in law school and normally have my readings done a week or so in advance. Some weeks are of course harder than others, and in particular when a moot collided with midterms I began to sweat a little. But overall there's nothing stopping a diligent student from keeping abreast with all the content. 

 

But is it fun? It can be. Some classes are enjoyable made fun by the material or the professor. But other classes are annoying and your classmates can sometimes make you shake your head and roll your eyes in some sort of frustration convulsion. But the classes aren't the terminus of law school life. Living on residence I've met quite a few friends with whom I have a lot of fun. I've also found clubs that I enjoy and extra curriculars that are engaging. Overall it's more enjoyable than my undergraduate or my years in the workforce. 

 

In regards to intellectual stimulation, it is what you make of it. Do you want to boil everything down to the essential ratios and live only to apply them to exams? Maybe you'll be a bit bored. Do you want to go out of your way to engage with the doctrine and conceptual challenges of certain concepts (even if it provides no help to your grades?), in that case you may find things a bit more titillating. Keep in mind I've yet to take a course that hasn't been assigned to me, so my viewpoint is likely a tad narrow here. 

 

My overall takeaway is that law school is an enjoyable experience. Maybe I'll come back to this post in a few months or years and laugh at myself. But at this particular moment what I posted above is how I see the law school experience. 

[Kobe]

17 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

Caveat: Opinions on these questions seem to vary a lot. Which is why I think it's great that you started a thread but take every individual perspective (including my own) with a grain of salt, because I expect divergence in responses.

I thought it would be useful for others as well. I find comfort in having lots of anecdotes to draw from, it usually gives you the best idea what to expect. 

17 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

 I suspect this is (at least partially) in reference to something I wrote recently. haha

This is totally in reference to what you wrote, it made me think "I probably have some wrong ideas about what this will be like". It will be stated here @CleanHands did indeed inspire this thread. 

Thank you for sharing all you did in detail. The curve is scary as you wrote, part of me is like "I can't wait to be around all these brilliant people" and the other part is "It is going to suck competing against all these brilliant people". 

33 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

Very low. You learn what the law is, you create CANs, and you reference them during open book exams. Your opinions on what the law should be don't matter (except to the minor extent that you get to play with the existing frameworks in policy questions).

Maybe because it is new to me I kind of like the idea of this process, though you mention it gets old after 1L. 

18 minutes ago, Dee said:

Kobe asking the important questions! Maybe they can pin this thread once there are more responses. 

We need the inside scoop! I am also hopeful this will be valuable for others. I have all these doubts about if I am making the right choice and these answers certainly help, as I am sure you will appreciate as a fellow first gener. 

[capitalttruth]

For me, the hardest thing about law school thus far was getting in. I largely agree with everything @CleanHandssaid. Law school is in essence just another undergrad that has its own pedagogy that you have to learn. It becomes learnable relatively quickly as with any kind of immersive activity.

[Kobe]

4 minutes ago, LMP said:

snip

This seems like a very realistic assessment. I took a lot of solace in you being able to work and go to school while still finding it manageable. The stories people tell of needing to be in the library 12 hours a day are a bit intimidating. 

Hoping I'll have a similar experience. Wishing you all the best when it does come time for grades!

[CleanHands]

15 minutes ago, Kobe said:

Thank you for sharing all you did in detail. The curve is scary as you wrote, part of me is like "I can't wait to be around all these brilliant people" and the other part is "It is going to suck competing against all these brilliant people". 

Both of those statements are true and there is no contradiction there.

Given some of the previous rather blue-collar work I did it's honestly really not arrogant of me to say that I was used to being the smartest person in the room most of the time (trust me, that wasn't an accomplishment given where I was working). I felt my brain atrophying being in certain circles. But I remember before I went to law school telling a friend who did that one thing I thought he didn't appreciate was being around educated and smart people who kept him stimulated and challenged him. And I don't think I fully grasped just how right I was at the time, but I confirmed it after going through the process myself.

Law school was been humbling. Legal practice has been as well. It's helped me ground myself and have a better understanding of my own abilities and--more importantly--limitations. Initially it sucked confirming that I wasn't SCC material, but hey, most of us aren't, and the very definition of self-actualization is being able to take full advantage of one's talents while still being mindful of one's limitations. So in a way it's comforting to know that I've achieved that, and funny enough I'm not sure that would be so obvious to medalists and SCC clerks.

Edited November 1, 2021 by CleanHands

[Toad]

Law school was the easiest period of my life so far. I found it to be a super cushy lifestyle. I had a large amount of free time and all my needs were taken care of because of my LOC. 

There's diminishing marginal returns on time spent studying. I suspect that most people studying 12 hours a day are either not studying efficiently or are studying more than they need to. 

[Whist]

54 minutes ago, Kobe said:

From those of you in it now or have completed it in the past, what is the experience like in terms of workload, difficulty of the program, and intellectual satisfaction. Most importantly was it enjoyable? 

Part of the draw to me, outside of being an actual lawyer of course, is it appears to be a pretty enriching experience. It was mentioned on here how some people's expectations of law school were different than what they actually encountered so I am interested to here about this.

I am collecting anecdotes to have a better idea of what this will actually be like.

My caveat is that I'm also a 1L. 

The workload is heavy, but not exceptionally so. It felt like more earlier on in the semester when I didn't know what to look for. Granted, I still have room to improve now, but I get the gist of things. The only people who genuinely won't have any free time are those who overloaded on ECs. In terms of difficulty so far, it's not hard to pass assignments, but it requires more effort than in undergrad to "stand out." The majority of what you do is read cases. I generally only do my readings one day in advance because I want the material fresh in my mind. If there happens to be an especially dense case, the professor's lecture clears it up, at least for me. As for intellectual satisfaction, that depends on what intellectually satisfies you. There is some discussion of other perspectives, but we mostly just talk about the law that's been decided. 

So far, I'm enjoying it. I think I've made the right choice. There are certain classes that I really don't like no matter how excellent the prof is (* cough  * constitutional law * cough *), but I find genuinely intriguing arguments/reasoning in some of my cases every week. I like the extracurriculars I'm doing. I'm more of a homebody than many, but there are usually social events going on to get together outside of class too. 

[Deadpool]

In first year, you will be put in your small sections and take most of the same courses with them. You will take the standard black letter law classes - legal process, civil procedure, criminal, constitutional, contracts, torts, property, and some kind of legal ethics/professional responsibility course, with one or two electives. Indigenous law may be a required course at some law schools as well. The workload is not too bad, as you just need to stay on top of your readings (all case law), and some people do not do all their readings and just rely on the summaries from upper year students. Exams are also typically open-book and worth 100% of your grade. There is some competition for the few clinic and pro bono opportunities available to first years. There is also competition to join the executive teams of some clubs and student organizations. This is your first real foreshadowing of the competition to come. You apply to upper year, full-time clinic positions in the middle of your first year, and some of these involve competitive interview processes. This is when you truly realize that even securing good clinic and volunteering opportunities in law school is a competition. 

First semester of your first year is usually the most relaxed, because you have not received any grades back yet. More people also go out to the weekly pub nights and just have a good time mingling with their peers and starting relationships, Second semester of your first year is a little more stressful, not because the workload or difficulty has changed, but you may have received your final grades back and were not happy with the results. Suddenly, you are stressed out about future career prospects, as well as feeling imposter syndrome, because some of the vocal students talk about how they got straight As and A+s and had 1L interviews lined up with Big law and government employers, while you may have gotten B's and C's. So, the pressure starts increasing after the first set of grades are released. Final grades are released end of April-early May and students have a few months to finally breathe...or not. There are not many legal employment opportunities for first year law students, so most people just take the time for themselves to work in previous jobs, travel, volunteer at a clinic, work as a research assistant, pursue an international opportunity, etc. 

Applications for On-Campus Interviews (2L OCIs) are due in August - just before the start of your second year of law school. Already, you are going back to law school with the pressure cooker on. You are required to balance courses/a full-time clinic position with OCI interviews and in-firms in your first semester of second year. For students that are not interested in working in Big law, there is increased pressure to pursue those positions, as this is all your peers and administration will be talking about. You also see the time and money you have put into your education and want to recover the investment, so it makes sense to pursue well-paying employment. By the time second semester of second year rolls around, most people have figured out where they stand in the law school hierarchy. Those that have secured jobs and have good grades will be enjoying themselves and maybe thinking about applying for clerkships. Those that did not secure jobs in the OCI process and/or do not have good grades will be working hard to find a 2L summer job and get better grades. 

You apply to the formal articling recruit in July, after your second year of law school is completed. Those that are still seeking an articling position, or have articles secured but still want to try for something else, will apply in this process. Most law students will also be working in some legal capacity for that summer. Interviews are held in August and it is similar to the OCI process. The difference between this process and OCIs is that more smaller employers and the government hire through the articling recruit, while more Big law and litigation firms hire through the OCI recruit. There will usually be one or two Big law employers participating in the articling recruit. For students that struck out during OCIs but still want Big law and other corporate jobs, they will be stressed out by the lack of opportunities.

By the time third year of law school rolls around, everyone has gotten used to the competition and grading process, and are largely checked out. Many students will go on exchange for a semester. Some students will participate in full-time clinics and other volunteering opportunities. Many students will hardly come to school on a regular basis. Everyone is ready to graduate from law school by then. For the handful of students that are still seeking articles in 3L, they will be feeling increased pressure to find a job - any job - and are afraid of what their peers will think of them if they find out. They hope to God that no one asks them where they are articling after law school. 

Overall, law school is not difficult, but there is a never-ending psychological pressure to be the best at everything. You will really need a strong sense of self to keep yourself in check and maintain your mental health. Reading case law ad nauseum and doing 100% exams, where you apply ratios to factual scenarios is not necessarily a great intellectual experience either. You would probably find more enjoyment from the pub nights, student clubs, mooting, clinical and volunteering opportunities.

The best thing I liked about law school was that I found an area of law that I really enjoyed, and I was one of the few students in my entire class to pursue this area, so I really milked those opportunities, and I landed some stellar opportunities post-graduation. I enjoyed my peers, even the ones that I did not necessarily get along with, as we reached a mutual understanding by the end of it all, through shared pain. Law school is essentially a bootcamp for lawyers. You may not take away much from the overall process or the learning experience, but it will harden you to the realities of the legal profession ahead - which is that you are now in a position of power and expected to shoulder many responsibilities, a lot of people will depend on you, your choice of words and actions matter and will have a bigger impact than they ever did before, and you will continue to hustle and compete to advance in your career. 

Despite the ups-and-downs, I love my career right now, and I think going to law school has helped me mature as an individual, so there is some enlightenment and personal growth to be gained along the way.

[Psychometronic]

In retrospect, and to highlight what Deadpool said, law school “stress” is largely psychological. I know a couple of people who said they were burnt out by graduation. Those people tended to overthink the little things or were hyper neurotic. Some people act like they’re more stressed or busy than they actually were. More than one person in my class put out a bunch of memes about how awful law school was when, in fact, they were getting very high grades. There are also those who talk a lot in class and act like they have it all together but become suspiciously quiet once midterm grades are released.
 

I think many people get caught up in what others are doing. The academic workload alone isn’t too bad, but when  virtually everyone around you is involved in one or more ECs, spending an inordinate amount of time in the library, or gearing up for a large-scale recruit, you might start second-guessing if what you’re doing is enough or if what you want is really what you want. I’m not saying this happens to everyone or to disparage those who do these things, rather I’m pointing out that this can happen and it can cause stress. You can get ahead of this by (1) being aware it happens and (2) having a clear idea of what you want and sticking to it. Sometimes (2) will feel like you’re swimming against the current but, in my experience, those who were secure in (2) did not give a crap about what others were doing and generally seemed to be much better adjusted. 

After 1L, law school is like a CYOA. There will be more opportunities open to you than you have time for and almost everyone I graduated with found their path. 

Law school can be enriching. I found it enriching because of the experiences I was exposed to and the people I met during my 3 years.
 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Psychometronic

[Conge]

Here is a summary of how it went for me:

First year: Mostly confusion. Seems like a lot of work, but it's not really. By the end of first year, you'll think you know a few things about the law. Your summer after 1L will probably look a lot like your summers in undergrad. You may get a "law related job", but most likely you'll return to what you were doing before law school and you'll feel underutilized. 

Second year: You'll more or less have figured out what profs want from you, so there is less confusion. It seems like a lot of work because it is a lot of work this year. You can't keep up with the work so you find ways to study smarter and focus on preparing for exams and getting the major papers done on time. By the end of the second year, you'll feel like you've been through the wringer and that you're ready to get out there and get to work. If you are lucky enough to land a summer law job, you'll realize you know very little about the practice of law and that the hard work is just beginning.

Third year: it's neither difficult nor a lot of work. You may be doing a clinic or journal or moot or something else to break up the monotony of classes. You know what you need to know and you're getting decent grades with relatively minimal effort (compared to 1L and 2L), but otherwise readily admit you know nothing about the law. You arrange all your classes so they are no earlier than noon and no more than 2 days a week. You are savoring every last second of school because you know it'll be done soon and the real work begins: articling. Your firm sends you a Xmas gift to remind you of your impending indentured servitude, and you're not unhappy about it. 

[Vizslaw]

Here is what I can remember about law school:

1L

Everyone goes in thinking they are hot shit and are used to being near the top of their class. Welcome to the curve, where the class average has to be a B-, B, or B+. 1L was a humbling time. Everyone seems impressive and accomplished, but no one knows what the hell they are talking about. Even those with legal/law-related backgrounds (I'm looking at you classmate with a BA in law/criminology) don't really have an advantage. Some people with lawyers in the family may seem like they have a competitive advantage, which they may when it comes to networking or being hired viz-a-viz nepotism, but they probably don't know shit all about law school, where your exam performance, clinical work, ECs, etc are everything.  My dad was a lawyer and I can tell you it in no way helped me at school or get clinical placements. He graduated in the 1970s and pretty much everything about law school and the practice has changed.

1L is just an eye opening experience where it's probably the first time you'll write open book exams, or have ones that are worth at least 75% of your grade. It's a marathon, not a sprint, so don't beat yourself up if you fall behind on readings or simply choose not to do some. Going to class and taking notes on cases you didn't read > skipping class and doing the readings FYI. There's always one person in every group who shows up for the exam and everyone is like who the hell is that?!? Don't be that person.

You'll be put in small groups and you take all of your classes together. If you're lucky, you'll find some quality people you can become besties with. I was in Group "G" and about 6 of us are still super close. We took as many classes together in upper years as possible, studied for the bar exam together, refer files to each other when possible, it's great!

Some people go into 1L saying they know what they want to do. Some actually do. It's ok not to know. It's also ok to know what you want and to filter out the noise from other people who are competing for the OCI positions or gold medals if that's not your jam. I went knowing that I wanted to practice criminal law, so I didn't pay attention to the OCI madness. I still wanted to crush my exams and do well, but my motivation was to do well and be competitive with the Crown's office. 

Final exams are stressful, there's no way around it. It might be the first time you have to argue a position given a hypothetical set of facts, rather than just explain a concept or something. My method was to update CANs from a previous year but to make my own exam notes. Making the exam notes had the effect of studying/understanding the material, and having it in a format/style that you can easily navigate.

There was a lot more mid-week partying than I remembered in undergrad. 1L was a lot of fun, with a sprinkling of intense studying before exam time. I also did some work at the legal aid clinic, volunteered on some of the school committees, and played intramural sports.  I had a law-related 1L summer job but that was not the typical experience for most classmates. Go travel or do something fun. You don't have to work at a firm in 1L to get a 2L summer position.

 

2L

The fun and partying pretty much continued. There was a dark period for most at the beginning of the year because of the whole OCI thing. By now, you know where you placed in your year and have a good idea of who you can trust and who to avoid. This will also be the first time you can pick your courses, so you have to strike a balance between taking courses that interest you, courses that fit in your timetable, and courses that you think will help you along the career path you've identified. If you know what you're passionate about, take as many of those courses as possible. I took any/all of the criminal courses that worked with my schedule. Most were seminar format, so we moved away from the large lecture hall to small class sizes and the quality of learning improved substantially. It also hugely depends on who the profs are, because at this point you can be taking classes with practitioners and, hooooo boy, some of them put in more effort than others. For example, my criminal procedure prof almost never made it to class because he was often out of town running trials. He would send another senior lawyer to fill in, but there was no uniform quality since each fill-in was different. In another class, I had a prof who pretty much appeared before the Court of Appeal every other week and was a force to be reckoned with. You can have some unique opportunities to network with these practitioners, so take an interest, speak to them during office hours, or ask to grab a coffee sometime to chat about their practice. I keep in touch with some of those profs and am still starstruck when we see each other, even though I graduated 10 years ago. I had a few milestone moments where I was opposing counsel in cases with them, or was asked to come guest lecture with them and it's been fun to go full circle.

You also have more opportunity to do more meaningful clinical work in 2L, since a lot of the 1L positions are just assisting/interviewing at the legal aid clinics or doing intakes. You can work at some clinics where you run trials, conduct hearings, or actually appear in court. Take full advantage of those opportunities if that's what you're interested in because they can help you secure the next step up in 3L like a clerkship course for a semester, etc.

You can also choose to take more paper courses in 2L if you don't like 100% exams. There will always be a debate between whether exams courses or paper ones are better. Some people are just more comfortable doing a presentation and paper for their grade versus a 100% exam. I was pretty split and did both. The 100% final exams are a lot easier and take less time, but they can be unforgiving if you have a bad day or make a mistake. That typically doesn't happen with papers since you can edit them until the cows come home, but you may find it's easier to get an A on a 100% exam than it is on a paper course.

In 2L summer I worked at a criminal defence firm after not being hired by a Crown's office. I was initially crushed but it was a blessing in disguise. Everything worked out for the best, since it set me on my current path. By the end of 2L summer I pretty much knew I would be hired back to article there and the feeling of being checked out in 3L set in.

 

3L

It was a blast. There was a nice mix of being involved and engaged, and in being laid back. I got to do a clerkship with a rotation of OCJ judges one day a week for a semester, did more clinical work, and took what I thought were interesting classes in advanced criminal topics with awesome practitioners/profs. I think by this point 3L was as much about networking and forging relationships as it was trying to learn things. There was also the feeling of trying to enjoy the freedom of being a student while it lasted. Almost everyone seemed to have secured an articling position and it was just a glorious time in general.

 

I know this will not be everyone's experience. There was a lot more partying and hockey than I anticipated going into law school. I worked reasonably hard in 1L and crushed my exams, placing me in the top 10 of my class, which helped with my 2L/3L progression. I had enough demons competing with myself and my own expectations that I wasn't really bothered by what other people were doing. It probably helped that I was 100% in to criminal law and didn't bother with OCIs. I chose not to bother with the DOJ OCI postings because (ironically enough at that time) I didn't want to be a Federal Crown. I guess the joke was on me, since the defence firm I work at had a Federal Crown Agent contract for the first 5-6 years of my practice. Things in general were pretty laid back except around exam time. I'm happy to chat anytime or share more war stories, but this is what I can recall now while procrastinating. 

[Kobe]

I really appreciate everyone's answers, and I am sure others do as well. This has rooted out some of my beliefs about law school that were incorrect and confirmed some of the things I believed to be true. 

Huge thank you for the detail everyone went into. It makes it less intimidating when you at least have some idea how this will go. 

 

[GGrievous]

9 hours ago, Psychometronic said:

law school “stress” is largely psychological. I know a couple of people who said they were burnt out by graduation. Those people tended to overthink the little things or were hyper neurotic.

I'm feeling personally attacked

I also don't know if I'm just the stupidest person in law school but "it's not really a lot of work" has me baffled. I do agree it's not intellectually challenging work, but there's a lot of it. I've read summaries, they only help once I've read the case imo. Between reading long ass cases for multiple classes each week, in addition to going to class, doing practice tests (which are time consuming as fuck), it's a lot of work! I also work and do EC's so that probably doesn't help.  Am I doing this wrong wtf guys. And regularly partying mid-week? I've gone on like 3 pub nights since starting and I'm still recovering. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Barry

[Vizslaw]

46 minutes ago, Barry said:

I'm feeling personally attacked

I also don't know if I'm just the stupidest person in law school but "it's not really a lot of work" has me baffled. I do agree it's not intellectually challenging work, but there's a lot of it. I've read summaries, they only help once I've read the case imo. Between reading long ass cases for multiple classes each week, in addition to going to class, doing practice tests (which are time consuming as fuck), it's a lot of work! I also work and do EC's so that probably doesn't help.  Am I doing this wrong wtf guys. And regularly partying mid-week? I've gone on like 3 pub nights since starting and I'm still recovering. 

Don't feel attacked. This is just mostly people sharing stories after the fact and we probably blocked out the awful parts of law school from our leaky sieve-like memories. That's why I said take my experience with a grain of salt. I graduated in 2012 so maybe we did less reading and more all-you-can-eat wings nights.

It's true that there is a ton of reading. Some people are just faster/slower readers. I've always been on the faster side. The ability to scan/sift through cases is something you'll acquire over time. Some cases can be 150 paragraphs long but only have relevant portions in about a dozen of them.  Sometimes the procedural history isn't as important as the analysis of a specific legal issue.

I assume you're only doing practice tests closer to exam time. I don't think I read every case, but I would take notes in class and update the CAN case summary. I would read a lot of the summaries/headnotes first so I knew what to look for when reading each case. What worked for me may not be a good idea for others, but I found if you had good CANS you could skim a lot of the readings and update them in class with your prof's commentary. Try reading some CanLII headnotes (or ones in the text book if they exist) before reading a case and see if that helps your reading time.  

[GGrievous]

6 minutes ago, Vizslaw said:

but I found if you had good CANS you could skim a lot of the readings and update them in class with your prof's commentary.

Why didn't updating the CANS during lectures ever cross my mind. I'm gonna try this strategy.. there may be more wings in my future.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Barry

[PulpFiction]

13 hours ago, Kobe said:

From those of you in it now or have completed it in the past, what is the experience like in terms of workload, difficulty of the program, and intellectual satisfaction. Most importantly was it enjoyable? 

Part of the draw to me, outside of being an actual lawyer of course, is it appears to be a pretty enriching experience. It was mentioned on here how some people's expectations of law school were different than what they actually encountered so I am interested to here about this.

I am collecting anecdotes to have a better idea of what this will actually be like.

Finished law school about 1.5 years ago, currently practicing. The workload wasn't bad, I was able to keep up pretty easily, and I'm not the hardest worker. I put in a lot less time than my peers and got average grades. It gets easier in upper years when you find a system that works for you - whether it be tailoring courses to your interests, selecting certain profs, becoming more efficient in your efforts, etc.

Law school isn't hard. I did a mix of business and STEM in undergrad, and I found that material way more challenging than law school. Part of that is due to me being more confident in my studying, work produced, and overall time management, but also because it just isn't as tough as law students make it out to be. Again, I'm no deans lister, so I'm speaking from a point of an average student. I coasted through law school all three years, little to no stress other than employment related stress, which didn't last long. A big part of this is strong stress management techniques I have, which also made articling a breeze and practice extremely manageable, even with such little experience as a new lawyer. I care about the task at hand, but never let it consume me to the point where I lose my shit - life is too short for that. 

I didn't engage with the material outside of my desired practice area to get the full benefit of intellectual satisfaction. I didn't care much about law school other than certain courses I needed to take and focused the rest of my efforts on relevant ECs. This is likely a me issue, though. 

Law school was enjoyable in the sense that it was a break from real life. It was an easy few years to chill out and meet cool people, learn something new, develop as a person, and come out of the whole experience a bit sharper. I didn't enjoy the school part of law school. And that wasn't because it was hard. It felt more tedious than anything. I enjoyed the company of friends I made, experiences I had, and being in a relatively low-stakes environment for a few years. 

I think you'll be alright. Just don't think of it as more than it is. It's school. Just like med school is just school, law school is the same deal. We aren't something special and you don't need to put this extra tension in your head about how it's supposed to be some great intellectual journey that will forever change you or whatever. Get your degree and get paid, and have some fun along the way. 

 

Edit: I should add, I didn't do all the readings. The amount of readings I completed decreased each year. The students who kept up with everything always seemed drained and out of it, while I was walking around with a smile. The tradeoff was the risk of not fully being prepared for an exam, but I was confident in my ability to focus on the important parts and it ended up being a non-issue. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by PulpFiction

[CleanHands]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

I'm feeling personally attacked

I also don't know if I'm just the stupidest person in law school but "it's not really a lot of work" has me baffled. I do agree it's not intellectually challenging work, but there's a lot of it. I've read summaries, they only help once I've read the case imo. Between reading long ass cases for multiple classes each week, in addition to going to class, doing practice tests (which are time consuming as fuck), it's a lot of work! I also work and do EC's so that probably doesn't help.  Am I doing this wrong wtf guys. And regularly partying mid-week? I've gone on like 3 pub nights since starting and I'm still recovering. 

I appreciate your honesty and different perspective. It doesn't sound like you are stupid or slow; rather it sounds like you are putting in more work than most.

[OntheVerge]

I'll chime in as I too found it a lot of work. I came from a reading heavy course load in my undergrad where combined weekly reading assignments in the 500-1000 page range wasn't uncommon, nor was writing 10-12 research papers of word counts anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 with minimum 10-20 sources. I thought I'd be prepared for the work load in law school as I had managed all of the above and was able to keep up on readings, write the required papers, and do it well enough to keep a good GPA, plus have extracurriculars.

To put it bluntly, nope. Not only was there a crazy amount of readings assigned, but it was a new experience reading case law and legal articles. I had to look up every latin phrase for the first few weeks and re-read sentences over and over. It was also not uncommon for me to get to class and realize I had missed the whole point of the case I'd painstakingly read the night before. With time, I gained literacy in reading case law but that only helped marginally. 

I was overwhelmed with the assigned readings. They weren't difficult, but there were too many to keep up with. Not to mention that getting behind in my readings and showing up to classes without having done the readings was something I'd never done before and was causing a ton of stress. All my spare time was spent doing the readings and I was still not getting through it all. My mental health was suffering, my actual health was suffering, and I realized what I was doing - what had worked so well for me in undergrad - was simply not tenable at law school due to the sheer volume of assigned readings. 

I ended up changing strategies completely by November and set the course for the rest of law school. And I wasn't alone - everyone I spoke to about this said that their experience was the same. Everyone ended up no longer reading the material to gain familiarity or better, knowledge, but skimming enough to be able to pass exams with the use of summaries. 

So to anyone finding it a lot of work, you are not alone. The sheer volume of the work load is difficult to get a handle on at times. If you're struggling, it may be time to change your approach and find something that works better. 

[GGrievous]

9 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

I appreciate your honesty and different perspective. It doesn't sound like you are stupid or slow; rather it sounds like you are putting in more work than most.

Thanks man. This has all honestly made me rethink all of my current strategies and mindset.

 

8 minutes ago, OntheVerge said:

I ended up changing strategies completely by November and set the course for the rest of law school.

The fact that it's November 1 and I just made this very realization before you posted this is pretty funny. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Barry

[CleanHands]

10 minutes ago, Barry said:

Thanks man. This has all honestly made me rethink all of my current strategies and mindset.

Just don't let us be bad influences causing you to slack if you can manage the degree of diligence you've been applying. 😛

That said, in retrospect in my experience at least the juice often wasn't worth the squeeze in law school.

[123]

3 minutes ago, Barry said:

Thanks man. This has all honestly made me rethink all of my current strategies and mindset.

You're what, eight weeks into law school? It's pretty normal to have no idea what you're doing at this stage. Reading cases and writing law exams are both pretty specific skills. Almost no 1L has done them before, and it takes practice to know what to look for in the readings and what to write on the exams. It's not unusual to need time to figure out how you need to tackle them, and different people start to get it at different times. Don't put too much pressure to figure it out all at once. First semester of first year is the time to try things out and see what works for you, and as with anything new, there's a certain amount of muddling around until things start to click.

[123]

13 hours ago, LMP said:

titillating