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Feeling lost in law school?


heyhey

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heyhey
  • Law Student

Hey everyone, just writing on here to get some opinions/advice.

I'm a 1L, just finished my first semester of law school and quite literally have no idea what I want to do with my degree. I don't even know if I want to practice law. And yes, when I first came to law school I full intended on becoming a lawyer.

It's not even that I hate law school, I actually really like it. It's just that I don't particularly LOVE any course in a way that I could see myself practicing in that area. I really enjoy crim, but I don't want to be a criminal lawyer. At least I don't think I do.

I know it's still early on my law school journey, but it does feel like there's pressure to figure out what I want to do. The 1L recruit is coming up and ideally I'd be able to get early experience working in my eventual field of choice so that I'm well set up for articling positions.

Is this a common experience for 1Ls? Should I start trying to figure out what I want to do?

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workingmanslawyer
  • Applicant

Hi there,

Haven't started law school yet myself but do have some thoughts from having talked to different lawyers/mentors in preparation.

It's totally fine that you don't know where you want to specialize. In fact, you may not even want to focus on a specific area of law in your career (smaller firms will specifically look for you to do a range of things)

Another thing that I've heard which I hadn't considered is that a lot of people don't use their law degree for law. It's a random example, but most agents/executives/managers in Hollywood historically have had law degrees.

As for the 1L recruit, go with anything that interests you even a little. Any experience is good experience. And hey, maybe you'll find that you unexpectedly really love or really hate something. At least that will narrow things down.

You are doing absolutely fine, OP. Keep kicking ass.

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cherrytree
  • Lawyer
6 minutes ago, heyhey said:

Is this a common experience for 1Ls?

Yes!

6 minutes ago, heyhey said:

Should I start trying to figure out what I want to do?

Also yes!

The biggest thing I disliked about 1L was that out of the three years in law school, it was the most academically focused year in my experience. I did extracurriculars like helping to do intake at a clinic for a few hours a week and signing up for one-off volunteering opportunities, but by and large the pressure to perform well academically ate up most of my time and energy. I would say that the 1L summer job search process and the actual summer I spent working in 1L were my first real opportunities of figuring out what I want my legal career to look like, which practice areas are attractive to me and which are not, etc.

I think it's completely normal to feel the way you do after your first semester of 1L, and yes no doubt there is external pressure to figure out what you want to do, but you also have to allow yourself room for trial-and-error. There is no point in pressuring yourself to "have to get it right from the get-go and not waste time" when you are meant to be exploring, figuring stuff out and possibly changing your mind a few times along the way. I personally spent most of my 1L summer doing corporate law type of work, updating minute books and working on simple transactions, and I feel so lucky to have gotten that exposure early on in law school. That's because by the time I went to work at a different shop in 2L summer, I got to do litigation work and wow I enjoyed my 2L summer work way more than my 1L summer work, but had I not gotten the 1L experience I did, there would have been no benchmark for comparison, I would have been none the wiser. I wouldn't have changed anything about my 1L summer, even though I spent that summer doing work that I don't think I'll ever touch again in my legal career, because at the end of the day it was still substantive work that allowed me to learn a ton and gave me intelligent, meaningful things to talk about at my 2L job interviews. It is not necessary for your 1L experience to be exactly on point in your "eventual field of choice" for it to still be an enriching experience that sets you up for success in 2L, 3L and beyond. It's all about what you make of what you get.

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heyhey
  • Law Student
4 hours ago, workingmanslawyer said:

Hi there,

Haven't started law school yet myself but do have some thoughts from having talked to different lawyers/mentors in preparation.

It's totally fine that you don't know where you want to specialize. In fact, you may not even want to focus on a specific area of law in your career (smaller firms will specifically look for you to do a range of things)

Another thing that I've heard which I hadn't considered is that a lot of people don't use their law degree for law. It's a random example, but most agents/executives/managers in Hollywood historically have had law degrees.

As for the 1L recruit, go with anything that interests you even a little. Any experience is good experience. And hey, maybe you'll find that you unexpectedly really love or really hate something. At least that will narrow things down.

You are doing absolutely fine, OP. Keep kicking ass.

This helped a lot, thank you! 🙂

4 hours ago, cherrytree said:

Yes!

Also yes!

The biggest thing I disliked about 1L was that out of the three years in law school, it was the most academically focused year in my experience. I did extracurriculars like helping to do intake at a clinic for a few hours a week and signing up for one-off volunteering opportunities, but by and large the pressure to perform well academically ate up most of my time and energy. I would say that the 1L summer job search process and the actual summer I spent working in 1L were my first real opportunities of figuring out what I want my legal career to look like, which practice areas are attractive to me and which are not, etc.

I think it's completely normal to feel the way you do after your first semester of 1L, and yes no doubt there is external pressure to figure out what you want to do, but you also have to allow yourself room for trial-and-error. There is no point in pressuring yourself to "have to get it right from the get-go and not waste time" when you are meant to be exploring, figuring stuff out and possibly changing your mind a few times along the way. I personally spent most of my 1L summer doing corporate law type of work, updating minute books and working on simple transactions, and I feel so lucky to have gotten that exposure early on in law school. That's because by the time I went to work at a different shop in 2L summer, I got to do litigation work and wow I enjoyed my 2L summer work way more than my 1L summer work, but had I not gotten the 1L experience I did, there would have been no benchmark for comparison, I would have been none the wiser. I wouldn't have changed anything about my 1L summer, even though I spent that summer doing work that I don't think I'll ever touch again in my legal career, because at the end of the day it was still substantive work that allowed me to learn a ton and gave me intelligent, meaningful things to talk about at my 2L job interviews. It is not necessary for your 1L experience to be exactly on point in your "eventual field of choice" for it to still be an enriching experience that sets you up for success in 2L, 3L and beyond. It's all about what you make of what you get.

Thank you so much! Glad to know it's not just me who feels this way. Law school can be a bit of an isolating experience.

3 hours ago, Hegdis said:

So, speaking as some one who is nearing twenty years out of law school, here's the perspective I have that you might not yet.

I don't know how old you are. But I'm going to guess early to mid twenties. I'm going to guess that the past five years of your life have been a real adjustment from teen to adult, from total dependent to relatively independent. I'm going to guess that your path has been a fairly linear one, with maybe a hiccup here or there - but grade school, maybe a year off to work or travel or fuck around, and then into an undergraduate degree. I'm going to guess that law was an attractive idea not just because it aligned with what you can currently do (write and speak well) with what you want to do (have enough power in your career to make a difference as well as a good living). And it also bought you another three years before you'd have to really make any decisions about Life, before you'd really be a full fledged Grown Up.

I'm going to guess that your options have been brightly and narrowly defined on the path you've taken so far. Get good grades, get into university, get good grades, write a good LSAT, get into law school. Ever played a video game where you're in the dark and torches light your path and you have to follow the torches? Like that. So now you're in the last stretch of this defined path - get good grades, get a job. And then.... what? It's all dark.

So which job? Where? All of a sudden you're cursed with choice. All of a sudden, there isn't a simple goal. All of a sudden, you have to apply a level of thought to your next move beyond anything you've really had to consider before.

Are you going to be a corporate lawyer, try to get an OCI, move to an apartment downtown where you never have to drive, work in an extraordinarily civilized atmosphere, consider a good balance a nearby gym and catered food for twelve hour days, knowing anyone watching would objectively call you "a success"?

Are you going to be a criminal defence lawyer, work your ass off at the school clinic, get articles with some one who can pay you enough to survive, and balance your days with budgeting and helping severely vulnerable people navigate a hostile court system, going home to a small apartment every night with a sense of fighting the good fight?

Are you going to move back to your hometown, maybe back in with mom and dad, and work in a small office down the road from your old high school where you learn to draft wills and amicable divorce agreements, and set yourself up to take over the office in a few short years when your mentor says she'll retire, secure in your future and exactly what it will look like?

Are you going to apply to work for the government, and volunteer to move up North where the pay is great and the cost of living yet greater, learning a completely new way of living in a seldom noticed part of the world and ultimately deciding if you're in it for the long term or just putting in time to get a cozier job in a more comfortable part of the country?

Any of these are options. Any of these are completely viable ways people live. And note that the type of law both affects and doesn't affect the lifestyle you're getting into - plenty of government employees live downtown, plenty of defence lawyers work up North, small town people work Bay Street jobs. There's endless combos. And we lawyers - law students and lawyers - as a class, have a very low tolerance for uncertainty. It's fucking terrifying for people who need to know what the next ten steps are. The types who have a two year, five year, and ten year plan.

 

So here's my advice: go through this, knowing that this is what you're going through. Give yourself a break. Acknowledge the stress, acknowledge the uncertainty. Know that one way or another it will pass. Every single decision you're making is 50% chance. Make an informed choice - but understand that you're always taking a chance, and let up on the pressure a bit. Do spend the time figuring out your values. Do spend the time figuring out your priorities. Do spend the time figuring out what ties you to where you are and how freely you can pivot. This is all learning about the self, and is actually just a continuation of growing up.

If you're one of these rare people who has a real conviction about what they want to do, great. But don't feel like you have to follow through if things change. Plenty of people want to work for the downtrodden and then wake up five years later in a mid-sized firm without having seen an actual client in the flesh for six months. Lots of people pulling straight A's who seem a shoe-in for OCIs will look at corporate law and decide they actually want to clerk for a judge on the family bench instead. Law students love to chatter about themselves and their futures and there's a certain amount of bullshit they engage in - that doesn't change when we become lawyers btw - so don't take what you're hearing from peers too seriously. The loudest tend to be the most frightened that they're making a huge mistake.

Law school is intense. It is a bubble. And this really weird thing will happen when you graduate - you'll step out of the bubble and suddenly, for perhaps the first time in your life, No One Will Care What You Do. You will be a Lawyer and for that whole audience you carry around with you, family, friends, old teachers, old enemies, that'll be a full sentence. What happened to Alex? They became a Lawyer. Oh.

It's a wonderful and terrible thing to realize. All that's left is making yourself happy. So try to consult yourself before anyone else because in a couple years, you'll be the only voice in your head paying any attention to what you are doing day in and day out. Look after yourself - and take a chance on being happy as often as you can. 

Haha yep you nailed it, I just turned 22! Definitely in that phase of life right now where I'm trying to figure it all out -- not even just with law school, but with life in general. I appreciate your response! I'm feeling much better about everything now!

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