5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Going to Law School

hi guys welcome back to my channel um if you're new here my name is jen and i actually just graduated law school i graduated from arizona state university's law school about a week ago so that's pretty weird to say at this point but i'll get used to it um i make vlogs i'm gonna be documenting my bar prep and like my young associate experience and all of that and i blogged law school as well but in today's video i figured i would tell you guys the five things i wish i knew before law school um because i now feel qualified to say that so i'm just going to go through five things i wish i knew and hopefully this helps incoming one else maybe even some current law students as well the first thing's kind of obvious but um there's no substitute for reading and what i mean by that is that in law school you get cold called so you're expected to read before class and then in class they will just randomly call on people about the reading and you're responsible for pretty much every word that was assigned some teachers cold calls will be easier than others some law schools are moving away from cold calls altogether but a lot of them still use the method and arizona state does so there's just no substitute for reading everything that's assigned and the only reason i wish i knew this earlier was just because it would have saved me a couple of embarrassing cold calls as a 1l when i had clearly just skimmed it and thought that was good enough it's not um in some classes it might be you'll learn that but as a general rule when you're starting out there's no substitute for just truly reading everything taking notes on it just being prepared for class and if it keeps you up later than you'd like um you can sleep in on the weekends or on winter break you'll live but it's worth it in my opinion at least i wish i had read really carefully from the start just to save myself a few embarrassing cold calls where all i did was skim and it was obvious okay the second thing i wish i knew ahead of time is that law school is nothing like undergrad and it's not really like any other grad programs either um it really is its own category of education um so comparing it to undergrad and trying to draw parallels and stuff there really aren't many and so i just wish i had known to treat it as its own thing and i carried over a few habits from undergrad like my study habits didn't change that much and things like that but most everything else did like law school is very different and so don't try to import your undergrad experience into law school don't try to import your friends other grad school experiences into law school it's really its own thing um i think class functions differently with the cold calling element i was just talking about grades function differently you only get one final as your grade for the whole class and it's curved against your classmates at most schools and just the subject matter is really different in law school you're going to need to know everything you learn as a 1l at least for the bar exam i'm not saying you'll necessarily use it all when you practice but you'll use a lot of it and so it just matters that much more you're not just um sort of phoning it in to get the degree whereas in undergrad i could just sort of like go to class take notes i would i would you know study for my tests and hopefully do well in my finals and things like that but i couldn't tell you one thing i learned in undergrad sitting here years later so law school's a bit different and just the subject matter you're learning is a lot more relevant in my opinion and i don't know it's just different so treat it as a totally new experience everybody is starting from zero no one is more prepared than anyone else even if they've worked in a law firm before it doesn't really matter law school is its own thing it's sort of like learning to walk and everyone is starting from zero so just treat it like that and i kind of wish i had i think i was constantly trying to draw parallels between it and my undergrad and there really aren't that many so just treat it as a brand new thing you're starting from scratch seriously you are okay the third thing i wish i knew is just i wish i had done a little bit more research into maybe what fields interested me i went into law school with no desired practice area which is fine a lot of people do it but i wish i had at least done a little bit more research to sort of know what i was interested in or what i might want to explore further or something like that because to just go in totally open to anything and not really passionate about anything um i think i think it stunted me in two ways first it gave me when i was just a 1l and really had no experience was trying to find jobs it didn't give interviewers a lot to work with because i would just be like oh i'm open to anything and while that's great to hear it doesn't give a lot of you know follow-up questions they could ask or you know talking points and things like that so i think it may have held me back in some interviews just to be like i'll do anything i'm not interested in any particular area and i feel like if i had just done a little bit more research i could at least have like a educated answer to that question even if it ended up changing over time it's totally fine to change your mind but i just wish i had done a little bit more research ahead of time not necessarily like this is what i'm going to be doing but just at least this is what i'm interested in or something like that i did i literally just went in with no plan no interest i was just like i'm in law school i'll take any field and i think that held me back a little and then the other reason it held me back is because on nights when i was just up till two in the morning studying and reading for class and the material was so dry and i was really lacking motivation i didn't have a very strong why as to why i was even doing it and it made motivating myself to keep going really hard because i didn't have any interest behind it all or goal or anything i was really working towards i was just so open-ended that i was just like i don't know i didn't have any sort of driving factor to help me keep going and i think that that stunted me a little bit and it could have um you know sometimes when things get really tough they always say remember your why i didn't really have a why i just went to law school because law in general interested me and i wish i had done a little bit more research because i bet you i could have found some areas even before school that piqued my interest and they could have just helped push me a little bit more as i went along because i would have had a why so to speak so do some research before you go and just see what's out there there's tons of resources online there's even like people on youtube who are showing you what they do in the legal field and things like that just do some research and at least get a good sense of what you're interested in like i said you can change your mind you're not married to this answer or this like idea that you come up with but i think it would have helped motivate me and it would have helped me in interviews so the fourth thing i wish that i knew before i started law school is that your mental health matters all the time not just when the going gets tough and that is why i'm so excited to talk to you guys about the sponsor of today's video thank you so much to betterhelp for sponsoring this video i mean i'm curious if there's anything in your guys's lives that's interfering with your happiness or you achieving your goals you know sort of what that looks like for me as a 1l it's exactly what i just said i would wait until things got absolutely dire before implementing all of these strategies that i think i knew in the back of my mind were helpful and were going to set me up for success but not the night before my brief was due when i'm crying and all of a sudden i'm super stressed 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class and like didn't get the notes honestly it wasn't that big of a deal like i still did okay on the final i would just do the reading and what was said in class was pretty much verbatim what was in the reading so i would just you know catch up that way um law school's not like that in law school i found the hard way that you really do need friends you know and for a myriad of reasons you need notes if you're sick because what's said in class is very different than what is in your reading i mean now with zoom my professors have all recorded their lectures since we went to zoom but i think my school's going back in person next year i'm sure a lot of schools are heading that direction and they don't record the classes um so you'll need friends just to give you notes but you just need people to lean on law school is just so much harder than undergrad high school any of that and you just need people to make the experience bearable and if you have good friends in other areas of your life that's awesome like keep them around but they're just not going understand exactly what's going on and to have friends who are going through it with you is invaluable and you'll really need them and i wish i had known that before law school because i would have started the day i got there just trying to meet people and not everyone's gonna become your friend there's probably a little bit of trial and error in that sense but i just wish i had started sooner and really made an effort to get to know people because i didn't and i'm lucky i found the friends that i did but it's really tough and you need people who are going through it with you and you can help each other you can complain to each other you guys can just i don't know it's um i wasn't expecting that part of law school i didn't really think because like i said i did undergrad pretty much on my own when it came to academics and that really didn't work in law school and i feel like i kind of learned that the hard way and you'll also need to be friends with upperclassmen too like people who are able to get outlines from alumni or upperclassmen or anything like that they are at an advantage and if you don't have upperclassmen that you know or alumni or something like that you're putting yourself at a disadvantage so you know even in terms of grades so i just wish that i had gotten a i wish i had put more effort into that and sort of done it from the beginning yeah so if you're starting law school or if you're in law school there's still time see if you can get to know people like just try to talk to the people who sit next to you in class or join student organizations or anything like that because those people you never know where you can find someone who will actually become a good friend and those friends are just truly the most valuable resources i have found in law school honestly well them and some really good professors i've had but you need people so don't be afraid do better than i did and make some friends they're really truly your most valuable resource in law school and i wish i had done a better job okay so that's that those are the five things that i wish i knew before i started law school if you guys are heading into law school in the fall or you're already in law school and haven't learned these lessons the hard way like i did hopefully this video provided some guidance for you and with that i will see you guys in my next video thanks for watching bye you guys

Channel: Jenn Martin

Views: 58,491

Keywords: betterhelp, counseling, mental health, law school, law school vlog, law school student vlog, law school vlogger, law school mental health, law school therapy, lawyer vlog, lifestyle youtuber, lifestyle vlogger

Id: IYxh-PCoJrU

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021