1L of an Experience at USask Law
During the application period for law school, I was so busy with ordering transcripts, writing personal essays, and writing the LSAT that I did not think about the learning experience of school at all.
When I got my admission letter and the dust of enjoyment settled, it hit me that I didn’t know how to study the law. I then did what almost all of us would do, turned to Google. Bombarded with thousands of YouTube videos and blog posts about study skills and what Common Law is, I still had this fear down my spine that it will be as scary as it was shown on the internet. I could not haven been more wrong.
I finished my first year of law school and survived it. However, in April, I thought that I actually had fun in my 1L year and that made me feel a little bit guilty. So I questioned myself…have I done something wrong? Why did I not feel like the students in those YouTube videos or blog posts? Did I do something wrong?
To find the answer to my questions, I decided to talk to two of my classmates about our experiences in our first year of law school. Danielle Davyduke is from Saskatoon, an avid sports player, and enjoys her busy life with work, friends, and school. Matthew Taras, father to the young Thaddeus and husband to Vicky, moved to Saskatoon eight years ago and fell in love with the city so much that he decided to stay, study, and work there.
Danielle appreciated the online learning environment at USask Law because the professors did a great job creating good content that facilitated her learning. When I asked her what was her perception of law school before starting her legal journey, she replied: “I heard that the Law has a lot of readings, but it was manageable for me because it was interesting to read about cases that are from real life”. The beauty of law school rests in that it comes from real-life stories and human relationships in everyday life. The vibrant quality of law is that it gets its soul directly from our lives.
Matthew, however, had a more precise idea about law school than most of us as he had been working with many lawyers and arbitrators before coming to law school. Starting this experience was moving from a minor league to a major league kind of experience for Matthew. When I asked him what his favourite part of law school was, he said: “I enjoyed the exams because I got to apply the law to something that mirrors real life”. This was an enlightening moment for me to see someone actually like final exams. Still, I share Matthew’s point of view that studying the law in school is training for a future career, and what a better way to look at this whole experience.
Law school indeed brings its burdens, so Matthew had to find new ways to balance his personal life as a father and husband. For example, suppose you are a person that has a family to take care of while going to law school, and your partner doesn’t have the expectations that you are not going to be accessible. In that case, that could make for some challenges. Fortunately for Matthew, he has a very understanding partner that would even make sacrifices to take care of the family while he was busy with his school work. He told me that: “There were some days that my wife took charge and was the single parent when I was busy”. These words from Matthew made me realize that if we have the right people around us, life in law school would be manageable.
For Danielle, her former lifestyle was a big help. In her own words: “I have always lived a very busy life between school, work, and sports, and I have always tried to maintain stable mental health”. This is something that most of us face when we start law school. No matter what academic background we have, law school is a different beast, and doing it online added an extra layer of stress to it. For Danielle, having an understanding network of support was a crucial part of her journey as well. Her siblings did Zoom university as well and sympathized with her. In addition, her parents have friends who are lawyers who told them that law school would be busy for Danielle, so they should expect less family time from her.
In addition to the people around us to help, internal factors play a huge role in coping with law school work. Danielle told me that she is very organized with her school work and does a step-by-step strategy to finish her required tasks. To keep her mental status stable, she would always remind herself that today’s busy day means a free day soon. This is something that I believe we all should print and put in a frame in front of us, especially when school days get hard and we are on the edge of giving up.
Matthew, interestingly, felt more stress when he did not have anything to do during the breaks and holidays. It was not a surprise for me to hear this from him, as I know Matthew is a goal-oriented person who enjoys having projects and a purpose in his schooling life. Set deadlines and turn your schoolwork into mini-projects are some of the bits of advice he has for other law students.
It may seem that both of them had everything in control during our 1L year, but there were times that even the best of us would feel down. For the three of us, it was writing our first memo. I came to Canada as an international student and English is not my first language, so writing my first legal document ever, brought a crippling feeling of anxiety that would keep me up at night. For Danielle, it was the fact that this was an individual assignment and that we were discouraged from seeking help from each other or upper years that added stress to it. For Matthew, it was the due dates with assignments, studies, and family responsibilities that made our first memo the most difficult task for him.
I was surprised to see that these advanced, brilliant, and native speaker classmates shared the same stress as me. This made me wonder if we have the same fears…could we have the exact same coping mechanisms as well? Asking them about their study techniques, I realized that it all has to do with project management skills for a successful experience in law school.
Matthew treated his law school experience like a job. He set a Monday to Friday schedule for himself, where he dedicated specific days to specific courses. “My project management style was not to fall behind”. Moreover, the golden rule of thumb for him is when he creates his super condensed annotated notes (CANs), which are brief summaries of the case law and other essential materials. “You have to learn how to take a 40 page case and summarize it into half a page”. This is the golden rule of studying law, because this is one of the most critical materials that is going to save you during final exams.
Danielle had a similar approach as well. She told me that she would plan everything, mark every due date, and try not to fall behind. In addition, she values the importance of feedback from professors on her exams, because she always tries to learn from her mistakes in order to move forward and improve.
Studying with friends is another significant measure to entertain our legal minds and exercise our legal knowledge. Matthew believes that study groups where students can articulate their arguments with friends would make the difference between a ‘B+’ and an ‘A’ at the end of the term.
I was happy to see that law school is not only stressful for me, and other people are trying their absolute best to cope with it as well. I think this is the beauty of USask Law, which has housed such outstanding individuals and brilliant minds together. Danielle is right when she said: “Everybody at USask tries to help you. You can message an upper year or approach a professor, and they are always willing to help you”. The friendly environment and the beautiful campus here at USask has helped me in my new learning journey.
The next time I walk on campus, I can now easily realize that I have a lot in common with my fellow classmates. I can learn a lot from them to improve myself, as I have from Danielle and Matthew. At the end of the day, it feels like we are a big family here at USask Law. Looking back, I had 1L of a good year!
