Weathering the Storm of 1L — Four Insights from Completing First-Year Law
Throughout my first year of law school, I learned countless invaluable lessons. Not only have these lessons benefitted me so far in my law school journey, but they have also allowed me to gain broader perspectives in many areas of life. While everyone’s “1L experience” varies, I am very confident that the four main lessons below can benefit anyone entering first-year law at any law school.
1. Embrace the chaotic beginning to law school by building your organizational system.
Much of what goes on in the first month of “1L” is foreign to students. Simply put, it is a whirlwind. You are diving into new and complex courses, joining law clubs and societies, attending career events, meeting many new people, potentially still working, and possibly living in a new city. The reality is that you are absorbing a lot of new information in a short amount of time, which is bound to cause stress. However, your mindset entering that first month is crucial. Preparing to absorb all of the new elements in your environment can help with a less stressful transition into law school.
Staying organized is the best way for you to prepare for the chaotic first month. Some people commit everything to a calendar, some organize their emails and documents for each course, and some use time blocking to organize their days and weeks. I used a combination of all of these which has allowed me to download reminders and task management to my technology, thereby increasing my efficiency and reducing my stress level. Constantly having to remember different tasks and events is exhausting — why not implement the vast array of technology at our fingertips and use it to do the remembering for you?
There is no one-size-fits-all organizational scheme, however. A massive part of first-year law is learning from experience how much you have to do to be successful. It is entirely normal to play things by ear for a while to observe what strategies mesh well with you. Rushed decisions are rarely good ones, so give yourself time to figure out exactly how you want to organize yourself.
2. Learning what you can live without.
Law school is a significant time commitment. There is no getting around that. You will rapidly realize that you may not have time for everything in life that you want to do on a day-to-day basis. Maybe that means spending less time on social media, giving up a hobby that you still enjoy, or waking up earlier. Law school requires sacrifice — as does anything else that is worth achieving in life. Rather than struggle to keep spinning every plate, you will be much better off firmly deciding what you will prioritize and what you are comfortable with conceding. From that, perhaps you may notice yourself becoming more productive as a result of cutting out potential distractions.
Ultimately, it is up to you to decide how disciplined you will be. However, this is not to say that you are not allowed any downtime — you are. By prioritizing what is truly important, you allow yourself the flexibility to have off days. I would recommend this to anyone, as our health and productivity are both significantly better when we practice balance in our lives.
3. Your study process versus your early results.
There is a lot of commentary in the legal community about the importance and value of first-year grades. This is understandable, since every law student in the country takes the same courses in their first year, regardless of which school they attend. For potential employers, this presents a rare universal plane on which to evaluate all law students. However, when it comes to how law firms perceive first-year grades, the best answer I can offer is that it depends on the firm and its hiring process.
Worrying about grades is another normal part of law school. I could tell you not to do this, but if we are being honest, we all do. Time is always better spent on preparing rather than worrying. This is easier said than done, but I promise that stressing out over your grades or trying to predict how you have performed on an exam is a waste of time.
A strategy I like to implement is the “athlete analogy”. Athletes learn to have short memories and focus on the next game rather than dwelling on past performances. They also focus on each element of their performance, including training sessions, rather than fixating solely on outcomes. This mindset is similar to how a first-year law student may operate. While you always want to learn from your mistakes, accepting that “what’s done is done” is the best way that you can move on to the next task. Rather than worrying, spend that energy on refining and improving your study process. The results come to those who are best prepared, and we can only prepare by having an optimal study process. This is an excellent method for improving your grades or maintaining high grades. Part of a healthy mindset is accepting that sometimes your effort outperforms your result, and sometimes your result outperforms your effort. Expect both of these scenarios to occur at some point during your 1L journey!
4. Comparing yourself to others is a dangerous game.
The message in this section is straightforward — you have to focus on what you are doing and not on what others are doing. The truth is that you got into law school because you did many things right. That means you have an idea of what helps you to succeed. I am not saying to cut yourself off from your peers, but rather you want to trust that you are doing enough of the right things to succeed on your own. If you are unsure, then academic advisors are there to help!
Learning new habits and strategies from your peers is a great way to improve, but beware of trying to do as much or more than everyone else. For example, some people need to study more to grasp the same concept that another person could understand with less studying. Operating differently does not mean that one person is doing it wrong. There will always be someone achieving higher grades than you, someone studying for more hours, someone involved in more extracurricular activities, someone with a more impressive résumé, etc. The challenge is staying true to your good habits and not trying to be someone else. This understanding will allow you to focus on your own self-improvement, which you owe to yourself in law school. When we all come from such different backgrounds, it makes little sense to compare ourselves to our law school peers anyway. In the end, we are really just competing against ourselves and aiming for self-improvement.
