https://preview.redd.it/fq8flwf7oa8e1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=014240888ac517ae65b753c8ede70fccab358262

Incoming 1L here. I’ve heard that it’s incredibly difficult to find time to work out during 1L year, particularly the first semester. Is this really the case? I work out pretty heavily and would really like to keep it up in law school. When do y’all work out? Is very early morning the only viable option? Thanks!

I have been graciously accepted into a law school for the next cycle that offers a part time and full time program.

I work remotely and I am thinking of doing part time law school in order to keep my job that I love. I also see the benefits of getting experience while in school.

I heard the schedule is depressing, but having a paycheck and being able to afford a nice place would be a huge plus.

Any current students thoughts and feelings in the matter?

So this is interesting. Polymarket (a crypto betting website) alleges that the U.S. government shut down occurred. You can google this particular one, titled "Will there be a US Government shutdown?" if you wish.

The Rules state:

For some reason, the Rules appeared blank. Here they are:

This market will resolve to "Yes" if the U.S government shut down occurs between August 30, and December 31, 2024, 11:59 PM ET. Otherwise, this market will resolve to "No".
The market will resolve to “Yes” if the acting President fails to sign the relevant bill(s) extending government funding by the applicable deadline(s), even if no government shutdown is explicitly announced.
For this market to resolve to "Yes" any shutdown will count. If only a portion of the US government is covered by any signed bill(s) extending funding of the US government, and a portion of the US government goes unfunded, this market will still resolve to "Yes".
The primary resolution for this source will be official information from the US government, however a consensus of credible reporting may also be used.

On December 21, 2024, after the majority of "bets" were made, a "clarification" was added, which stated:

As per the rules, “The market will resolve to “Yes” if the acting President fails to sign the relevant bill(s) extending government funding by the applicable deadline(s), even if no government shutdown is explicitly announced.” President Biden did not sign a bill extending funding by the midnight deadline (12:00 AM ET) on December 20, hence this market should resolve to “Yes”.

The question is, whether the conditions for "Yes" occurred. I am curious what everyone thinks. I lean towards "No", but I think a reasonable argument that can be made for Yes too.

I am currently a senior, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Finance. After graduation, I’ll be moving to New York City to start my career at a big bank. I originally began as an Economics major, but due to personal circumstances that caused academic challenges, during my freshman and sophomore years, I decided to switch to Political Science and later added a Finance minor. While changing majors was a difficult decision, I ultimately found myself on a career path closely aligned with my goals when I first entered college as an Econ major.

Over time, I developed a strong interest in my Political Science coursework alongside my Finance classes. I’ve had the opportunity to take classes that bridge the gap between finance and the political forces shaping it on both domestic and global scales. This interdisciplinary focus has been rewarding, and it has even sparked my interest in potentially attending law school in the future.

Although I remain passionate about finance and am excited about my upcoming two-year analyst rotation, I’m curious about transitioning from finance to law later on in my career. For those who have made this shift, what was your experience like? What specific areas of law are common for individuals with a finance background? While corporate law seems to be the most obvious choice, it feels like a broad field, and I’d love to hear more about the specific paths within it or other areas of law that may align with finance.

I really just have to bitch about this, and my classmates/friends are probably tired of hearing about the same thing--I just don't know how to shake the frustration at the situation. It's infuriating to know how much money I give my school every year, just for half of my classes to be taught by subpar professors and thus be underprepared for the bar.

I'm a 1L civil law [Louisiana] student, so most of the rants I see on this thread about contracts class aren't applicable to me--I recognize that no one's work is easy, but common law contracts seems significantly less challenging than the analogue of civil law obligations. My professor is a joke. The average on her final last fall was a 30%, and only 2 out of 60 students passed naturally before the curve. Considering that I'm at a fairly high ranking school, it's frustrating that there was no real intervention concerning her ineffective teaching. She consistently misspoke and mixed binary concepts up, and talked down to us any time we expressed concern about feeling unprepared for her final and the bar. Based on the conversations I've had with 2Ls who had her last year, there's been no real improvement in her teaching.

She's also just cruel, honestly. She told us ahead of time that her final would likely be the most difficult one we took this semester, and that she makes it hard on purpose so distributing the grades on the curve is easier for her. She wasn't lying--it was the hardest test I've ever taken, which is incredibly frustrating because I think I studied more for it than I did the LSAT. I knew everything front and back, memorized all of the relevant civil code articles, and starting drilling hypos and full practice tests in October. It didn't matter--she put shit on that exam that I had never seen before. ALL of the short-answer questions asked us to describe some common law equivalent of a civil law doctrine--which would be fine IF SHE HAD TAUGHT COMPARATIVE AT ALL. I never missed a single class, took detailed notes, read and briefed every single case, and studied non-stop, YET there were terms that I had never laid eyes on before on that exam. When I saw the words "promissory estoppel" my heart SANK. I am a very good student, and I've never seen something on an exam that I had no earthly idea how to begin describing. It was devastating. I looked up promissory estoppel [this is just one example of common law doctrines she put on the exam] after the test, and that frustrated me even further; because it was a concept that I had the education to understand and apply, I just didn't study it because I didn't think I had to, having never seen it before. I know detrimental reliance like the back of my hand--THE CIVIL LAW VERSION, BECAUSE I AM A CIVIL LAW STUDENT.

I have her again in the spring semester for Obligations II. I'm terrified for grades to come out and I am incredibly pissed because I feel that my professor and my university have failed me. From what I've heard, several people have spoken to admin about this professor to no avail. It's her second year ever teaching, which I understand comes with some hiccups, but I can't stress enough that the woman is genuinely and intentionally cruel.

Has anyone else had this issue? Do any civil law students relate? There's a serious lack of Louisiana representation in this thread, so I feel pretty alone in it.

I've considered requesting a class change into the other professor's obligations class for the spring, but that comes with its own issues--that class made significant strides ahead of what we covered this semester, and I feel like I'd be grossly unprepared for what the other professor is teaching next semester.

Feeling hopeless and angry.

I’m a 1L going into my spring semester, I still have no idea on what kind of law I want to practice. Out of all my courses this semester I enjoyed torts the most. In undergrad I worked as a runner for a law firm and I remember them only hiring students going into their 3L in the summer. Is it worth a shot to try to work there in my hometown summer going into 2L? When and how did you know what type of law did you want to practice? I feel like everyone has at least an idea, I have no clue.

I'm looking to buy a laptop bag/briefcase for work. This is what I will have in have my bag/briefcase:

• Personal laptop
• Work laptop
• Phone and laptop chargers
• Mouse
• Headphones
• Small Tumbler
• Water bottle
• Lunch box

I don't want a backpack. I want to bag/briefcase with a sleeve so I can carry it with my shoulder. Any recommendations on the best laptop bag/briefcase to buy based on what I plan to carry?

Just finished 1L fall… grades won’t be released until January. Most places require transcripts and because a ton of places hire for 1L summer on a rolling basis I want to get everything in ASAP. How/where in my application indicate that I will supplement my transcripts whenever they are made available?

Pretty much the topic. What would you do? Worried about talking to deans because I took a class with him last semester and the grades have not been posted yet.

*Given that it is an Upper Level writing class, he does know which paper is mine.

This might sound dumb to some people but is it possible for someone who’s scored in the low 160s on the LSAT to get A’s in law school? I’ve heard the lsat is a measure of how well you’ll do your first year and I put in countless hours of studying for over 8 months but scored a 162 and now I’m hoping there’s other people out there who were like me but still had great grades their first year. I guess I just wanna hear that I’ll have a chance to do great if I put in the effort :/

You know those times when ur in a really serious situation and u have to be quiet but u literally cannot stop laughing— like it’s fucking painful holding it in

Do you think that’s ever happened to someone in trial? Like an attorney goes up to do their opening and they get a laughing attack and literally cannot compose themselves

I keep thinking about how fuckin funny that would be. Everyone staring at them like wtf is going on and the lawyer is red in the face trying to stop laughing but they can’t

When do you start doing MBE questions or other studying outside of the daily plan? I’m on a 6.5 hour daily plan and there’s very few MBE questions involved so far, but I don’t want to waste the question bank doing failing MBE questions when I only have the foundations videos to go off of.

What law show would you say is most like real life law?

Obviously none are gonna be perfect, but what is closest to reality?

Lurker seeing some posts about callbacks, rejections, etc… are 1Ls already getting decisions from firms? Without any grades? Is this the new normal?? 😫

I'm devastated. First gen woc here who struggled with all the usual imposter syndrome issues. I really tried to put my all into the material and seeing these results after my first semester have me crushed. I can't talk to my family or friends about it — none of them are in the law world + it's so hard to talk about my first real failure — and I'm not close enough to any classmates to vent. Asking for help is a hard thing for me to do so I thought l'd try here.

I guess my questions are (1) how can I overcome this? (2) are my summer job options just completely wrecked? and (3) would it be better to just drop out? I went straight through to law school and tbh I really don't know what to do with my life if it's not this.

My last final was crim three days ago, I’ve been dreaming about nothing but actus reus and mens rea since. Literally non-stop concepts and hypos that deal with it running through my mind subconsciously. I am considering sleeping medication if this doesn’t improve in a few more days. Pray for me…

It's that time of year again with firms opening up their 1L Summer Associate applications for Big Law. I've already seen several posts on this topic so here is a PSA for everyone interested in a non-Texas market:

LANDING A BIG LAW SUMMER ASSOCIATESHIP IS THE EXCEPTION AND NOT THE RULE, EVEN FROM THE T14. Most positions require you to be a diversity candidate AND be a top student in your first semester (think top 20%). Even then it's not a sure thing.

Save a few firms like Kirkland or Skadden, most Big Law shops are hiring maybe 10 (often less) students from thousands of apps. Most of these same firms will hire 100+ during the 2L recruit, so you can do the math on how exclusive the 1L SA recruit is.

I'm not saying don't dream or don't shoot your shot – if you're into Big Law, you should definitely apply. But don't get your hopes up and definitely don't think this is the end all be all. MOST excellent candidates do not land a 1L SA position but still end up doing perfectly fine during the 2L recruit.

Edit: some have confused my post with non-Big Law SA positions. I'm strictly referring to Big Law (Mid law is not Big Law; boutiques with 50 lawyers is not Big Law; your uncle's personal injury firm is not Big Law, etc.).

Hi everyone. I will be starting law school next year and I am trying to get prepared. Ib looking for suggestions for the best tablet to take notes on. I just bought an HP laptop if that matters. I was looking at something that will sync to my laptop. Was looking at the remarkable but not sure if that is good or not. Any other suggestions of items that I will need starting 1L is appreciated

i had my first screener interview with a big law firm the other day. i prepared notes beforehand on a bunch of questions that i thought they might ask me, but the interviewer ended up asking me a pretty weird/unique question right off the bat. (it was kind of philosophical and had nothing to do with either me or the firm lol.) my mind went totally blank, and he had to prompt me again to help me out after like 2 whole minutes of me going “uhh…. um… that’s a great question… um let me think…” 😭 i did eventually come up with an okay answer, but all in all, i don’t feel like i did very well because i hesitated for so long.

i had heard that the questions at these kinds of interviews are normally pretty predictable (like “why are you interested in this firm” etc) so this really threw me for a loop. i felt like the interviewer was “testing” me by trying to catch me off guard/make me think fast, and i failed the test. is this kind of thing common, or did i just get a weird interviewer lol?

2L. Had an abnormal amount of MC exams this semester and…. Let’s just say I am feeling bad about my likely grades and need a dose of copium. My classmates thought these exams were hard as well but taking a MC exam and being split 50/50 on so many answers despite studying my ass off is a jarring feeling…

Hey y'all.

This sub has been a literal grey cloud for the past few weeks now. In light of all of the final exam horror stories and ongoing trepidation, I just wanted to change the tune and offer some respite instead.

I was equally as worried about my exam grades as many of you this semester. I studied hard, but I made some missteps on a few of my exams. Left some questions blank, didn't apply every possible rule, things of that nature--the usual slip-ups.

I've now gotten back most of my final grades though, and I'm quite pleased to say that I performed far better than I was expecting to on each. I'm slightly above the curve and I'm in good academic standing.

I say that to say that I'm sure many of you will experience the same. If it was possible for me, then it's absolutely possible for any of you. Despite what your paranoia and anxiety is telling you, you more than likely did just fine on your exams.

A few weeks from now, you'll open up your transcript and be pleasantly surprised at just how well everything turned out, and you'll wish that you spared yourself the worrying. So, do that--spare yourself of worrying and just relax.

Howdy,

Question in the headline. I'm applying for in-house summer positions and I am having a hard time finding the recruiter for the companies.

(Like from the firm lol)

Hi, I want to ask anyone who works in data privacy law. How do you start without a bar? How does it go? I am studying for CIPP/US at the moment. Thank you for sharing your experience !