Congrats Elle Woods you’re officially a law student. Welcome to the land of dry shampoo, bulging backpacks, and case briefs…you’re gonna love it. It’s been about a month since I started law school, and I think that I’ve seen enough to break out the china and spill the tea about what you can really expect during the first month of your legal education.
Read, Read, Read
First things first, if you hate reading, you have one of two options: put your loathing aside and deal with it or consider a different career path. You will be expected to read between 20-40 pages per class per night which means a minimum of 100 pages per day, and that’s on a moderate day. If you are a fast reader, gold star for you, but I highly suggest not resting on you rapid reading laurels. Even if you are a fast reader, that doesn’t do you a lick of good if you don’t understand what you’ve read. The objective for reading in law school is to read to understand, not just to inhale the ink and hope that the critical comprehension of the case bibbidi bobbidi boo’s its way into your cognition. No sugar, that simply won’t do. I was an avid reader of classic novels, so the language density doesn’t bother me much, but it is time-consuming. I highly recommend spending the summer before the commencement of your legal education reading as much as possible. Practice reading critically and you’ll get off to a strong start.
Case Briefs Will Be Your Bread ‘n Butter
If you’ve never heard of a case brief, don’t worry, neither had I. Case briefs are essentially a succinct analysis of the case you are dealing with. They help you organize your thoughts and are a great tool for referencing rules and their application when exams roll around. There is a slew of the various way you can construct your case brief, but typically every case brief should have at least the following elements:
The Facts: You won’t need every single fact in the case, just the ones that could affect why the court ruled the way they did, these are called “key facts.” It takes a while to differentiate between which ones are essential and which ones are not so don’t panic if your first brief’s facts are over a page.
The Issue: This is the legal question the court has to answer
The Rule: What law the court is going to use to justify their ruling
Analysis: The breakdown of how the court applies the rule to the case
Conclusion: What the court’s decision is and what their next course of action is.
This structure is called the IRAC model and is, in my opinion, the simplest way of dissecting your cases for comprehension. However, I highly recommend you wait till meet your professors to start case briefing. Each professor has their own preferences for how they want you to brief your cases, so it is essential that you adhere to their format regardless of your personal choice.
Time Management is Everything
I bring you good news! Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to sacrifice your social life in its entirety and enslave yourself to your education. However, you do have to become a master at time management and master it fast. When I first looked at my syllabi, I felt so dizzy I thought I’d keel over. Once I took a step back and got organized I realized that what seemed insurmountable was actually quite doable, as long as I was strict with my schedule. So here is my advice: stay on top of all your work, make a schedule and stick to it, get ahead when you can, and budget time for your friends, family, God, and yourself. If you do this, you will be able to have a social life while in law school even if it is more restrictive than what you may be accustomed to. The point is if you are wise with your time you will find that you have more of it than you thought.
You Can Do This
The most important thing that I found to be overwhelmingly evident during my first month of law school is that this is completely doable. It is time-consuming, exhausting, and far more rigorous than you can currently conceive, but it is far from impossible. If you are willing to sacrifice your fidelity to your Netflix account, stick to your schedule, and read like a madwoman you too can begin to make your dream of becoming a lawyer a reality. To Elle Woods’ question “What? Like it’s hard,” the answer is yes, it is, and it’s totally worth it. Best of Luck!
With love from the Lonestar,
Isabella
