Planning to start law soon? There are a couple things that should be on your checklist. There are the obvious things to do like ask a family member if they want to get the degree with you, but once that’s out the way you may need a little more guidance. Here are a few quick tips to prepare for your 3(ish) year journey to becoming a JD, who is better to start than with National Jurist?:
Make sure your resume is polished
You might have recently updated your resume when you were applying to law school. However, you want to make sure it is polished — you may need it again soon. In your first year of law school, you will have opportunities to interview for law firm positions beginning in December and then again in the following spring/summer.
The more work you can do ahead of time on your resume, the less you will have to do in December when you will be busy studying for final exams.
Some students also work on their diversity statements if they are considering applying for diversity scholar positions at law firms.
You may be thinking that having to prepare for job interviews this early in your career as a student is madness. You’d be right. Long story, but law firms are pushing recruiting drives earlier and earlier on the calendar to get ahead of their competition, casualties be damned. Yes, it sucks, but that’s the market. Be prepared.
Spend time with family and friends
It goes without saying that law school is demanding. So spend quality time with your family and friends now. Once you begin law school, you will still have time to hang out with loved ones — but likely not as much time as you may have now. So take advantage of this time while you have it.
This has less to do with preparing for school and more to do with preparing yourself. Depending on where you’re sending off, you could be headed hundreds of miles away from where you grew up, your friends and the crappy little restaurant you like to get food from when you need some culinary comfort. For transparency’s sake, mine was Wawa. Law school or not, uprooting your life to start something completely new is a stressful endeavor. And who knows? You may even find a new crappy little restaurant that you like to get food from when you need some culinary comfort once you finally settle in to law school. Mine was Courtesy Diner. People will talk your ears off about the importance of hornbooks and Quimbee, but those things just nourish the mind. Fond memories you can look back on will nourish your spirit when you’re down in ways study guides just can’t.
Those are the main action items before law school: work hard and have some fun on the side. That advice could probably carry you through 2L — the stress of law school kind of tapers off by 3L. It’ll still suck, especially if you’re going through a global disease crisis or social unrest or something, but being that close to the finish line is a persuasive reason to keep on keeping on.
Law School Bound? Maximize Your Summer For A Strong Start [National Jurist]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
