Entering your first year of law school can be extremely intimidating because it is completely different than any learning environment you were in before. During your 1L orientation you should expect to get a small taste of what it is like to function in a law school classroom. You will have professors teach a mock class during the week of orientation in which students will be able to understand how to read cases and find the applicable rule of law from those cases. Students will also be able to understand how the Socratic method works and can prepare for the types of questions they may be asked in their regular classes once the semester starts.

After orientation, classes will begin and the regular division students are typically split into two separate groups. Each group will travel to all classes together and will learn from the same professors. The evening division is typically a smaller group of students so there is no splitting into separate sections. During the Fall semester 1L students will take Contracts, Torts, Property, Legal Methods, and Civil Procedure. Most, but not all, of these courses will then continue into the Spring semester and the courses become Contracts II, Civil Procedure II, etc. For regular division students, classes will typically begin around 9:00am or 9:30am. There is usually a break in the 1L schedule which allows time for homework and lunch and classes resume in the afternoon at 2:00pm. For evening division students, classes could start as early as 6:00pm and end as late as 10:00pm. Most 1L classes last either an hour and 25 minutes, or 55 minutes depending on the number of credits a student will earn for the course.

The amount of homework a student can expect during their first year will change over time. At the start of the Fall semester, professors tend to assign less work as they are aware students are just starting to adjust to the rigor of law school and do not yet fully comprehend cases the first time they read them. As the Fall semester progresses 1L students can expect more pages of homework for each of their classes, but this increase usually goes unnoticed because students learn how to read and understand cases faster. The Spring semester of 1L will pick up in pace significantly because now 1L students have successfully completed one semester of law school and know how to manage their time to get all of their work done before class.

1L year can be overwhelming at times so it is important for students to take advantage of the many different support systems that Widener offers. For example, each 1L class will have what Widener refers to as an “Academic Success Fellow,” this is a 2L or 3L student who excelled and received a top grade in that class in a prior year. This student will hold weekly office hours and is there to answer any questions that 1L students may have about the material. The professors of all 1L courses also hold office hours and are always willing to answer any questions students may have. Widener also has a peer mentorship program that is run by the Student Bar Association which pairs a 2L or 3L student with any 1L who wants to have a mentor and that mentor is there to coach the 1L on anything from exam taking strategies to how to find a suitable internship or externship.

A student’s 1L year can feel stressful at times, but it is also a very rewarding experience, and it is one that will shape a student into the attorney that they will shortly become.

Have you ever felt like everyone else knows exactly what they want to do career wise and you are the only one who doesn’t have it all figured out? Avoid panic; you’re definitely not the only one who doesn’t have a clue, and that’s okay!

I have always been someone who was interested in so many subjects, careers, and areas of law that is too hard for me to choose exactly what I want to do. If you find yourself in a similar situation, my advice is to try as many different classes, internships, and other experiences as possible so you can begin to eliminate what you DON’T want to do.

I went into undergrad as an undeclared student. It took me over a year and a half to finally declare my major and I narrowed down my choices by trying out classes in different subject areas, talking to professors about their careers and interests, and testing several campus jobs and internships. I eventually landed on political science as my major and later decided to apply to law schools. Once I started at Widener, I found myself facing the same problem that I had faced in undergrad. I had no idea what type of law I wanted to practice after graduation.

It was frustrating at first because it seemed like every other student I spoke with knew exactly what they wanted; for example, that they wanted to be a criminal defense attorney or that they wanted to be a family law attorney and specialize in divorce. It seemed like I was one of only a few students who didn’t have anything figured out and it was overwhelming. To narrow my choices, I first visited with Widener’s Dean of Career Development who was able to help me realize that there were quite a few areas of the law that I already knew weren’t the right fit for me. For example, I had interned with a small private family law firm after graduation from undergrad and that experience helped me determine that family law isn’t a fit for me, but it also helped me realize that perhaps transactional work would suit me best. I also had an internship with a local county collections department and that experience helped me determine that I wasn’t interested in criminal law. Once I realized what I didn’t want to do, I focused on finding an internship for 1L summer that would expose me to something completely new, so I could determine if it may be a fit for me.

During the summer of 2022 I interned with the Office of General Counsel: Department of Environmental Protection. From this experience I learned that government work is really interesting to me and that may be something I want to pursue in the future, and at the same time I learned that environmental law is also not my strong suit.

The moral of my story is to try as many things as possible if you aren’t sure where you want to end up. Every experience I’ve had has been extremely valuable to me, even if after that experience I decided that that job was totally wrong for me. It is sometimes better to determine what you don’t like before you settle on a career path. If you ever feel lost or overwhelmed about finding an internship/externship that will be beneficial to you, reach out to professors and the staff at Widener to help you narrow your choices.  It’s OKAY to not know what you’re doing! You’ll find the perfect fit eventually!