Category: Law Student Life

Transitioning to Law School: The Importance of Balance

The beginning of your law school journey will feel like one of the most daunting experiences in your life. However, that does not have to be your reality. Transitioning to managing the workload in law school is difficult, but it is doable. While the workload is much heavier than in undergraduate programs, you can handle it by being intentional with your time and maintaining a balanced life. As a student who just finished their first year, I hope to provide you with some helpful tips to make it through your first year without burning out.

Going into orientation, I had no idea what to expect from law school. I knew nothing about what the experience would be like other than what I had seen in Suits and Legally Blonde; I am also a first-generation law student, so no one in my family could prepare me. I was scared that I would not be able to handle the workload or being cold-called, and I worried that my study skills were not where they needed to be to succeed. Feeling overwhelmed, I created one goal at the start of the school year: stay on top of my work to avoid falling behind. I knew if I did this, I would at least put myself in a good position to do well. After orientation and the first week or so of school, I quickly discovered that I could keep up with the assignments, but I would not be able to actually understand them or do well in class if I was doing work 24/7. I knew that I needed to take time away from schoolwork so that I could focus completely when I went back to it.

As a student-athlete in undergrad, I had experience with managing my schoolwork along with practices, team lifts, and games. I found that when I was playing or working out, I was able to clear my head and forget about school for a while. So, I decided to use this experience and apply it to law school; I scheduled time after the school day was over to either run or go to the gym. This has proved to be very valuable time for me when school gets more stressful than normal. Taking an hour or so to move my body is so beneficial for my mental and physical health. For incoming 1Ls, I can’t stress enough the importance of taking care of yourself first; this will ensure that you can put your best foot forward at school!

In addition to exercise, I make sure to balance my time in other ways. It may be harder to spend as much quality time with important people in your life, but you can still make it happen as long as you intentionally set aside time to do so. I try to see my friends regularly, and I still spend time with my family. I always try to make some sort of plan on the weekends so that I don’t get stuck doing work all day; if I did that, my brain would feel like mush and I would have no motivation. I love to get outside, maybe go for a hike, try out a new restaurant, get coffee, go shopping, or play board/card games. Doing any of these things allows me to get away from school for a while so that I can reset. What you choose to do to get away from school does not have to be complicated! Keep it simple, and do things that you enjoy.

It is so important to continue to do things that make you happy or excited during law school; it can get overwhelming at times, and having something to ground yourself will help tremendously in relieving stress. Law school will be a huge part of your life for the next three years, but it doesn’t have to consume it entirely. In order to perform your best and actually enjoy what you are doing, you have to find things that don’t involve school! Taking care of yourself comes first, and doing this will put you in a great position to succeed in law school. To the incoming 1Ls that are reading: Good luck! You can do hard things!

Self Care Is The Best Care

Breathe, Relax, and Reset
Breathe
When you first get accepted into law school, you’re excited, filled with joy, and ready to conquer the world. Breathe. The summer before your 1L year is your last chance to live life on the edge. The subsequent summers will be spent interning at various firms or governmental agencies and studying for the Bar Exam. So please, use that time to enjoy your hobbies! Refrain from frantically purchasing textbooks and reading weeks in advance or watching YouTube videos on “how to prepare for cold calls.” You will be cold-called eventually. The key is to focus on understanding the material, not mastering cold calls. The ability to correctly answer a cold call in contracts does not correlate to one’s ability to write an essay in IRAC, CREAC, or CRAC form on the exam.
Relax
It is important to find a healthy balance between self-care and studying. Relax. Oftentimes, you may feel guilty for taking a day off, but don’t! It is better to study well-rested than burnt out. Orientation week will be a blur, so do not stress! If you are unfamiliar with the IRAC/CREAC method, ask questions prior to the entrance exam. Do not be shy because this is a graduation requirement. August through September will fly by, and Legal Methods may seem time-consuming (and it is), but for good reasons. What is prepared during Legal Method I is used as a writing requirement for internships.
Reset
In between Legal Methods assignments, remember to breathe, relax, and reset. If taking a day off seems too far-fetched, reward yourself with your favorite “must-haves.” Whether it be a sweet treat, clothes, or a pair of shoes, remember—rewarding yourself is also a form of self-care. No matter what comes your way, don’t forget your why. Stay the course. When times get hard, remind yourself that law school is just a piece of the puzzle to making your dreams become a reality!

Law School Friends/Study Groups

Everyone talks about friends’ that are long distance, but there isn’t enough appreciation given to the friends you make in law school. When preparing for law school, most individuals have this huge misconception of competition in law school. When I started law school, I had that same misconception, but as I started school, I was proven very wrong. I am thankful for the support system I gained while in law school, because they are who got me through and are continuing to get me through these years.
I met my friends the week of orientation of my 1L, and these are the individuals that continue to get me through school. We have all came from different backgrounds and different areas, but the way we all come together and just click is what makes us thrive. We are so like-minded and comfortable within ourselves to thrive as friends, together. Our friend group has changed immensely over the year and a half we’ve been here, but we are still incredibly close and grateful for our friendships.
The friends you make in law school help you mentally, physically and emotionally in all aspects of your life. You can talk to them about your life away from school but more importantly you can talk to them about everything in law school and they understand, they get it in ways that your family and friends from home, may never fully understand.
The friends I met here are my confidants, my study buddies, and frankly are the individuals who push me through my exams. We were from different sections and different divisions, and take different classes and yet, these are the individuals I study with who encourage me, push me, keep my sane, make me laugh, and keep me on my path. We bounce topics off one another, obtain different points of views and obtain information from one another that helps us study best in preparation for outlines, midterms, assignments and finally exams.
When you come to law school, find the people who understand you, who you work well with, and don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone, it’s the ones you least expect that will become your best friend here. Remember you all are going through everything together 24/7 and it’s one of the hardest things you can do, but it’s the ones you surround yourself with that make it worthwhile. These girls are the best support system law school could’ve given me and I am forever grateful.

Being a Busy Bee!

If you had told me when I was going into law school that I would have been involved in eleven different activities with various board positions, I would have said, “You are crazy! There is no way there would be any time to do it all and still be successful in school.” However, with the fall semester of my second year coming to a close, I can confidently say that it is extremely possible and has even made me a stronger student.

To give an insight into what is on my plate, my activities include being an academic success fellow for Torts I and II, the President of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the marketing chair of both the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and the Women’s Law Caucus, a LexisNexis student ambassador, a Barbri Bar Review student representative, the 2L Class Representative of Phi Alpha Delta, a Student Ambassador, and a member of the Trial Advocacy Honor Society, Appellate Court Honor Society, Business Law Society, and Spirit of Service. Of course, that is all on top of my full fifteen-credit semester, but I will be truthful in that all of my activities are not demanding or overwhelming, especially not on purpose!

With that being said, each day is very full, and I am very active on weekends, seeing my friends and family. But, I have found ways to stay on top of my schoolwork and not get behind. My biggest tip is TIME MANAGEMENT! Creating a schedule for myself in my planner each week, getting my schoolwork done ahead of time, and sticking to it have made it all possible. Typically, I like to have my schoolwork done at least a day or two ahead of when the class is so that during my more full days when I might not have much time for work, I will not be stressed when I come home and can spend some time taking a break from it all. Regardless of your schedule, I highly recommend this practice.

Additionally, staying busy and following a tighter schedule helps me to perform better in school! Comparing my midterm scores from this fall semester to last year’s semesters, I have improved dramatically. Also, with the classes I picked, I unfortunately had four midterms within three days, all back to back. But this did not deter me. I planned out when I could study and got my schoolwork done the week before to ensure I would have time to study. In fact, my studying habits changed in that I focused on what was important instead of trying to memorize every little detail. Taking a step back and looking at the class’s big picture was more beneficial as I could see how everything worked together to understand concepts in a much shorter time period.

Overall, being a very involved student is possible and beneficial in many ways. If you want to be active, do not let your fears stop you!

Outlining | Touching the Material

From the first day of law school you will hear a variety of ways to make an outline. Some people make a 2-5 page outline (a skinny), while others are well over 60 pages. ASFs are asked how they make theirs, and how it helped with their success. However, it gets overwhelming and confusing when they aren’t telling you exactly what they put into their outline, how they set it up, or how they incorporated their notes. After all, it is the first week of class when you start talking about the overall need for an outline. You don’t know any of the material, and are barely acclimated to the new environment of law school. It becomes even more stressful when you realize that your outline is going to be the key to your final exam, some representing 100% of your final grade.

However touching the material as much as you can throughout the semester will help you a lot in the long run. You don’t want to just be memorizing material the week before the exam, you want to know it.

So how exactly do you “touch the material” and commit the information to your long term memory? Well first, it would be helpful if you are not playing catch-up with your work. It’s beneficial to have time set aside where you can review the material that you have already seen.

After reading for class, close your book, and try to summarize the material and cases that you just read. Then right before class, skim through your readings again, and make small changes to your summary.

After a week of classes review your notes, and summaries. Create a separate document where you can list out concise thoughts, rules, and examples of the subject matter.

Once you have finished a sub-subject area, write out detailed CREAC citing to the case and examples from class. You can have your professor read this over to ensure that you understand the material, and can adequately explain it.

Then, once you finished a section of material, you can combine these mini CREACs into an overarching explanation of the law.

You can read and review these CREACS before class, and after a week of new material to understand what you’ve learned, what you’re currently learning, and what is yet to learn. This constant repetition and review will aid you in grasping the material, committing it to your long term memory, and with your writing voice as you prepare for finals.

TIP: Make sure to take good notes on examples given in class, and provided for on Canvas. You can write sample exam answers for these as well and have your ASF or professor review them.

Now, you can put these together for an exam style outline, which will definitely help you be prepared to write out your exam answers. However there are a couple other ways that you can outline. You just have to find what makes the most sense for YOU. A generic Roman Numeral or “A,B,C” outline works for a lot of people. Some need all of their notes listed out with big subject headers, and comment throughout their document. Other find there bare minimum information to be all they need, so headers with a list of 3-4 elements under each. Personally, I am a more visual learner, so I like to make my outline in excel. I just merge cells together to keep content areas together. This way I am able to see how the topics flow together, instead of flipping the page of a standard outline. But again, that is what works for me. However, you prefer to go about it by rewriting, retyping, or rereading the material you are constantly touching it. So by the time exams role around, you will have already committed a substantial portion of the material to you long term memory, and you will definitely be more prepared. But remember, do what’s best for you. It can be stressful, and that’s okay, don’t be afraid to ask for help, or examples!

Academic Success and the People Who Foster it

One of the first things that I was told when I first came to Widener is that whether it be students, professors or other faculty, everyone wants you to succeed. At first, I didn’t buy it. I had this image in my head that law school was going to be this fight to death environment where everyone was fighting each other for the top spot and it was up to you and you alone to succeed. But what I started to realize as my first few weeks of 1L passed by, was that everyone really did want me to do well, specifically professors as well as a lot of students.

The reason why I came to realize this first came from the interactions that I constantly had with my professors. The one on one interaction you get with your professors at a small school is one of biggest benefits of a small school, and you truly get out of law school what you put into it. If I went to a professor with questions, every single one of them were receptive, helpful and willing to give me tips. But even on top of that, every professor for every class had an Academic Success Fellow, or ASF. An ASF is a student that took the class in the past and did very well so they are now tasked with helping other students in that very same class. Every week an ASF will hold office hours and a lot of them even sit in the classrooms during class time. The ASF program was what opened my eyes to the fact that other students at Widener do really want to see others succeed.

One of my favorite part of the ASF program is the relationships that students, especially 1Ls are given the opportunity to build with upperclassmen students. When I was a 1L, I used every opportunity taht I could to go to my ASFs and ask them questions. Most of the time I just needed something explained to me in a slightly different way and an ASF was always able to do this. But along with talking about subject matter and asking questions you are able to form relationships. Contracts was a daunting class to me when I was a 1L, so every single Monday morning I woke up and I went to my ASFs office hours and I learned about contracts and I also learned about my ASF. Now, over a year later, we talk almost every day and I am in her wedding. That alone was a testament to the relationships that can be built through the ASF program, and that is what inspired me to want to be an ASF.

Now a year later, even though Contracts was daunting to me, I am a Contracts ASF myself and I am sitting on the either side of the table. It is one of the most worthwhile jobs I have ever had because I get to work side by side with the Professor that helped me so much through my 1L year, but I also get to work closely with other students and build relationships of my own. All of this thanks to Widener’s focus on academic success and those who foster it!

Making the Best of 1L: Resources

Despite the fact that law school can be a rather overwhelming experience – there are also an overwhelming number of resources to get you through it! From within Widener Commonwealth and beyond, I am here to tell you some essential resources that I have used which may also be helpful to you. Some valuable resources may be obvious, from Academic Success Fellows to your Professors – but some not so obvious – like how to use social media to your advantage.

At Widener, for almost all classes there is an Academic Success Fellow. An Academic Success Fellow is essentially the same as a TA, or Teacher’s Assistant from undergraduate years. I remember in my first year classes the ASFs were not only kind, but very supportive. For myself, I needed to contact the ASF for some classes more than others – such as Legal Methods – but there was always an ASF to support all of the students.

Another academic resource are the professors. In all my years of higher education, I have never felt as much support from a professor than I do at Widener Commonwealth. From school matters to personal matters, I find that the professors are very welcoming and approachable. These are significant qualities because the law school environment can be very intimidating. Professors such as Professor Kearney and Professor Lee are instances of incredible support. Both have not only been open to answer questions either in person or by email (even after business hours), but they each have taken the time to sit through an exam review with me. Professors are not only an important resource to assist in your academic skills, but they can also provide encouraging words which are just as, if not more important! I suppose they are especially supportive because they too have experienced the stresses of law school!

Some other resources include bar prep companies such as Themis or Barbri. As a Themis Representative myself, I can say with confidence that we table every week in the Pit. At our table, we have resources which include essential outlines for 1L, 2L, and 3L courses. These outlines are offered in physical form or online according to your preference.

An additional resource is your peers! I cannot express enough how important it is to rely on one another – especially since we are all going through this experience together. From having a movie night together, to asking a friend to be a study buddy in the library – these little things have an influence on your academic success and your well-being! Plus, it is always helpful to have a friend to crack jokes with to get through those long days.

A final, and perhaps unexpected resource is social media! Sources like YouTube and Instagram, actually provide a lot of support through accounts in the legal community. One Instagram account that has provided a lot of guidance to me is @lexdoeslawschool. This user is a first generation law student, and a current 3L. She posts photos to share things like “3 Things I’ve Learned During 3 Years of Law School”, or “Studying for Law School Finals”. Some accounts also pair up with companies to offer special discounts – yes, that means textbooks!

Long story short, there are so many resources to turn to for help. Do not be afraid to ask for help, because it will bring you one step closer to your goals!

Life of a VP Social

In law school, you need to find outlets that are going to help you thrive, not just as a student, but mostly as a person. For me, those outlets include SBA, PAD, books, and, of course, watching TV.

This year, I am one of the Vice Presidents of Social for SBA (student bar association). Within that role, my duties mainly include planning events such as Dean’s Picnic, Halloween Party, Barrister’s Ball, and 30 day party. As you probably know, this Friday is our annual Halloween Party.

So, what goes into the planning? I’m here to tell you!

First and foremost, a date for the party needed to be set. In previous years, the party has been on the Friday closest to Halloween. Tentative date? Check.

What now? Make sure we have a space to host the event. In similar fashion, we looked at where the event had been held in previous years. We reached out to American Brewing Company (ABC) to see if we could host the event and if the date we wanted was available. Lucky for us, ABC was available on the date we wanted. Location and date? Done.

Okay, great! The place and date are set. We should be almost done, if not already, right? Not so much. The next few things happen simultaneously, some things taking precedent over others at times.

What is a party without food? A horrible one. FOOD. FOOD. FOOD. As a student, we all love hearing the words, “food will be provided!” It is always quite the incentive to go to an event. So now, you need to pick out food. Easy as pie. Just kidding! When picking out food, we needed to consider what people liked last year, common food allergies, common diets/accommodations (gluten-free, vegetarian, etc.), and, of course, the amount of food to coincide with the number of people. We looked at what we got last year, adjusted some things, and hoped the final number would be around the same amount. Spoiler alert: we were (pretty much) spot on.

At the same time food needed to be figured out, we needed to look at decorations. In full transparency, decorations are not my thing so I let my co-VP take the lead on that!

Okay great, we have food, location, date, and decorations done. We should be done, right? Still no. What is a party without music? Luckily for SBA, another executive member has a DJ friend who graciously made us an amazing playlist (if you’re reading this–THANK YOU AGAIN!).

Oh yeah, and there is that part with the math–the scary part. The cost. When planning an event such as this, we try our best to make it a price where students can afford it and SBA’s budget can cover the rest. This was a math game. How many people will end up coming? What is the total price for hosting the party at ABC? How much is left in the SBA budget? Math, math, math. Thankfully, our executive board (especially our treasurer) did the math–several times–to figure out the right numbers.

Hmmm, okay, now we DEFINITELY should be done. Not quite yet. There is still coordinating the little things with ABC, planning for setup and decorations, getting physical tickets, etc. Even as I am writing this, I am sure there is something small that still needs to be figured out or done.

Everything seems to be done, all the little things are getting sorted out with the help of all of SBA and ABC. So what now? Now, you prepare the best you can for anything you might have forgotten. Extra tickets? Paper to label food allergies? Extra printouts of people who bought tickets? Cash box for change if people buy tickets at the door? All things you try to prepare for, plus the multitude of other things that could occur. Even though I can prepare all I want, I still know something could go wrong. But in the meantime, it is time to pick out a costume and get ready to have fun!

If you couldn’t tell, party planning has never truly been my thing. However, I decided to give this position a shot and have enjoyed it very much so far. In this position, I have SO much support from my fellow executive members and all of the SBA representatives. This post may seem like it is a lot, but in reality, it truly is not. I have the guidance of previous executive boards to help make decisions. Dean Teplitz helps out whenever and wherever she can in the planning process + execution.

Now that the majority of the planning is done, it is time to take that much needed break from law school and enjoy the halloween party. I cannot stress this enough–TAKE BREAKS AND ENJOY YOURSELF! Law school is hard. It can feel lonely and impossible. It is absolutely vital you take your breaks from working and enjoy yourself.

If being busy and getting involved is your thing, I highly recommend you consider running for a position in any organization you’re interested in. It can give you a break from school and allow you to push yourself in ways you previously wouldn’t have considered. Try new things, go to those events. Simply, allow yourself to take a break and enjoy life. Law school is about more than just surviving it; you must make sure you are enjoying your life while you go through it.

The To-Do List

One of the biggest learning curves that I had to learn is how to lean into the never-ending to-do list. Even before classes began I a piece of paper with a list of tasks to do paired with their coordinating due dates. I am personally one who loves these lists. I would create them in my everyday life, prior to law school. These lists would be compiled of everything that I had to complete, big and small for the day. Miniscule objective like brushing my teeth, picking out my outfit for the next day, packing my gym bag, and making dinner would find its way onto my lists in order for me to gain satisfaction when I crossed it off. However, once I got to law school, I quickly realized that I was going to need a whole new notebook just to write down everything that I had to do. This quickly got overwhelming because I could generally plan out every second of the next 14 weeks of my life with hundreds of pages of reading, formative assessments, and writing assignments. Then I realistically could understand that more little tasks would pop up throughout the week as they inevitably do throughout the semester. I could feel myself being put into a box much like those next to each task. I could see myself going insane, but at least everyone around me was going insane as well. I continuously tried to get everything on the to-do list done, but each passing second seemed to cumulate three more things that had to be done. There was no winning, there was no end. I had no other option than to realize that it never will. There will always be an email to send, an assignment to read, extra studies to complete, opportunities to pursue, and outlines to make. That is okay. There are only so many hours in the day, and only so much work that one can sustainably do. This sustainability level is different for everybody. Some people need less sleep, food, breaks, alone time, or study time than others. It is no use to compare yourself to those who can do the less. They will always exist, and you will run yourself ragged trying to match them. It always ends up with you sick, tired, hungry, behind, and mentally exhausted.

Once I came to peace with this bit of information I began to think. I realized that this today list will always be there. This made me shift my perspective to start valuing my time in terms of productivity. The way I measure such productivity is in terms of my own sustainability and success. You may be asking yourself by what I mean by all this. Basically, I stopped worrying about how many things were on my to-do list and started worrying about me. There are certain things that over the past twenty-odd years of my life that were concrete. I have to have two solid meals a day, and maybe I’ll throw a snack in there if that’s not enough, I need 9 hours of sleep, I need to watch at least two movies a week, if I don’t have hot water in my shower I will be crabby, I probably won’t do anything of exceptional work after 7:00 pm, and McDonald’s fountain cokes makes any day better. Without these absolutes I am not a joy to be around, and I am straight up not having a good time. So, I started to live my life by these absolutes. These were the top things on my to-do list every day, the things that were non-negotiable. I then would incorporate the top five or six things that had to be done for the next class. I began to live a more present life. I wasn’t worried about three-months from now. I was concerned with having everything I needed for the day done and setting myself up for success the next day. If someone asked me to hangout after class, or go to their home town for the weekend, I would make sure I would get enough work done to be able to go and be present. However, I would weigh my productivity each time. I would compare how much work I would get done during a certain amount of time and the quality of that work with the reset value I would get from hanging out with my friends, going home, or watching a movie.

 Now this won’t always be rainbows and butterflies. There will be times where I would have to stay up a little later, wake up a little earlier, cancel on plans to do work, or be unable to do the work that I had plans of completing. However, I will only be young once, have the opportunity and availability to do certain things now, and hanging out with my friends will be less frequent. So, I should enjoy it as much as I can. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it should be all play and no work. We are in law school for a reason, and that is to learn and there is work required for that. But there has to be a balance. My peers now will turn into my colleagues in a rather short amount of time. The relationships we forge will expand into out livelihood. I want to invest in that now. I want to invest in those people and myself. I will gladly find room on my to-do list to do that because although grades are important, I think the people you surround yourself with will lift you up just as much as you do them. This can be muddled with the chaos and stress of your school year, but it all gets done, even if your to-do list doesn’t

Working Ahead to Find Time for Yourself

Law school is hard, but definitely manageable with great time management and working ahead. While everyone approaches law school and schoolwork differently, I will briefly mention some of the more popular options and what I recommend to provide yourself with a buffer and time for yourself. I want to preface by saying that these approaches may not work for you, and that is okay. Every law school student has a unique background and external obligations such as work or family that makes it difficult to stick to one particular method to get work done on time. Perhaps the most popular option is to stay one day ahead of the class material. This allows you to have the material relatively fresh in your mind in case of the dreaded cold-call and breaks the week down into manageable chunks. However, something to keep in mind is that accidents and emergencies happen. While they may take some of your time away from school, you want to try to avoid falling behind and being underprepared for class because it is difficult to catch up and get yourself back on track.

Another method, especially popular among students who work or are in the evening division, is to complete the majority of your work on weekends since you have other obligations taking your time during the week. However, this poses the risk of burnout. Learning law school related material daily without a break is most certainly going to lead to burnout over time. The semester is a sixteen week marathon, not a one hundred meter dash to the finish. The last method that I am going to mention is the one that I personally utilize and has contributed to my success in law school: staying two days ahead. Staying two days ahead allows you to spend the latter part of any given week preparing for the beginning of the following week, thus freeing up your weekends to spend time on yourself. Most weekends I am either traveling to see my family or my significant other or going to some sort of event. I try my best not to do anything law school related from the close of the business day on Friday until Monday morning. This allows me to avoid burnout and stay motivated. Also, staying two days ahead is being proactive in case of an emergency. If something were to happen during the week, you have created a buffer for yourself to take the day off if needed. While these options are similar, they each provide unique benefits depending on your life situation and specific needs. Choose which works best for you or custom fit a method to ensure you can reach your greatest potential!