10-Q’s Advice to First-Year Law Students, Part I (2024-25)

August 21, 2024

Schoolwork

1. It’s Not Just an Adventure—It’s a Job! Treat law school like a full-time job, because it is one. If you are leaving a full-time job to enter law school full-time, then maintain the hours you kept at your job (adjust as needed if you are a part-time student). If you just graduated from college and have never held a full-time job, then make sure you hit the ground running—at a steady pace. Wake up early, have a plan for the day, and work until you complete it (regardless of what you may have heard about law school, there is such a point when you are finished for the day). Be disciplined about when, where, and how you work.
2. Do the Reading. There is no substitute for actually doing the assigned reading—before class. You will find countless sources of supplemental information (e.g., study guides, canned outlines, on the internet, etc.) which can enhance your knowledge, but until you read and understand the primary sources—the cases, statutes, etc.—you will not grasp what you need to know.
3. Listen, Part 1. Believe it or not, your professors want you to learn and to succeed. More incredible still: sometimes they have useful things to say. Although this may be obvious, listen carefully to what your professors say about the subject matter, how to approach it, and how you are likely to be tested on it.
4. Listen, Part 2. Often, the most important observations come not from professors, but instead from students. You should listen to your classmates as carefully as you listen to your professors. This can be difficult, in part because (to put it diplomatically) not all student comments are created equal: some will be more useful than others. Effective listening means developing the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff. One listening tip: do not try and formulate a response to what you are hearing; just listen and more importantly hear what is being said.
5. Take Notes, Part 1. This, too, may seem obvious, but take careful notes during class and—perhaps more importantly—review them immediately after class to make sure they accurately reflect what happened. This can be trickier than you think, because it can be hard to listen carefully and take notes at the same time—especially if you worry about being cold-called (see below). Plus, once you are done with class, who wants to relive the experience instantly? Still, do not wait: They call it “short-term memory” for a reason. To develop this discipline is to reap years of rewards.
6. Take Notes, Part 2 (Outlining). You will hear much talk about “outlining”—what, when, why, and how to create outlines for your classes. We won’t burden you with the details here, but we strongly suggest that you start outlining well before the end of the semester. Many students find it helpful to outline at the end of major units in a given class, as a way to synthesize and test your knowledge.
7. Teach Yourself. Perhaps the hardest change for new law students is learning that, no matter how well you listen (or how good your notes), you must in the end learn to teach yourself how to identify and solve legal problems. Learning how to teach yourself—and how to gauge when you’ve gone far enough—is difficult. If you do not understand something, it is your job—not your professors’, your friends’, or the Law School’s—to figure it out. That, in a larger sense, is what “issue spotting” is all about—finding the right questions, so that you can then answer them.
8. Ask (Yourself) Questions. The most obvious way to teach yourself is to ask questions. For example, you may ask yourself: “Do I know the elements of the rule(s) and when they apply?” “Can I apply them?” “Do I know what sorts of problems—e.g., ambiguities, contradictions, inconsistencies—to which they apply?” You will never be able to answer all of these questions. But you should get into the habit of asking them, all rooted in even more basic questions: “What do I need to know, what don’t I know, and how can I figure all of this out?”
9. Ask (Others) Questions. You will not always be able to answer those questions from the assigned reading or your innate brilliance, in which case you will need to consult others. Those others may be professors, teaching assistants, other students, and, yes, even the internet. Although the law school community cannot do the work for you, we have many resources and a generally good attitude about helping.
10. The Cold Call. Do not stress about cold calls. Yes, you will be called on in class, sometimes unexpectedly. And, yes, you will have to speak. For. The. Whole. Class. To. Hear. Faculty do not seek to embarrass you, however. The goal, instead, is for the entire class to learn (see “Listen, Part 2,” above). While your answers in class generally have little bearing on your final grade, if you are struggling to participate in in-class discussion, this may mean you are not asking the right questions of yourself or others.
11. Open Minds, Part 1. No matter your politics—radical, liberal, conservative, libertarian, or just plain indifferent—it’s a good idea to try to see issues from all perspectives. As you can imagine, there are judges and politicians who fit into the foregoing categories (and others). You are going to read cases that you fundamentally disagree with. You cannot develop an effective counterargument unless you first understand the other side’s position. During your career, you have no idea who your clients will be, and it is incumbent upon you to understand all arguments.
12. Open Minds, Part 2. Think about exploring the world of business law. It may not sound as exciting as areas of law you are more familiar with, but business law still has theory, doctrine, philosophical debates, and its own nerdy drama. Plus, it’s what most lawyers end up doing for a living—and they learn that it can be fun, interesting, and rewarding.
13. Business Law, Part 1. Pursuing business law is not necessarily antithetical to doing good. Business lawyers need not “sell out.” As counsel to businesses, you have the opportunity (and, many would say, the obligation) to make sure they are good corporate citizens. Moreover, business law practice can be quite diverse, and is becoming more so as clients demand greater diversity among lawyers in all dimensions.
14. Business Law, Part 2. Business law courses can have a steeper learning curve than others. If your Contracts class does not immediately click, take heart. There is more to business law than what a single class can reveal. Business lawyers confront a large range of matters, from employment law to torts, intellectual property, bankruptcy, tax, securities, even immigration. Did you come to Temple to be a criminal lawyer? You may have noticed that white collar crime is a booming industry—and an important business law practice area.

There are probably as many 1L tips and stories as there are folks who have passed through law school. If you like these tips—or don’t, or have better ones—let us know.