Does law school get easier after the 1st year?

1st two years are tough if you take it seriously. Then you're a summer clerk and get a good offer. Third year you work on your tennis game.

and i don't even play one on tv. but i do have some lawyer-type friends. NO, law school does not get easier. you just get used to it after the first year, so it seems easier.

Law school is a game. The longer you're in it the more you learn how it's played.

tennis game? where did you go to law school? and where are you working now? 2 of my friends are ready to leave the profession because the hourly wage turns out to be about $20 an hour? and, partners are shits. don't lie to the kid just to make him feel better going into exams.

the old adage: first year they scare you to death, second year they work you to death, and third year they bore you to death. and if you go to a highly ranked school and get a good job offer after your first year, you can move your tennis practice up a year.

and when a person uses "not a lawyer" as their name, i think you know how much stock to put in their opinion on this topic.

1st year they scare you to death

2nd year they work you to death

3rd year they bore you to death

Accurate for me. Worked on a journal & held down a job 2nd year. Did not step up to editorial board, worked more in 2 jobs last year.

I graduated from law school about a year and a half ago. First year was definitely the hardest. the workload doesn't really get lighter but after first year, rally after the first half of the first year, you start to understand what's going on so you become much more efficient. Also, after first year, at least at most schools, you'll be able to choose your own classes, which can help you manage your workload.

Hang in there, it will get easier.

Not all partners are hard to deal with, it depends on the person and the firm. At my firm, there is not a single partner who is hard to deal with.

Third year was a compelte joke for me. I didn't even buy any books. I was working a 50 hour a week job and still got good grades. By that point you have your job secure and you know exactly how to prepare for and take the exams.

Yes. I did nothing as a 3L.

Of course, I should have looked for a job at that point since it took me a fricking year to find one...

Lionel Hutz wrote:

Third year was a compelte joke for me. I didn't even buy any books. I was working a 50 hour a week job and still got good grades. By that point you have your job secure and you know exactly how to prepare for and take the exams.

That was not my experience - I literally knew no one who worked 50 hours a week and got good grades while in law school. The point is that at most top 20 law schools, most of the students are rather bright (typically 3.5 GPAs as undergrad, etc.). If someone blew off classes and worked 50 hours a week, it wasn't as if the other students who, if they worked at all, worked far less hours would just lay down when it came to exams. Of course I went to a school that was not top ranked - it typically is 15 to 20 -maybe at the top schools, things are different.

Personally, I wish I took third year more seriously as that is the year you typically take classes that are more relevant to the work you will do upon graduation (and you find this out in your summer associateships after years 1 and 2). And, make no mistake, post law school is hell - you willl probably work much harder after law school than at any point during it if you are at a major firm.

Where did you go to law school?

From a legal support staffer:

I've been at a "white shoe" firm for 10 years and I've seen 40-50 associates come and go. It's seven years, then partnership or bail out.

You've got to really like this law stuff to make partner. New associates have to work their guts out all over the place to make an impression. Doesn't look like much fun to me. Being at the back and call of partner or client, being told you can't attend a friend's wedding due to a closing? It's a sacrifice which may pay off or not.

it gets much easier and much more fun

get the work done!

good luck on exams!

I doing nothing as a 3L, that why I am on this board now.2nd year is deceptively hard. Worked all last year and this year too, no way I coulda done 1L though.

carl showalter wrote:

Yes. I did nothing as a 3L.

Of course, I should have looked for a job at that point since it took me a fricking year to find one...

I went to a top 10 law school and it gets much, much easier because as you become more familiar with how judges (or clerks) write opinions they are much easier (faster) to read. Grades first year are very important so study hard now. First semester of 2nd year, your classes will take a back seat to finding a job, which is based primarily on your first year grades. Where you summer is most likely where your first job out of school will be so keep working hard now.

If you do a journal/law review that will take up some of your time but if you don't, 2nd and 3rd years take much less time. At most schools you also take far more credit hours the first year, than in the other years.

There is no good reason why law school should be three years instead of 2.

x

Two pieces of advice for the OP:

1) Take LEEWS (either live course or the recordings--www.leews.com). Yeah, some people badmouth it, but *every* person I've known who actually took it felt that it was at least somewhat helpful (very helpful for some). This included people who'd previously been toward the top of the class, toward the bottom, and in the middle. Of course, it's best to take it before 1L, or early in 1L, but much better late than never...

2) Legal temping (aka being a "contract attorney") is a potential route for employment. I'm temping right now (much better for my family situation), and the pay doesn't suck: ~$40/hr, ~55-60 hours billed per week, time and a half for any weekly hours past 40. I'm a former coach who made approximately $1/hr in his first paid coaching job, so making a dollar a minute (when on overtime) feels pretty neat. While some of us temps are loser types, we also have some great lawyers for whom temping is just a better fit--grads from Michigan, Harvard, and Chicago law in my gig now...

topbillin wrote:

So, is it downhill after the 1st year, or is it pretty much more of the same, or even more work?

Don't worry, you'll be raping the weak and overbilling the rich in no time.

most stupid law school course- legal ethics- if you had any why would you go to law school?