Some Advice for Incoming Law Students

The first year of law school can be an incredibly stressful time for new law students. What kind of advice might I give to someone starting law school? After all, I myself was in law school in the early 1990s, and in many ways I am still getting over the experience of being a first-year law student (or "1L").

I could give a lot of advice from my own personal experience, such as "Don't eat a big piece of chocolate cake at bedtime every night and expect to stay thin," or "Yes, there really is a judge named Learned Hand" (what a great name). But a lot of what I might say has already been stated quite eloquently by Professor Barbara Glesner Fines of the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law. Several years ago she posted online a speech she gives in class about law school and stress, and it remains as relevant as ever today. You can link to her advice here. I highly recommend you read it.

I also have one other piece of advice: if you haven't read Scott Turow's law school memoir One L yet--DON'T. Wait until after you have finished your first year of law school, and then read it. I read it in the summer after my 1L year, and I am fully convinced that if I had read it before law school, I might well have never gone. For those of you who already have read it, well, too bad for you, I guess. Hang in there.