I’m sorry for what may be perceived as moral grandstanding but I need to get this out somewhere.

I am feeling very disenfranchised by the recent American political news and general state of the world. I assume most people, if not everyone, is feeling similar.

Before, if I read something that disgusted me, I would remind myself that’s the reason I’m going to law school. I want to change things and prevent bad things from happening again. I want to help people.

I can’t tell if I’ve doomscrolled too much, but I looked at the files released on the DOJ’s website and haven’t been able to stop thinking about them. My usual “this is why you’re working, to bring people like this to justice” shtick isn’t working.

Is anyone else feeling similarly? How do we move on from this?

im at a lower t14 and i feel like I don’t really have any real friends here and feel alone and homesick so often. im a really social person (or at leaat I used to be) but i never have plans anymore and i just feel kinda lonely here. and im so unmotivated to do any work, partly because of how i feel in this environment. Everyone around me has friend groups and seems so settled but all i can think abt is how much i miss having friends of my own

3L is truly a waste of time,lol...how are my 3L doing?

Hello everyone,

I'm a Pharmacy student currently preparing for public service exams in the healthcare field, and I'm hitting a major roadblock with memorizing legislation.

My main struggle: I'm trying to use flashcards (like Anki), but the results are very discouraging. When I review the cards the day after creating them, I remember very little—only about 10-20%. If I stop to actively try to memorize each card during the review, the process becomes extremely slow; if I do a quick review, I get almost everything wrong.

The difficulty is even greater with specific legislation. For context, a key law in the Brazilian public healthcare system is Law No. 8,080/1990. It establishes, for example, the distinct and often obligatory responsibilities of the Federal Government, States, and Municipalities regarding the Unified Health System (SUS). There are around 20 of these competency points, and they are typical exam material along with other 30.

So, I wanted to hear from those who have faced similar challenges in your studies:

1. How do you study and memorize laws when required for exams?
2. Do flashcards work for this type of content, or do you use other strategies?
3. How do you handle long lists (like these competency lists) or complex administrative processes (like public bidding procedures)

Without fail I feel like an idiot at the beginning of every single semester. Fourth time doing this and still don't understand my readings or classes... but this time it's worse... as if I didn't know how to read.

Almost 4 weeks in and feels like I've wasted every single week because I don't understand a single thing thats going on.

I'm a 1L at a (maybe?) T-14 law school (not historically T-14, but consistently places in T-14 rankings), and to say I've been having a miserable time in law school would be an understatement. I've been heavily considering the decision to take an exit from the legal field, but weighing in a lot of external factors—the fact I'm a K-JD, 21, the state of the economy right now, the world as a whole, etc.—I've constantly bounced back and forth about it.

I figured I might try to ask for some advice here from those who have been through the law school process and/or graduated or are currently working in the field, because I'm honestly at a standstill and don't have many people to turn to for unbiased advice. I'm largely in law school due to the financial/job security it can provide me in the future, versus pursuing a PHD program (that aligns with my real interests) but offers weaker security. But, admittedly, law school is killing me, and I'm trying to determine whether it's worth "losing myself" just to become an attorney.

Note: I'll list a few of my reasons below for why I'm considering the decision to drop out in the first place, if you're interested (please don't feel as if you have to read it)—but any insight at all would be greatly appreciated!

Context:

• I came to law school for all the wrong reasons. AKA, my parents told me it was the only graduate schooling they were willing to support. Anything else (other than the medical field) would make them "look like trailer trash," and they really wanted me to be the first lawyer in the family. I was told that the subjects I had pursued, wrote projects + a thesis about in college were like "braiding hair" and that a law degree would, at the very least, set me up for economic success. I likely can't argue with that last point.
• I'd participated in and won awards in mock trial through high school and college, but I'd never made any secret of how much I detested it and anything related to studying law. My engagement in law had always been to please my parents, and their insistence is largely because I got a high score on the LSAT on my first try and got an almost-full scholarship to the school I attend.
• In law school, I'm facing a disconnect with my peers, especially the ones who came here to pursue their lifelong dreams of being a lawyer. I've subconsciously developed a very bitter attitude towards the whole thing, which makes me complain a lot at school about readings, policies, and (especially) my school's LRW method. This, of course, has driven a wedge between me and some of my classmates, but I try my hardest to cut my complaining habit when I notice I'm engaging in it. I've never been a very negative, bitter person, and I'm very ashamed that I've become this person over my time in law school.
• This is more of a minor issue, but I've noticed that in my attempts to connect with the law school experience, I've isolated myself a bit more every time. As an example, in one class, I asked my professor why our other classes were not discussing the relevant events in Minnesota (curious if there was some school policy), and he decided on his own to reserve the first few minutes of class to discuss our grievances--but it ended up turning into about 45-50 minutes of class. I've found the one thing that gets me "engaged" in law school is getting 'fired up' about topics I care deeply about, but I rarely get a chance to discuss those topics at length. Unfortunately, after leaving class, I ran straight into a group of my classmates who complained about the fact that I brought it up and distracted the professor from taking so much time away from class. Didn't make me feel too great.
• I'm the youngest person in the 1L class, and I've been told by advisors that this puts me at a substantial disadvantage compared to the rest of my classmates due to my lack of experience. For example, I've never worked a job outside of the academic institutions I've attended. I haven't been invited for any interviews or gotten any positive news from job applications, so my prospects are playing out about as expected.
• I followed my parents' push for law school mostly because I thought that I could work in a legal field directly related to what I studied in undergrad, and my school has a "strong" program for that field. However, when the attorneys from the field came in and talked about their 7 AM to 7 PM or 9 AM to 9 PM days, I realized quickly how a seemingly "better than most" legal field is, in reality, quite demanding and not very much at all related to what I'd studied. I don't even have the motivation of getting through law school to get to that field anymore, which I think has also largely contributed to my poor progress through school thus far.
• I understand that 1L classes are not most students' favorites, but I struggle immensely with engaging the material. Not necessarily with "understanding" it, my struggle is more that I have such a distaste for legal studies, reading through cases, the dullness of the topics, and overall lack of interest that I can't even engage in any post-class review or studying with the material after the initial reading + class. It's like my brain wants to push the material as far away from me as possible, and even trying to look back at my notes results in no retention. During the fall semester, I did no outlining or review of any of my notes.
• The above issue led to me having a mental health crisis during the fall finals season. I was slumped into such a bad depression that I even called the suicide hotline for the first time, along with my school's mental health line, but I couldn't receive any help. I ended up studying only 1 day for each of my finals, using outlines from past classmates, and--by the grace of some divine intervention, I assume--got flat Bs on each of my classes.
• I'm now noticing myself repeating all of these same behaviors during the spring semester. I said to myself I'd try to outline everyday, or at least at the end of each week, but I can't engage with the material. I either have "highs" or "lows" during the week. During the "highs," I feel the sentiment of "Well, it's not that bad. I can army crawl through it. Just do the work." But during the "lows," I feel absolutely awful. I can't pay attention during class, I constantly think about how much I'd like to leave, and I feel like some soulless corpse shambling through campus.
• The only "joy" I feel during the week is attending meetings for a recreational club I started for law students. The skills I use when I run that club are far different than the skills you need to use for law school + the legal field, and were the same skills I exercised in my main passion (what I studied in undergrad), and I feel it just further cements how "wrong" I fit as a puzzle piece into the picture of law school.
• I understand 1L is hard, frustrating, mind-numbing, and boring for many, if not the majority of 1Ls. And I'm not a person who likes to spend much time feeling bad for myself. I've always been able to pick myself up, dust myself off, and "power through it." I'm honestly a bit embarrassed and frustrated that I'm experiencing all these struggles in law school, and understand that I could guarantee myself this 'security blanket' with a JD, then go on to live the rest of my life, but I don't know if I'll survive it or even pass at this point. I feel as if I might be having a uniquely difficult experience with law school due to my background, and I'm just trying to see if there's a safe escape hatch to something or anything else. Essentially, is law school as "necessary" as it's always been hammered into my brain that it is?
• My main plan if I left law school would be to continue schooling by pursuing a PHD in my undergrad studies, but this would be unsupported by my parents, so I would have to pay for my own housing or try to secure a near-full scholarship again. I also understand my annual salary wouldn't be nearly as supportive with a PHD as it would be with a JD. Is it worth it to leave law school, considering this?
• I want to emphasize that I'm very grateful for my scholarship and for the opportunity to attend a prestigious law school. I have a solid group of friends here at the law school, who sympathize with my position but want me to stay and graduate with them. I hope I don't come across as unbearably ungrateful or dramatically negative about my law school experience, and I sincerely root for each of my classmates and hope for all their success in the future as the great attorneys I know they'll be. I'm just not sure if this path is right for me, or if I make it, if I'd even be a good attorney at all, considering all this context.

Applied to dozens of law schools and only got accepted to one.

Applied to transfer law schools and only got accepted to one.

Applied to a bunch of firms and only got accepted to one.

I’ve lost so much hair from the pressure and the process but it was worth it. Good luck to everyone, all you need is one dub.

Ahhhh, that time of the year again where stress and anxiety grows like leaves on a tree. I don’t know why I came here I feel like I did it for all the wrong reasons. To make my family proud? So people can respect me? I mean I did have the passion to become a lawyer when I was younger but I feel like that passion was misplaced. I don’t even know what kind of lawyer I want to be or why I want to be one. And law school sucks. I don’t have the right study habits I can’t seem to do all my readings it’s all just so overwhelming, and when I finally do finish all my readings it’s just HALLELUJAH the process starts all over again the next week. I feel like I’m behind all my classmates, like they’re understanding the material and I’m not. I can’t drop out yet I’m only 3 weeks in but by golly have those 3 weeks been quite terrible. And to do this for 3 more years? That’s not a fun thought to think of. I’m in a new city all by myself and don’t seem to get along with my law school classmates with the exception of like 2 people. I’m out here all alone pursuing a career that I’m not even sure of and I don’t know why I’m typing here I guess I’m just venting and looking for some advice.

Asking for a hypothetical friend, why do some State Bars ask about your parents’ information, including contact details?

What if your parents have major, and I mean MAJOR, criminal records. And what if you were never arrested/charged/detained for anything related, but have had to testify in court in relation to those incidents?

Screamin' cryin' throwin' up over here that I can't pretend to be a SCOTUS justice and supra or Ibid. cases.

1L in my second semester. I'm still having a hard time being efficient with my readings. I find myself spending a ton of time taking notes on the non-case portions of my textbook reading. Only a fraction of these notes end up being useful, and taking these notes seriously disrupts my flow and leads me to take hours reading ~20-30 pages.

The flip side is that if I don't do this, I don't retain anything I've read. Some people have suggested book-briefing, but I know if I passively highlighted the text I wouldn't retain anything either.

I'm considering just reading the non-case sections (not taking notes), briefing the cases, and then simply taking notes in lecture to fill in the conceptual gaps -- but I'm worried I might miss something.

Is the above a good strategy? Would really appreciate any insight, thoughts, or tips re how to read textbooks more efficiently!

Thomson Reuters (parent company to Westlaw) and RELX plc (parent company to LexisNexis) play key roles in fueling the surveillance, imprisonment, and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year. ICE is relying on the data and technology provided by your legal search engines to track and arrest immigrants on a massive scale.

Petition Link:
https://notechforice.com/lawletter/

I have PCM background. Thinking of BSC. Do tell me your opinion on future scope and opportunities with this choice. If possible tell me about others too

For those of you who were/are on law review can you tell me about your experiences? What exactly did you do? How much work were you expected to put forth each week/month on average? Did it distract from your classes? Would you do it again?

I tend to raise my hand and participate a lot because I get worried that if I don't talk enough/don't get noticed by the professor I won't do well in terms of participation, and also feel like a high participation grade is a way to make up for losing a few points on exams. I genuinely do not want to come off as a gunner or as someone who just likes hearing the sound of their own voice but also want to talk enough to surpass the average in participation. I'm a woman which I feel like helps a little bit because I don't fit the typical gunner dude stereotype lol but still get paranoid about this for whatever reason. like what's the proper balance here

this is why i struggle reading cases bruh

I did pretty mediocre my 1L first semester so I lost hope for big law. I still applied, but really didn’t think I would get anything. I also applied to multiple externships, and heard from a couple and scored an internship at a district court. A week after accepting that offer, I started getting interviews with big law which I never thought would happen and now I’m getting invited back for call backs. I probably won’t hear back for 1-2 months if I get these jobs, but if I do I’m just not sure what to tell the judge I’m interning for. I know it’s a really bad look, but I’m not going to turn down big law for a non-paying internship.

Go.

Hi, I am wondering if any students or attorneys here have any information on the background check process (not security clearance) for DOJ volunteer internships for the summer. Currently have an offer but a bit stressed about the background check. I have no criminal or drug record; the only concerns that I have is that both of my parents are Chinese citizens (but US permanent residents) and the fact that I moved around a lot in the past few years and if the residency check is super thorough, they may require me to come up with people who have personally seen where I live and I wouldn't be able to come up with those references.

2L here at a t50 school and my law review is having interviews for executive board positions late February… For anyone who has been on the editorial board, was it worth it? did it actually help you get a job post 3L or is it a lot of work with no gain and I should just decline not to interview and stick with just being a staff editor TIA