This site is now in mothballs. It was a neat little thing for a couple of years, but it seems to have reached its own logical conclusion many moons ago. If you're thinking about going to law school, or if you're in law school now, you might still find something in the archives that is useful or helpful, but comments are now closed and it is unlikely you'll ever see another post here. If you'd like to contact the blog's authors/creators, you can still do so via the “contact” link at right.

So long, and thanks for all the fish fun.

—Ed.

1. Do many multiple choice questions, but pay attention to the answers.
2. Forget the essays, know the outlines.
3. Know who you can and cannot talk to.

This advice is from members of the graduating Class of 2006, Ohio State University (Moritz Law School), and is intended as a gift to the Moritz Class of 2009. The majority of the advice is also applicable to other law schools.

If you're headed to law school you'll probably find something interesting there...

UPDATE: Blonde Justice has posted a followup to the original post with more great advice.

I can second one of the suggestions a reader made there and recommend What Can You Do With a Law Degree?: A Lawyer's Guide to Career Alternatives Inside, Outside & Around the Law by Deborah Arron. I first looked at this book in the fall before I applied to law school as a way of making sure there were career paths available in the law that I would enjoy. I still highly recommend it for that purpose—it can be a big help in letting you know what you're getting into before you take on all the debt of law school. But it also has a chapter devoted to finding alternative opportunities—jobs outside the legal mainstream—and how to spin your experience into something that those alternative employers will like. I think the book is well worth its price for any law student who is not certain he/she wants to go the usual “biglaw” or firm route, but if you're not convinced I'm sure you can find a copy in your school or local library.

1. Absolute organization.
2. Buy two of everything so you never run out.
3. Make the slow cooker your best friend.
4. Arrange back-up day care.
5. Stick to your schedule, and make time to be a parent.
6. Consider going part-time.
7. Cut your books!

1. Law school is no harder than any other school.
2. If you make law school the only thing you do, you will not be happy.
3. Even if it's hard, you have to keep your perspective.
4. Finally, enjoy yourself as much as possible.

Kristine's exercise is one we might all try to mutual benefit. What lessons do you wish you'd known before starting law school? Before starting 2L? Before starting your job hunt? Etc?

This year, for the first time ever, law students can attend the ABA Techshow for free. It's taking place in Chicago from April 20-22.

If you're going to be in or near Chicago on those dates, you might want to check this out. If anyone goes, I'd love to hear what it was like and whether it seemed worthwhile.

when applying to law school, is it the cumulative gpa which is taken into consideration or one's gpa in upper division courses only? i ask because i did very poorly my first two years of college, which obviosly killed my cumulative, however, my upper division gpa is not bad.

which is it?

I'm pretty sure most law schools want only your cumulative GPA. They get your transcript and that's going to give them the cumulative. If your undergraduate school breaks out an upper division GPA on your transcript, that's great, but if you're looking at those GPA ranges to determine your chances of getting into Your Dream Law School, you should consider your cumulative GPA b/c that's what Dream Law School's admissions folks will be looking at.

Can anyone add to that? Do you know of any schools who look at just an upper division GPA?

This is no reason to despair. Your personal statement is a great place to emphasize your great upper division GPA and to explain how it shows that you matured during college and are now on the same path of excellence that you will follow in law school. My understanding is that most law schools like to see that kind of development so this could end up working very much to your advantage.

When students choose law schools, they should remain focused on the forest and not get lost in the trees. Focusing on year-to-year changes can be misleading. For example, in 2006, Wash. U. moved up five spots from 24 to 19. But a year earlier, it dropped from 20 to 24. What is the real Wash. U? Over time, one can see a dramatic change -- Wash. U was in the high twenties and early thirties until it leveled out at 25 in 2002. In another example, if one looked at GW in 1998, it was ranked 20. But at that time the 20 was an anomaly, as Wash U was 24 in 1997 and 25 in 1998. After 2004, GW has been consistenly ranked either 20 or 19. To the extent that the US News rankings have any value at all, it is evident only in long-term trends, not in yearly fluctuations.

There are other instances where the US News rankings are simply game of musical chairs for certain groups of schools. For example, Berkeley, Virginia, and Michigan have been have engaged in a US News game of cat-and-mouse over the past decade. When one school drops, students may become crestfallen. Prospective students may shift their preferences. However, over time, the ordering of these schools appears just to shuffle around a lot, with no discernible pattern. Relying on the US News rankings to choose among these three law schools is like choosing one's hometown based on today's weather report.

I'm personally not convinced that even using long-term U.S. News trends as a guide is worth much, but I will defer to the profs on that.

Which job should I chose? I am a first year and have been put in the very lucky situation of accepting between a firm and a judicial externship for my first summer job. But I am not sure which one I should take. I really like both offices. The ppl were really friendly in both cases. I met with the judge and with the managing partner in both situations and they were very likable and seemed like they'd give me lots of substantive work... any advice? Honestly I am really dumbstruck.

Hm. Like you say, yours is a good problem to have, but I don't see any clear way to resolve the dilemma. Your answer may depend on what you hope to do long-term (after you graduate from law school) and what sort of judge and firm we're talking about. If this is a prestigious federal judge you'd be working for, that makes the externship more attractive. If this is exactly the firm (or the exact type of firm) you'd eventually like to work for, the firm might be the best choice.

If you don't know what you want to do long-term, I'd personally lean toward the externship b/c you might get a better introduction to a wider variety of law there. On the other hand, odds are high that the firm is going to be more fun in terms of having a good time w/other summer interns, getting free lunches, etc.

So that's not much help, eh? Can anyone else offer some perspective?

Now, typically, a law student would either do a summer associate position, or maybe clerk for a firm, etc. Or perhaps a judicial externship, or maybe even work in one of the school's clinics. However, nearly all of those options require some minimal time commitment of 20+ hours per week. When you're a non-traditional student, who has no choice but to work full-time and attend classes in the evening, that means you actually don't have enough hours in the week to participate in many of those options.

So what are some creative ways you've encountered to put some legal experience on the ol' resume that are practical and, more importantly, flexible?

With the same GPA, would law schools give preference to Brigham Young University over University of Utah? Does BYU really make it harder to get good grades? I would be majoring Economics.

As for the specifics between BYU and Utah, I don't really know. I know that law schools do take the prestige of your undergrad institution into account, along with the relative difficulty of your major. How much weight they give those factors, though, is a mystery to all, and is going to depend, at least in part, on what law school you're talking about. BYU's law school might not give preference; Harvard may. I honestly don't know though. Does anyone have any sense of how these two schools play against one another?