Your 1L year is over and you’ve probably (hopefully) survived with all your limbs friends and family relationships still intact. So let’s talk about what you need to do your 2L year of law school to set you up for success.
Your 1L year they scare you to death, your 2L year they work you death, your 3L year they bore you to death.
It’s still true yall.
Get ready to work harder than you ever have before. When you’re not spending anytime at home or with your friends or have given up on dating just know that it will be worth it after law school… probably worth it… maybe worth it… we’ll go with maybe.
I assume you already took all my advice on what to do your 1L year to set yourself up for success. If you haven’t, then jump on it, you’re a year behind!
Participate in OCI
It doesn’t matter if your grades aren’t top 10% or you don’t fit all qualifications. Sign up with your career services for everything you can and apply to everything you’re remotely interested in. OCI is good interview practice. While your resume might be light, you did just get out of college, it needs to at least look professional. Sign up for updates to The Docket and you get a free resume template you can use!
Get Practical Experience
You need to get practical experience under your belt, to fill in that resume we talked about above. You also need to know what kind of law you want to go into after law school. Best advice about future law practice: figure out if you’re a talker or a writer and if you’re a runner or a walker. I’m a talker and a runner: I was destined to go in litigation. I interned for a civil firm and wanted to die I was so bored. This practical experience will get you on track to figure out where you fit. Intern or shadow an attorney. Alums are great for this, talk to career services and they can point you in the right direction.
Do Moot Court / Clinics / Journal
You need to have at least one on your resume at the end of law school. I transferred law schools after 1L year so I wasn’t able to apply for journal at the beginning but I ended up doing clinics. These opportunities look great on your resume but be warned, after you graduate, nobody cares you did them. When new prosecutors brag about Moot Court (or practice court – looking at you baylor grads) it drives me insane.
MC is great at teaching you how to be comfortable in front of people but you still don’t know what you’re doing. Clinics are great at getting you used to how those processes work but you’re going to learn so much more on the job. Journal is great at teaching you how to properly cite things but your writing isn’t going to be the best right out of law school. Seize those opportunities to pad your resume but don’t let them swell your ego later.
Volunteer
This is another resume-padder. You want to be a well rounded person outside of law school. Search for places or companies to volunteer with that are not law related: soup kitchens, non-profits, shelters, etc. Future employers want to know you just didn’t study and drink your way through law school.
Network
The old addage it’s not what you know, it’s who you know is right. You need to network like your future depends on it, because it does. Go to bar events, alumni events, any other law related events you can find. I made business cards to network. They had my name, law school, contact information, and the date I was expecting to get my JD. (JD Candidate May 2014). People were surprised and impressed when they gave me their card and I responded in kind. I got a few OCI interviews that way.
These are keys steps you can take your 2L year to prepare for life after law school. Do you have any questions about law school or preparing for life after law school? Reach out and we can talk!
