Tips for Starting Your 1L year - The 1L & 2L Perspective.

I'm really excited about this post because it has been in the making for some time now. It's the first, and definitely not the last, collaborative piece on Justifiably Blonde. It was such a pleasure to work with Nikki and together I believe we have really hit the nail on the head with some great tips for the beginning of your 1L year. So here is a little about my co-author for today's post..

This is Nikki,  the gal behind the posts on Brazen and Brunette

Find more from Nikki & other bloggers on our pinterest board!

School: Texas Tech -  2L
Undergrad: Texas Tech
Major: Spanish
Minors: Legal Studies & Poli. Sci.

As a 1L, everything is fresh! It’s a clean slate when it comes to academics but that doesn’t mean that you can just glide through 1L year. It’s actually the complete opposite. It’s time to buckle down and give it your all, all the time. One thing to keep in mind is that law school – studying, class prep, note taking, outlining, reading, briefing, etc. – is entirely subjective. You have to do what works for you & keep in mind that what may be successful for your peer – say studying with a flash cards – may not be what successful for you – you do better with outlines. In this post, the authors of Brazen and Brunette (BB) & Justifiably Blonde (JB) have teamed up to give our readers advice, from a 1L & 2L perspective, on how to prepare for the years to come.

What does a typical schedule look like?

JB: Here is my class schedule for the fall semester:

I’m someone that needs a set schedule for everything, so once my schedule was released, I started to plan out how I wanted the week to look. For example, MWF are great days for me to get all my work done since my class load is light. But one thing that really stuck with me from orientation was making sure that I take time for myself- ex: A stress reliever for me is the gym, MWF will be good days to not only get work done, but also take time to do that. Another thing that my mentor suggested was taking a day completely off from law school. I like this idea and I want to fit it into my schedule to help me wind down at the end of the week. 

Syllabi – More than just a piece of paper with the class policy. 

JB: First and foremost - PRINT THEM OUT. The first thing I did when my syllabi were released was print them out and then actually read them. It seems like a no brainer, but at first I was just skimming through my Torts syllabus but I realized my professor included useful information that I never found in my undergrad syllabi. For example, he talked about how if I am ever unprepared for class email him before hand to let him know. He won’t hold it against me and won’t call on me for the day. If I fail to let him know, and I come unprepared, that’s when it can be considered unprepared and a loss of participation points. Little things like that are extremely useful and unless you read through the syllabus you’d never know. 

BB: The first thing I do once I get the email saying that my professors have been uploading documents is go straight for the syllabus and then get OCD with it. I’ll pick a color for each class and try to make them match (like purple for property) and use this to color code everything. Not all professors make their syllabi the same way so I like to copy the dates over onto a plain Word document and add the color-coded class name at the top so that they all look the same. I’ll use this same color-coding for when I’m writing down my reading assignments in my planner.

You have the syllabus, now how far ahead should you plan?

BB: As a 2L I strongly suggest that you don’t plan out too much reading in advance. If a professor gets just 2-3 pages behind every day for several weeks, then your planner could be up to 20 pages off by the end of the month. I usually spend a little time every Sunday updating my planner with that week’s readings. 

JB: I’ve been planning a little differently, I write things down in two places – my desk calendar and my planner. Once I got the syllabi for each class I made sure to write down whatever important dates were available; mid-terms, assignment due dates, final exam, in both places. I haven’t really color coded my classes when it comes to my planner rather I’ve done it with other things like designating blue to torts so my notebook, folder and the tabs I use for readings are blue and so on for other classes. 

I made sure not to get too far ahead with readings because like Nikki said, not everything goes as planned. So I think I’ll be going about a week at a time with what reading is due that way I don’t get too far ahead and forget what’s going on. 

Where did you get your books and how much did they cost?

BB: I actually just recently purchased my books this past week because I somehow forgot that those were a thing with all of the excitement of transferring. One down side to transferring is that you never know how many hours of a class a school requires, and unfortunately that means I’ll be taking another LRW class and a Negotiation class to catch up. 

I’m being optimistic and assuming that these will be my lighter reading classes so I saved money and rented them used. In fact the only book that I felt like I actually had to buy was my Wills and Trusts book, since it was the only casebook required. In case you’re wondering, here’s the price breakdown of all the books I’ve had to get so far: 

Negotiations: $59 

LRW: $110 (saved $35 because I still have the Blue Book I bought last year) 

Commercial Law: $46 

Wills and Trusts: $254 

I’m just throwing this out there that if we can have a “tax free weekend” to buy school clothes and supplies, then books should count too because I paid like $50 just in tax! 

JB: So unlike Nikki, I didn’t have the chance to purchase my books beforehand. My class schedule wasn’t finalized until the first day of Orientation so I had no idea what books I needed. I opted to do the pre-pack through my school for the first semester because I was nervous that I wouldn’t have my books in time for classes on Monday. It was one less thing I had to worry about but the downside to this- it’s expensive. I made sure to get used books but I am regretting that decision for my torts book because someone went ham with a highlighter and now I’m having to go over it - It’s a bit distracting. Here's the breakdown:

Civil Procedure                       Torts                                     LCR                               Contracts

Casebook: $174.75                 Casebook: $180.00            Casebook: $230.00          4 books: $138.44

Supplemental: $49.00          Supplemental: $ 21.00       Supplemental: $47.00 

                                             Total: a whopping $840.19 – aka I’m broke.

Wait… There’s homework for the first day of class?

BB: If you think the first day will just be a professor going over the syllabus and that’s it, you’re in for a fun surprise lol. Go ahead and assume that your professors have posted reading assignments for the first week already and get started on that. If you can’t find these, it might be safer just to double check with your professor before showing up without reading. 

JB: I couldn't agree more. DO YOUR READINGS. But that alone isn't enough. You need to engage with the text - Highlight, make notes in the margins, write out briefs, take notes on what your reading, ask questions as you go. Be prepared to read things more than once, I haven’t even started classes yet and I already have noticed that I need to read things two or three times to even attempt to understand what in the world is going on in cases. 

How will you take notes?

JB: This completely subjective but keep in mind that if you take notes on laptop – like I do – not all of your professors will allow the use of laptops. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE SYLLABUS TO FIND OUT & PLAN FOR THIS. So for me, using a laptop to take notes is easier because I can type faster than I write so I find that I get more out of my class notes. The downside – your laptop can be such a distraction. But if my classes are anything like my Orange Edge class, there isn’t enough time to do internet searching while actively paying attention and taking notes.

Is there anything else you think is important?

BB: Budget - With every new semester I like to create a new budget. I look at what I stayed on budget last and what I went over most often, and use that to create a new budget and spending goals. Last Fall I somehow forgot that I would need to make my 9-month school budget stretch a full year through the summer. This meant that during Spring I had to cut spending a lot to cover those costs, so just keep that in mind this semester. The very last thing you want is to have to take out another loan midway through a semester because you blew through all your money too fast.

Update Resume - Law school doesn’t kid around, and pretty soon you’re going to be preparing to apply for summer internships. While you’re too young to participate in the fall on campus interviews (2Ls and 3Ls only), you still need to be getting your résumé updated. If you had a job over this summer you can add that, and if not you can at least add that you’ve graduated and are now going to law school. The American Bar Association actually doesn’t let full time 1L’s work their first semester, but if you’re feeling confident next spring you might could look around for an easy part-time job on campus so you might as well do that now while you’re getting everything together.

The Orientation Break Down

So first and foremost, I apologize for being completely MIA for what seems like the last couple of weeks. A ton has been going on from completely Orange Edge to diving right on into Orientation. I know some bloggers like to break up Orientation and do a post for each day but when I started doing that it turned out to be a waste of a post because a lot of what occurred during orientation was informational and could be laid out in one post. So here it is:

Day One: Convocation Ceremony

Many want to know what you wear to Orientation - thankfully there was a dress code for the week which helped plan what I was wearing so that I wasn't underdressed. On Monday it was Business Professional so this is what I decided to wear, mind you I added a blazer and I'm glad that I did. It really brought it all together - apologies for the classic mirror selfie.

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Welcome Class of 2019 to SU College of Law. This day was really just a welcome to the college of law kind of thing. When we got there at 11:30 we had the chance to get professional portraits taken... and of course, I don't like mine. I feel like I look like a deer in headlights. 

justifiablyblonde.blogspot.com

This whole process took forever though so a lot of the morning was spent hanging out with peers. Thankfully I got my photo taken right away so I wasn't sweating like a mad woman and then having to take yet another photo looking like a ran a marathon. Later on in the afternoon we had a convocation ceremony with an alum guest speaker which was basically a mini version of what graduation will be like. We have about 220 students in the class of 2019 which is one of the larger classes to attend SU in the last couple of years.

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Alumni Network - Day Two:

The second day was all about interacting with the Alumni Network that we as SU students have available to us. The dress code was business casual so I wore a skirt and a tank with a jacket. I may have been a little over dressed but I would rather be overdressed than under.  I really enjoyed this because we got to talk with a local attorney who is part of one of the larger firms in our area. He gave great advice not only for law school but for life after law school. I really encourage taking advantage of the alumni networks at any school, they're great resources! 

Faculty Mentors & Campus Policies - Day Three:

So for the third day the dress code was lax. I decided on a pair of jeans and a t shirt since we were going to be spending most of our day in a the ceremonial court room.  As a 1L, you get assigned both a student mentor and a faculty mentor along with tutors. On the third day we met our Faculty Mentors, had brunch and went over some basic information and common questions for the 1L year. 

From there we went in and sat for a couple hours and discussed the academic handbook, school policies, drugs and alcohol within the legal profession, sexual harassment and abuse. It was a long afternoon of seminar after seminar of dense topics and information so by the end of the day I was ready to go. But we did have a cookout afterwards which was nice and refreshing while we got to walk through the student organization fair. As a 1L student org's aren't really a main focus, the focus should be on school. But I did sign up to get more info on a few of them for future reference. If anything the only one I would like to get involved with this year is the Sports & Entertainment Law Society so we will see where that goes.

Pro Bono - Day Four:

The final day of orientation was centered around giving back to the community. The morning was spent talking about pro bono within the legal professions and the opportunities to do so locally. After we boarded buses and went to a local farm to pick vegetables that went to local food banks and families in need. This was a great way for our class to do a community service project and get to know one another beyond the walls of the law school. 

After the community service project was done we had a couple of hours of down time and then later on that night we had the chance to go to a local baseball game which was another great opportunity to get to know people within our class.

The Orientation experience was a whole lot of info packed in just a few days, but it was a good experience and really made me more excited about this semester and the years to come! Fall semester, I'm ready for ya!

Orange Edge - Worth it or not?

When I finially made the decision to go to Syracuse University for law school I had a freak out moment:

How was I going to get back into the swing of school when I've been working for the majority of the year I have had off? Am I going to take notes properly? Read actively? How in the world am I going to do with cold cut calling?

I was used to my 8-4, Monday thru Friday schedule with no homework, no projects, no tests to prepare for, no class participation, sleeping in on weekends, basically doing as I pleased and when ( although the LSAT, applications and entering checklist did take of a lot of my time this past year once the major things where done I fell into a more lax routine)

I mean yes I could read the suggested readings on the reading list, and I managed to knock out a few, but what I was looking for was something where I could get the opportunity to get back into the school mind set without being graded. 

Luckily enough my school offers this amazing program called Orange Edge. It gives participants an introduction to the first year of law school through learning how to brief cases, effectively take notes, improve study and writing skills, begin networking with peers, professors and university staff, and becoming familiar with the socratic method. In addition to all this, I got to take an exam and complete a legal writing memo. 

So I registered, paid the fee, and waited anxiously until last Monday when the 1- week course started. The first day I was excited but equally nervous. I really had no idea what to expect and I was seriously hoping that I would really gain something from this. 

First "mistake" I made was dressing casual, unlike my orientation which has a dress code for each day, there was nothing stated about what to wear for this program. I decided jeans and a t-shirt was simply enough but I immediately felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb when 95% of the class was in business casual outfits. Way to go Heather. Thankfully someone asked if there was a dress code for the week and the answer was no. The remainder of the week people were dressed casually which made me feel better.

So the Edge program was a week long program that followed this schedule:

9-11 Legal Writing - went over hierarchy of authority, took a quiz on it, worked on legal memo.

11-12:30 Law & the Legal System - learned to read / briefed cases, figure out the rules, then worked on hypos (examples), all which led us to the "final exam" it wasn't graded, just for experience. 

lunch til 1:30

1:30 - 2:30 Group Sessions - met with our fellows (2L's that were basically mentors) and discussed note taking, test taking, oral arguments, briefing, basically anything and everything law related. We got to brief a case together, work on a hypo and conduct oral arguments as a team.

2:3-3:30 members of different offices within the law school met with us; career services, student life, etc. etc. and presented on all the resources and opportunities that are available to us at the school.

Overall I found this opportunity to be completely worth my time and money. I had zero expectations walking in because I had no idea what to expect. Before the course, I was overwhelmed by how stressed out I was to start the school year. This course definitely calmed some of those nerves but while I am still nervous, the course helped show me that I can do this. Its going to be an adjustment  , from undergrad and how I approached school, and its going to take a while for everything to "click" but once it clicks I know I'm going to be okay. 

If the school you are going to offers a course like this I highly recommend it. Not only is it helpful in an academic and personal sense because it prepares you for what lies ahead, but you get to meet some of your peers & professors in a relaxed setting. I absolutely loved our instructors. They treated the courses as they would in an actual class. For the record, Cold Cut Calling is not my friend. The first time it happened I heard the question asked, answered it in my head and then I was called on. My mind went BLANK - go figure- && I tried to explain what was going on up in there but it came out like gibberish and I ended up saying"I don't know" - you're truly a winner H. The instructor then said "think about it and try again" which calmed my nerves because rather than just moving on to the next person, it forced me to think about it, and then give an  answer. After that the random-being-called-on-nerves calmed, a little. Our group was around 25 people and we all meshed really well with one another. I slightly expected the environment to be "competitive" and similar to legally blonde where Elle tries to join a study group and is immediately denied. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone, including myself, was really positive, willing to help one another and worked well together.

So, long story short, if the opportunity presents it self for you to participate in a program like the one I did, I highly recommend it. You'll meet so many great people and get a feel for what to expect from your first year at law school. With that, I am looking forward to my Orientation which starts on Monday, I seriously cannot believe its already here. 

The Photo ID Fail

Today I had the WONDERFUL task of completing one of the final items on my entering student checklist form. Let me tell you this was less than fun to do. First of all.... I'm really not sure my school would leave it up to me to take my own ID photo because lets be real.... I took about 100+ photos and hated EVERY.   SINGLE.   ONE. Here's the second crap part about this little "to do"... Its 90+ degrees here today, we don't have central air and because this photo is going to be my ID along with going in a directory that gets released to students & staff,  I knew that I needed to look professional. Blazer it was.  So wearing a blazer made me sweat balls and that just got RIGHT under my skin considering I just got my hair done today - which I was lovvvvvinnnnnn until about 2 hours ago (yes.... it took me 2 HOURS to take a damn photo) and since I was sweating my ass off my freshened color looks like total shit - there goes looking decent for date night.

I kid you not... I tried 4 different blazers, with two different tank tops && with my hair pulled back... then completely down. I took photos in three different rooms - sorry mom for moving all of your photos, tables, chairs, the dog cage, and sorry to max for getting yelled at about 1,000 times because he wanted me to throw the ball or play tug of war.... it just wasn't happening - on two different chairs all because the dang lighting was "Off".

Funny part is... I never really noticed how much I tilt my head to take away from things like my right eye that squints more than my left, my smile which sometimes looks all weird because my lips are small or just to make my face look thinner. This was all a NO go in this photo. It had to be straight on. Plain background. No one else in the photo. I almost wonder if I should have worn my glasses but decided against it just it case.

The end result.. (and judging by the photos above which showed how much fun I was actually having) I have a half ass smile, cocked eye, and my hair looks like shit. Great photo ID right? Buttttt none of this would have happened if I didn't wait so long to submit it. I mean I've only had about 4 months to take the perfect ID picture and I waited until the day that it was due. Lesson learned..... DONT WAIT. Get it done as soon as you can. So Congrats H... you're slacking && you photo ID looks like you just ran a half marathon, put on a jacket and faked a smile. Fall semester I'm coming for ya!

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22 & Still Excited About School Supplies

Yep I'll admit it I'm a 22 year old, soon to be 23, young adult who still gets excited about school supply shopping. I mean really who doesn't get excited about stuff like new pens and not just any new pens but the ONLY pen that makes your writing not look like you were in a rush or just plain chicken scratch. But let me take a second and share a little bit of my anxiety with you about this years school supply shopping experience... I had absolutely no idea what I needed. After reading one of my recommended reading books I began thinking about how I want to take notes... Do I want to do notebooks or Legal Pads or both? Or should I do everything on my computer? Then it was... well I no longer have a backpack so now I need one of those bad boys, which is going to be the best for everything to carry around.. A laptop sleeve for my new Mac, Pens, Highlighters.. the list went on and on. So here is my post on what I have / will be purchasing for my 1 L year:

Planner - I originally wanted to get the one suggested by Brazen and Brunette (which, by the way, you should definitely check out her blog)but after purchasing a laptop and new backpack I decided to go with one from target.  It is similar to the one from Plum Paper but a bit cheaper and without all the cool extras.
Large Desk Calendar - I'm huge on writing things down multiple times in multiple places so that I WILL not forget. So a desk calendar was a must for me.
Flash Drive - In my post on "The Laptop Dilemma" I shared my wonderfulllll experience with all the dells I went through just in undergrad. One actually crashed a week before finals but thankfully I had backed up everything on a flash drive. So this too was a no brainer just to back up all my notes, outlines, whatever I need.
Post It Tabs - great for reading markers.
Post It Notes
Notebooks
Legal Pads
Protector Sheets
Folders - Wasn't sure if I'm actually going to use these but I got a few just in case
Pens - Blue & Black, colored- From what I've read having pens in different colors can help with note taking so I'll give it a shot.
Highlighters - I got a pack of 24 - can never have too many
Index Cards - Not too sure if I'll actually use these but they are always good to have.
Back Pack - This sounds absolutely ridiculous but I really had no idea what I wanted for a backpack. My old backpack for undergrad actually smooshed my laptop because there wasn't enough room for laptop, books, notebooks, etc so I knew that one wasn't going to work. I wanted something that was going to have enough room for everything along with being reliable. I ended up buying a Northface Backpack on amazon.
Pad Lock - My school assigns lockers to each student so I found one that I never used just in case they don't supply them for us.

Some other things to keep in mind that you might need would be a printer + paper & ink cartridges, stapler + staples, paper clips.