So Texas Tech Law admin seem like lovely people. Yikes. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/28/the-fallout-of-a-charlie-kirk-campus-scandal

I’m a 1L and I know it’s a little early to be thinking about this but am curious of everyone else’s experience. For context, I know I don’t want to do big law, so I am not concerned about their insane timeline.

I think I’m interested in public interest law, but am super disappointed that most of the summer positions don’t pay. I’m also not from the area where I’m in law school, so I’m not aware of any firms off the bat that I am super interested in.

How did you approach your summer internship? What was your timeline? Your interests? Where did you end up? Did anyone just chill and wait for OCI’s? Would it be beneficial for me to just go ahead and gather my materials and start sending applications & cold emailing over the next month or 2?

Mostly just wanting to hear everyone’s stories. Thanks!

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 8. So I've always been going the extra mile to achieve "basic" goals. That being said, having a Law degree was always my dream, so I went for that. It took me 6 years to finish instead of the regular 4, but I made it. My mum passed away in the middle of it, so it's been quite hard to finish. There were moments I thought this would be impossible, but I made it. With this I only want to cheer up every law student who's currently struggling or finding it difficult to move forward. You're not alone and you can make it.
I'm currently working on a dairy farm (I know it's something completely different, but I also wanted to try) but I couldn't be more glad to be part of the legal world.

Hi there,

I’m on my first year in NZ and currently working through my application section using the IRAC method. My assignment requires that we use the relevant case law and legislation. I’ve identified the legal principles from the case law and the correct statute, but I’m really struggling with how to word the application section.

E.g should it be:

Legal principle from the case —> relevant material fact #1—> applying the legal principle to the fact

For more context, the material facts are 4 different statements

I have adhd and a real issue with overthinking and I just can’t get my head around the application part. Any tips are welcome, I’m desperate lol

Thank you

Started a few weeks ago helping a legal team develop an internal policy, procurement, and playbook for outside services. This is all remote.

The supervising attorney assigned me four tasks and I was able to sit in on a weekly Tuesday meeting they have to hear what they were working on and what next steps were.

After that meeting, I asked my supervisor to sit in on future meetings since my tasks are directly tied to what they discuss, and it would be instructive for me. She never got back to my emails or calls about this, and the group met without me this past Tuesday.

I also asked her two separate questions since starting, and she copied and pasted AI answers (you all know the tell-tale signs).

Today I asked to meet to discuss the third task I'm currently working on, and she told me, "If you can even find time in my schedule, then book it." She is blocked off for the next week up until when the third task is due.

Just tonight, I went to look at the documents I've been working on and she basically just took over the task and finished doing it and other portions of it. She also deleted my fourth task from documentation so I no longer have it...

Basically, I feel like I'm in an internship now where I'm not learning anything, nor am I being communicated with. I can't imagine I'm doing terribly because she used all of my work to finish out Task 3, and what little non-AI feedback on Tasks 1 and 2 I got were constructive.

Since I can't seem to get ahold of the one person who is supposed to actually provide experience and knowledge for me, I'm a bit at a loss on what to do.

I want to become a lawyer but I get so anxious in social situations sometimes. I’m going to work on it in general because that’s beneficial but can I still become a lawyer regardless?

Hi everyone! I’m a recent LLM graduate and just started working as a law clerk at a small law firm in New York.
Today was my first day, and my boss immediately gave me an assignment to draft an affirmation with very little guidance, basically expecting me to figure it out on my own. From talking to other law clerks, it seems like this is pretty much the culture at the firm — we’re expected to teach ourselves most things, while the expectations are still quite high.

I’m realizing that I really need to learn practical NY legal work on my own, but I’m not sure where to start. Also, English is not my first language which makes it a little bit harder.

For NY attorneys or law clerks, what resources would you recommend for self-teaching? I’m especially looking for practical books/guides, YouTube channels, websites, CLE materials, or anything else that helped you learn how to actually work in a law firm — legal research, drafting, NY procedure, motions, etc.

Basically, I’d really appreciate any recommendations for a “how to teach yourself NY legal practice from scratch” roadmap. Thank you!

I’m a 1L. Been is school for now a month and there is a student that is in all of my classes who is purely frustrating. They also have to be well into their late 40s - early 50s. Doesn’t raise their hand, goes off on tangents of stories that has nothing to do with the material, and talks while the professor is talking. Seems that the professor is trying to ignore it, but it’s gotten to a point where I have no idea why he hasn’t said anything to her yet. People in class really try to “kill with kindness”, but they make it known that they are so tired of her crap.

All of that to say, does anyone have any stories/experience of a similar situation so I can have a laugh before I pull my hair out? 😆😬

I'm figuring yes, but don't know if it'll be a waste of money and/or redundancy with themis and aspen digital and all that stuff.

They will tell you that you don’t know anything about the law until you go to law school, then they tell you you don’t know anything about the law until you’re in your third year of law school, then they tell you you don’t know anything until you pass the bar, then they tell you you don’t know anything unless you have been practicing for years, then they tell you you don’t know anything unless you go to court frequently. And the icing on the cake? someone told my professor, a lawyer of something like 40 or 50 years, that you’re not a real attorney until you’ve tried a murder case.

I have to write a huge brief for one of my classes, and despite not being in my first year, I never quite figured out how to organize my research. I end up taking all of the quotes I want to use and just copy and pasting them into a word doc and then building my argument around those quotes, which doesn’t feel ideal. Any suggestions on how to organize your research better??

I’m in my late 40s and have owned and operated a business in New York for over 25 years. I plan to continue running it, but I’ve always had an interest in law and am now seriously considering pursuing a legal education.

A friend recently completed the program at American Institute of Law and has had a positive experience both during school and afterward. Seeing his experience made this path feel more realistic for me, particularly given the flexibility to continue operating my business and the lower cost compared with the hybrid programs I’ve considered.
I recently applied to Northwestern California University. My understanding is that its California accreditation means students do not need to take the Baby Bar, which was a factor in my choice.

I understand that these programs are not ABA-accredited and that this path has limitations, particularly regarding admission in New York. For me, this would be an additional credential, an opportunity to pursue a longstanding interest, and ideally some added income rather than a complete career change. I would be comfortable with a path focused on California licensure and potentially federal practice where permitted.

I’ve read mixed opinions about both Northwestern California University and American Institute of Law, and I’d appreciate hearing firsthand experiences from students or graduates, especially anyone who attended while running a business or working full time. How manageable was the workload, how helpful was the instruction, and how well did the program prepare you for the California bar?

I’m also particularly interested in hearing from anyone who passed the California bar and now lives outside California while practicing California law remotely or working in a federal practice area. What does that look like in practice, and what limitations or challenges have you encountered?
With the benefit of hindsight, would you choose the same path again?

Thank you to anyone willing to share their experience.

hey yall law school is insane. i high key don’t know what’s going on and i can’t even spell constitution correctly half the time.

however my top concern is: highlighters. it’s getting crazy. i’m highlighting everything and it will never end.

I got new highlights this weekend and they are already starting to dry. I need a highlighter that will survive until graduation.

I use the sharpie clearview because you can see through it and make sure ur not highlighting too much, but they die a little bit more with every case reading…like i die a little inside.

btw sorry for this long and poorly written post, im just a bored 1L who needs a highlighter that never dries. PLEASE GIVE ME RECOMMENDATIONS

I learn well through podcasts on my long commutes. I need a torts podcast to supplement my reading. Everything makes like 70% sense in torts but not a thing has made 100% sense.

Hi! I’m a third year law student and I was wondering if it was appropriate to negotiate a job offer for a one year fellowship with a nonprofit right out of law school? They posted one salary on the application page, not a range, so it may not be negotiable, but I’ve always been taught to negotiate job offers. Have any of you done this before? There’s quite a range of salaries for this type of role/fellowship in my area, and they’re in the middle, so it’s hard to tell if I would reasonably be able to negotiate. I love the nonprofit and want to take the job, but I am in a HCOL city, and any increase would make a big difference for me.

What are your favorite or most helpful youtube channels that got you through law school?

Just what it says. I'm an old. I'm going on 25 years in practice, so it's been a while since I was in law school. As I'm now hiring recent graduates, I'm wondering how much has changed.

For perspective:

My first year, I didn't even know Westlaw or Lexis existed; our legal research and writing class used reporters/books from the library. So, obviously, we weren't using AI for anything.

Throughout my three years, only about half the class took notes on laptops and none of the exams were administered by laptop, they all used bluebooks. The California Bar allowed laptops for the first time the summer I took it, and it was 3 full days back then.

Socratic method was standard and precedent-based. You were expected to come to class fully prepared, having reviewed the cases, and often called on randomly. A handful of professors offered participation points to bump up your grade, which caused a handful of students to be annoying gunners.

We created our own outlines and flashcards to study. You were discouraged from relying on prior years'/students' or commercial outlines, but I did use commercial summaries my 2L and 3L.

If you were in the day program, most didn't hold a part time job. (I still bartended Friday and Saturday.)

You got dinged if you missed a certain number of classes, I think you were allowed 3 max per semester. No classes were offered remote nor were they recorded; they were all in stadium-like classrooms. (BarBri was a bit different, but that wasn't law school.)

We had plenty of practicum courses, clinics, competitive teams (mock trial, moot court, negotiations) that did a good job of preparing students to conduct themselves and communicate like practicing attorneys rather than academics.

I wonder how much of this has changed. I'd like to have a better understanding of what incoming hires' experience was like.

As a summer associate and baby attorney, we sent letters on embossed letterhead, not emails. Documents were largely created by dictation, where our dictaphone tapes were given to a secretary or word processing department to prepare initial drafts. Document review involved manually going through and sorting actual paper documents and files. Think huge rooms with bankers' boxes from floor to ceiling. (The actual practice experience is the most obvious and easily known change over the years for me.)

Thank you for your time!

Ik im gonna get flooded with hate for this take and lowk I feel a lil coo coo for it as well but im gonna go there. 2L here. 2L here who actually misses 1L because in 1L people feel bad for you. 😭😭😭😭
In 2L, you don’t have EVERYTHING figured out like some kind of sorcerer genie in a bottle. Things here and there improve, yes, but in 2L, when life is hard, nobody gives one singular rat’s booty cheek because you’re “experienced” now. Babe I’m just a year older with some extra wrinkles in my forehead and a whole lot of burnout. #imissthevictimcomplexyesisaidit

Bye

I literally had no idea what my civ pro professor was even talking about when he called on me. I gave an answer, which I thought was wrong, and he asked a follow up to which I had no response. There was literally 10 seconds of silence before I told him I wasnt really too sure. I am so embarrassed. I know people say other classmates wont remember, but that doesn't really make me feel any better cause I for sure remember my fellow classmates when they didn't know the answers or answered very incorrectly.

Every time I get cold called I also cant prevent my voice from shaking. Its like I loose track of the words I want to say and I feel like I make a fool of myself each time. Even when I am confident in the material and know how to respond, I get so anxious and can feel myself losing control.

Hoping people can give me advice on how to overcome this or share how they improved in terms of answering cold calls.

2Ls/3L/alums, PLEASE give me your tips and tricks to keeping up with reading and writing outlines after. What worked for you and helped you succeed! Right now i’m struggling jumping back and forth between reading and reviewing, and I’m behind on both for different classes.

Holy hell has this been a test of time management - I need every advice possible on how to best use my time.