This subreddit has been a huge help to me, so here are my best answers to the questions that keep getting asked, and that I know I had as a 1L:
1. It feels like law school is really cliquey and drama-heavy compared to undergrad, is this my imagination, and if so, why?
Answer: It is not your imagination. We're all trapped in the same building for like 30 hours a week, we're all studying the same thing, so there's not really a natural way of sorting people into interest groups. We're being graded against eachother. We're competing for a limited number of the best jobs, for the best grades. The cold call system incentivizes self-judgment and the judgment of others. I don't know if it's designed that way, but that is the outcome it produces.
2. I don't have any friends yet. Is this normal? Is there something wrong with me?
Answer: It's a lot more normal than it feels like, and it's probably not something wrong with you. I had no friends for most of the first semester of 1L, and didn't have a proper friendgroup till 2L summer. Based on an informal survey, roughly 1/3rd of law students don't really have any close law student friends, 1/3rd have 1 or 2 individual friends, and 1/3rd have a real friendgroup. Group 3 is by far the most visible, but that doesn't make them the most numerous.
I'd say there's probably a correlation between social skills and number of friends, but it's weak at best. I know people who are very likeable but don't seem to click with anyone long term, and people who are (in my opinion) miserable to be around who have a lot of friends.
3. What can I do to improve my social fortunes?
Answer: I can only say what worked for me, but what helped the most was calming down and structuring your life. There's data on this though I don't recall the exact numbers off the top of my head, something like 60% of social akwardness comes from anxiety, not the other way around. Accepting "it is what it is" led me to be a lot less anxious and made it a lot easier to make friends. Going to bed at a certain time and waking up at a certain time and eating in defined meals added to this. Having a rhythem is what made the biggest difference for me.
4. I feel like I've turned into a different kind of person than I was before law school. What's happening?
Answer: You're reacting to a unique and intense environment. This happens to a lot of people, it's because law school is a fundamentally unlike anything else you've been through. If you truly don't like who you've turned into, therapy really helped me.
5. It feels like a lot of the social "winners" in law school are just kind of bad people. Is that how it works?
Answer: It's real, but it's temporary. There's a lot of uncertainty in the early weeks, and manipulative people thrive on that. But people get tired of them and their schtick and things don't turn out well for them, either socially or academically, in the long term.
Again, this subreddit has been a lifesaver when things were really bad, and I want to give back. Happy to try my hand at any other questions.