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Law School Applications: 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Rush Them in by October

LSAT blog, Law school admissions, law school applicationAs they say at the start of the famous Indianapolis 500, Ladies and gentlemen … start your engines …  this year’s law school application season is about to begin.

If you’re planning to apply to law school, as the summer is drawing to a close, you should at least be in the early stages of planning key details of your application strategy.  This includes familiarizing yourself with the applications as they become available.  But, regardless of how far along you are at this stage, you should not be in a rush to submit your applications in the month or so after they are released.  There are at least five reasons why rushing, and particularly, rushing at this early stage of the application season is not advisable.… Read full post

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From Law School to the Courtroom: Etiquette Matters.

Hey future 1Ls, manners do matter…

During the summer of 2012, I was fortunate enough to extern for the Honorable Judge Gregory Alarcon.  Judge Alarcon LSAT Blogwas a litigator the first 20 years of his career and has since been on the bench for 18 years.  Moreover, Judge Alarcon comes from a lineage of highly respected legal minds, his father being a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals serving the bench for over four decades.

Over the course of the externship, the law school externs did many legal research and legal writing assignments, however we also did a handful of non-legal related assignments.  One of these assignments was the production of materials for a lecture from Judge Alarcon on  the subject of etiquette in the Court.… Read full post

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Large Firm Job Hopes? Your Law School Choice Can Make a Difference

According to a recent Kaplan survey, roughly four out of ten law school applicants are expecting to work for a large law LSAT Blogfirm.  But, are these expectations realistic?

As the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog points out, far fewer than four in ten 2011 law school graduates had that chance.  Indeed, according to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) newest data, fewer than 10% of students in the graduating Class of 2011 attained work at firms with more than 250 attorneys.  And, graduates in that group are not evenly distributed among law schools.

Using ABA data to determine the percentage of 2011 law school graduates who landed long-term, big law firm jobs by school, the Journal ranked the 25 schools with the highest percentages.  As you might expect, the list is packed with the nation’s most elite law programs, including those that are typically ranked in the top ten.  Still, there are several schools on the list that may surprise you.… Read full post

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Life as a 1L: Supplements…Worth It or Not?

This is what awaits you as a 1L

Its mid to late September, you have heard other people mention terms like Hornbook or Treatise.  However, the people you likely hear talking about them are other 1L’s that have a brother, or cousin that has gone to law school and finished in the top 5% of their class.

So you start to wonder is there any validity to this.

You see, you are a in your first year of law school, glad you got in, but somewhat confused as to what it means to “Think Like a Lawyer”, and are starting to hear horror stories about how “different” law school exams are compared to other test in different professional schools, or undergraduate programs.… Read full post

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How to Avoid Law School Rankings Tunnel Vision

Are you that guy?  You know, the guy who says, “I’m going to go to this law school which is ranked at #37 because this other school that I got into is ranked lower, at #56.”  Worse yet, are you that gal who says. “I can’t go to this school ranked at #12 – not when I can go to this other school ranked at #8.  After all, this other program is in the top ten!

If either of these people sounds like you, it’s important that you take a step back and recognize that basing the decision to attend a school solely, and oftentimes, even primarily on its rankings – including the US News rankings – can be hazardous to your educational and career well-being.  There are many ways in which focusing too heavily on the rankings can come back to haunt you.… Read full post

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Accepted to Law School? Time for the Campus Visit!

You have narrowed it down to two or three acceptances and have decided that you want to visit the campuses before you make your final decision.  My first suggestion is that you try and plan your trip sooner rather than later.  Not only because the law school will want your deposit in the upcoming weeks but because they will soon be preparing for finals and will not allow outsiders to sit in on a class.  You want to be able to see a class in action and have an opportunity to talk with both faculty and students before they go into finals hibernation mode.… Read full post

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On the LSAT and in law school, Suffice it to say, this stuff is necessary – Part II.

Last week I explained the basic, abstract concepts of necessity and sufficiency, let me show you a brief example of how they relate to law school and the practice of law.  On the first day of my criminal law class, my teacher called on some poor, terrified boy and asked him to stand up.  Ah, the joys of the Socratic method.  As the young man stood trembling, the professor asked him about the case, Proctor v. State, 176 P. 771 (1918), we were assigned to study.  In the facts of this case, Mr. Proctor was convicted of keeping a two story building, with the intent and for the purpose of unlawfully selling malt liquors.  The student, who was gaining confidence as he answered the professor’s litany of questions, recited the facts correctly and correctly stated that the Oklahoma Appellate Court vacated Mr.… Read full post

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Accepted! Now What?

So the acceptance letter has come and gone, and the buzz and excitement is now turning to a bit of apprehension and anxiety.  Majority of 1L’s feel this way around the August and September months of their 1L year.

Here are a few tips that I can endorse, by trial and error.  The specifics to how you get through your 1L year, and the remainder of law school, change for each person, but the general destination is the same for all persons.

These are numbered based on what I would have liked to known, and what I feel would be most important to me now looking at it retrospectively.… Read full post

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A Few Questions to Ask After You’ve Been Accepted to Law School

Congratulations!  You did it.  You’ve been accepted to law school.  Now that all your hard work has paid off, it’s time to celebrate … tonight anyway.   Keep in mind though that when you wake up tomorrow (or perhaps in a couple of days) you’ll still have some important work to do.  Fortunately, much of this will only require that you ask some simple questions and do a little legwork.  Let’s consider just a few of the basic questions that you’ll need to cover with school representatives:

  • When is a good time to visit?  And can I sit in on classes? 

Okay, I trust that you’ve researched the school, but it’s probably been quite a while.  If like most applicants, you haven’t yet visited the school, you should definitely do so now (unless serious financial constraints dictate otherwise).  In fact, even if you have visited in the past, it wouldn’t hurt if you were to check out the program one more time before making your final decision and signing on the dotted line.  Also, be aware that aside from the standard orientation that all law schools have in the days prior to the start of classes, most programs now also have an “Admitted Students Day,” to help introduce you to your new law school.  If your school has such a day, like University of Florida’s Admitted Students Day or University of Chicago’s Admitted Students Weekend, then it would probably make sense if you could arrange a visit during that time period.  Keep in mind that while walking the school grounds, sitting in on classes, and talking to students will be at the forefront of your mind, you should also start thinking about other basic needs, particularly housing.… Read full post

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Seeking a Law Degree to Serve the Public Interest

Have you ever been so influenced by an experience that you became inspired to pursue a legal career aimed at serving the public interest?  Maybe you witnessed a friend, a relative, or an acquaintance who was harmed due to lack of proper legal representation during a serious crisis, such as a brush with the law or a situation in which he or she was taken advantage of.  Or perhaps, you yourself suffered an injustice and were aided by an attorney.  Alternatively, you may have been motivated toward a career in public interest law after learning about people facing tragedies or unfair outcomes through your undergraduate studies, the Internet or your community service experience.  Regardless of what has influenced you, the bottom line is that you now want to have a career path that is focused on helping others.  As you consider your future law school applications and legal career, be sure to heed the following pointers to ensure that you’re headed in the right direction.… Read full post

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