Law School Discussion

Actually, I used Omni Graffle to diagram during 1L - esp. in Property and Contracts.  But I'm a very visual person. 

What do applications for biglaw firms say?  I mean, on Dec. 1st no one has their grades or has even taken finals.  Do you just use your college resume and hope your school's name has enough pull?

This is when it pays to be a non-trad.

• Being an uber-gunner.  Gunners go after fellow students.  The uber-gunner goes after the professor themselves.  You know this is happening when the uber-gunner changes or otherwise refuses to accept the hypo the professor presented.
• Being a feelings gunner.  This is the person who feels obligated to give their personal opinion on the fairness of every outcome of every case or policy presented in class.
• Being totally oblivious to those around you while studying.  This includes playing iPods so loud, songs can clearly be heard through your headphones, and eating noisy cruchy food.  It's better to eat a pizza in the library than potato chips.
• Being the "out-of-class gunner."  This is the person who cannot talk about anything but legal topics, although might occasionally venture into political debate.
• Talking about how much you study, the progress of your outline, post-mortem on exams, the job search, or grades.  It's not necessarily bad, just make real sure the person you're talking with wants to talk about these topics.
• Trying to forcefully create a mentor out of a 2L or 3L who either is known to have good grades, has a good job, or is on law review.
• Obsessing over anything that's ungraded.  Legal writing is important, try hard, but remember what gets you paid at the end of the day: A's in graded class.
• Sandbagging.  If someone asks you how much you study, either be honest, or say you don't discuss it.  Don't say "Oh I don't study much" if you actually work 12 hours a day.

That's about all I can think of for right now.

Solid gold!

How about the student who feels obligated to send out PSAs to the *entire* email list?  You know, on the order of "_____ happened and here's what I have to say about it..."  Michigan hasn't had too much of that (probably a lingering effect of the Tex debacle), but I hear that most schools have at least one guy who just can't keep his brilliant opinions to himself.

Just because you want to work in a large firm post-JD doesn't mean you should necessarily pursue that for your 1L summer.  Our career services office actually advises against it: you have the rest of your life to work in that environment. 

I personally didn't apply for any 1L SA positions even though I plan on doing the whole OCI/biglaw route.  I'm doing a fellowship in the General Counsel's office of a national union.     

Please note, by the way, that I did NOT say that you should avoid big firms for 1L jobs - simply that you shouldn't feel locked into that path. 

any advice for women?  im assuming: pants or skirts suit, stockings, pumps, conservative jewlery?

Pretty much.  The advice we've gotten so far is: skirt suit (for interviews, at least), nice stockings, leather pumps, conservative jewelry.    I just spent hours in Loehmanns trying to find classy skirt suits that didn't make me feel like a little girl in dress-up clothes.  Our career services people also advised very low heels (I think they said a max of 1 to 1.5") but I went with a more traditional height because I'm a midget.