How to do well in law school?

Law school is where the initiation ceremony happens. This hazing period of at least four years prepares one to become a lawyer. Of course, like any such ceremony, it is not bound to be easy. There will always be pain.

Below is an article by Remoto (2017) about law school and how to do well in it.

BY THE STAR: The assiduous student who wants to do well in law school should do well to start preparing now. Atty. Jim Lopez has written a most helpful book for those entering the equivalent of Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia (1307) – the law schools in the Philippines. It’s a world filled with “name-calling, long assignments, cranky professors, vicious insults, numerous case studies, and protracted recitation.”

Ranged against this “dark side” of law school is the book, The Fundamentals of Law School (Anvil Publishing), a treasure trove of history, lore, tips and techniques for the aspiring lawyer. The author is a three-time winner of the National Book Award for his books The Law on Annulment of Marriage (2001), Judgment Proof: How to Protect Your Property and Business from Lawsuits (2003), and The Law on Alternative Dispute Resolutions (2004).

This UP College of Law alumnus asks outright: How should you cope with the rigors of law school? “The first step is to have a burning desire to be a lawyer.” Right. So those of us who took – and passed with high grades – the UP Law Aptitude Exams in 1984 but did not pursue it wouldn’t fare well anyway. Pushed by fathers who were lawyers and only following the template others have prepared for us, we would have found the tomes too thick to read, the articles too many to memorize. The eyes blur, the head aches, and you begin to ask: Why am I here in the first place?

Being a lawyer should be your dream, and since it is your dream, let nothing snatch it away from you, including that demon called fear. “Nihil timendum est. Fear nothing. This should be the motto of law students who wish to excel in law school and in the practice of law.” Atty. Lopez argues that the law is relatively easy to study – if you have the strategy and the commitment to excel. Your mantra should be this: “Nothing is better than a most diligent life.” And what is the cause of failure and dropouts? “Unfamiliarity with the new environment and lack of preparation.”

Atty. Lopez paraphrases Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859). In law school, the one that survives is not the strongest of the species, or even the most intelligent, but the one “most responsive to change.”And change begins in freshman year, the period of adjustment and the scariest. “An intense culture shock will be felt, a time in which the tectonic plates will be rubbing up against one another in ways that often make law school a jarring experience.”

Comments can be sent to danton.lodestar@gmail.com. READ MORE AT: Remoto, Danton (2017). November 24, 2017 - 4:00pm. How to do well in law school Read more at https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/11/24/1762244/how-do-well-law-school

PHOTOS HOT-LINKED FROM: https://hazelmeking.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/books.jpg; http://www.pro.ahead.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-Best-Law-Schools-in-the-Philippines.jpg