30 tips for first-year law students
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Many law students find the challenges of law school exhilarating, but are taken by surprise by the very different way in which legal material is taught and tested from the way they learned in the humanities, social sciences, or hard sciences. The students most surprised are those who have pursued a pre-law curriculum or have experience working as a clerk or a paralegal. These students may find the vocabulary familiar, but the playing field is even. Pianists do as well as political scientists when it comes to law school. This is because law school does not teach you about the law. It teaches you how to use the law to benefit your future clients. There is very little specialization in law school because very few students are sufficiently aware of the many kinds of legal practice available to them. (Jennifer S. Bard and Brett Gardner)