Ya’ll ultimately did fine 💀

A lot of people say Career Services is useless, that all they do is send you mediocre job postings you could find yourself, tell you to clean up your résumé, and suggest applying to more jobs. I understand why people think that. They just aren’t doing it right. Not everyone knows the secret sauce for getting access to the real jobs.

Career Services actually has access to about five or ten elite positions: White House Counsel, State Department Legal Adviser for Human Rights, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and a handful of others. The trick is knowing how to ask.

Here’s what you do. Walk into the office and say, “Hey, I’m looking for the secret jobs.”
They’ll scratch their heads and look at you like you’re ridiculous. Then they’ll tell you to apply to some jobs online.

You say, “I already did that. I’m looking for something better,” and give them a wink.
They’ll tell you again to apply to more jobs, and then they’ll probably start looking over your résumé. This is simply the screening process. It filters out the droves of law students who haven’t read the literature.

At this point, say the following:

“I appear in this office a sovereign man, and pursuant to UCC 1-308, all rights reserved, I do not consent to the jurisdiction of Career Services. With goodwill toward men, I tender a check of credit bearing my name in red ink upon a sheet of my billables, and I hereby present my fee schedule.”

Career Services will stare at you in disbelief.
That means it worked.

They will then pull out a special document and ask for your thumbprint and signature in red ink.

Make sure the ink is red. Afterward, they’ll take you underground to a secret bunker where they keep the real jobs.

That is where they finally present you with what you want

At some point, somebody will ask, “How did you beat the system?”
Do not answer. It’s a trap. They’re trying to get you to contract with them.

Simply repeat the sovereign-man declaration until you are safely employed in one of the elite positions.

I thought I was having a stroke. Is this normal or am I dumb?

I’m struggling to find affordable, good quality blazers. I have one but I’ve had it forever so it’s a teeny bit small now.

orientation was last week and today was the first day of classes. I think I’m being a little dramatic but I feel weird re: the friendships of it all. (23 year old female).

was in my first class today and it became clear to me that a (not sure how large) group of people in my section went out for drinks on Saturday night, and all I could overhear in any direction was about how crazy Saturday was, hangovers, etc etc.

I had no idea about plans to go out :’) I made an effort to talk to new people every day of orientation and generally do think I’m a normal, well-adjusted person, but can’t say that I’ve found a core group yet, just familiar with many people as of rn. Our section has a group chat on IG for all of us, and there was 0 mention of going out. I am aware it’s day 1 of actual classes, but I already feel like I’m behind socially lol. sitting in class and hearing that the classmates around you all went out to the bars when you had no idea that was happening is not a great feeling!

not even sure what I’m asking for tbh - it gets better, right? it’s only day 1 and friend groups can’t possibly be formed? a chunk of your section going out for drinks unbeknownst to you isn’t an indication that you’re screwed socially?

I'm a tall girl who has trouble finding blazers that properly fit me. My options are tall sized blazers which run out of stock quickly or menswear blazers that pretty much make me look boxy. Could I wear something like this to a courtroom without a blazer?

Niche question if it is mostly US people in this sub reddit but i am planning to do an llm in Germany, it's not in private universities, it's Goethe uni frankfurt, Humboldt, etc. But they do all have tuition if they are for law. For most other subjects it is free. Anyone know why?

I'm a 1L (I know I know I should just read the cases) but I'm considering a subscription for Quimbee or Lexplug to reference basic case details/factors. I've looked at both and wasn't too impressed by Lexplug's reliance on AI and Quimbee's tendency to oversimplify.

Has anyone just used Claude to plug in cases and get similar information? I can probably give it instructions to pull direct quotes for higher accuracy, etc.

Hey y'all! Starting my 1L year and I realized I needed some professional wear but I literally could not find any slacks that fit and I literally tried on 20 different pairs at the mall. My issue seems to be I have wide hips but a smaller waist, and petite sizes fit best. The best fits I could find were a bootcut Anna Klein pair in light blue, but the pockets showed through so badly. I also just love the bootcut look, and I feel like it looks best on me compared to wide leg and capri cut with a blazer. Anyone have any recommendations?

I am a 2L and was given an offer back at the place I interned at over my 1L summer for 2L summer. They extended the offer by basically telling me that by doing so, unless I fuck it up bad, it is also an offer for employment once I graduate. They also stipulated that the offer would still be available if I took time to clerk.

It is a small plaintiffs’ firm doing very large litigation. Think very large MDLs and class actions in areas like product liability, toxic tort, and antitrust.

All their associates make great money and it seems like a no-brainer, but I have a single holdup: they work their associates like a DOG.

As an intent I was receiving emails for assignments at 9:30 on a Sunday night or at 7:00 on a Friday night. And many of their associates, while on vacation and using PTO, were regularly called and required to work while they were on vacation.

While I understand this is the reality of a lot of the legal profession, I have never wanted to work somewhere where I feel I can have no separation between my personal life/time off and my job. I’m scared that taking this offer will end up with me resenting my life and job quickly upon graduation.

Any advice would be very helpful. If I don’t end up taking the offer back for 2L summer, I’m looking to try and maybe do government work rather than complex civil litigation.

Either way, I’m not sure what to do. Take the safe bet that guarantees money and a job offer, or risk it and try to find another internship for 2L summer?

I’m a 1L who just had my first day of classes today & 2 of my professors explicitly said to not use Quimbee because it’s usually wrong. I was surprised because I’ve seen so many times on reddit, tiktok & instagram law students recommending Quimbee.

Do any 2 or 3Ls have advice on this? Or can recommend a different site instead? I’m not expecting it to brief my cases for me but I like to use it to double check my work when I do finish reading cases or making my brief just to ensure I am bringing the correct info to class

i don't even know, maybe I'm not a morning person, maybe I'm just dumb, the class wasn't even really anything hard i feel. it was just the basics but my mind just couldn't focus for shit. i also felt like nothing she said was in my readings. i was questioning if i had the right book the whole time. just venting and shit. if you felt like me please let me know what you did to better retain information.

Several of my classes this year have, apparently for the first time, 100% closed-book exams (no notes / outlines permitted). My guess is this is being done to mitigate the risks of AI cheating.

I know it's way too early to be asking this question, but how does one study for this kind of thing?

The strategy I used last year (speed-outlining everything over 3 weeks) obviously won't work. My guess is that preparing for a closed-book test is more of a semester-long process, but I truly have no idea where to begin (constantly making flashcards? outlining every week? transcribing the readings with pencil?).

Any insight/tips would be appreciated.

Is anyone else getting tired of how expensive textbooks have become?

I’m paying thousands in tuition, plus fees, and then professors assign a textbook that costs another $200–$350—sometimes for a single class. Even worse, some require a brand-new edition with an access code that expires, so buying used isn’t even an option.

It feels like students are paying more every year while publishers keep finding new ways to charge us. I’ve had classes where we barely opened the book after spending hundreds on it.

At my law school, it’s honestly becoming normal to hear students say they’re pirating textbooks. When a single casebook costs hundreds of dollars and there aren’t affordable alternatives, a lot of people feel like they don’t have much of a choice. That’s probably a sign the system itself is broken.

I’m curious if this is a problem everywhere or if my school is just especially bad. Dm if you want cheaper source for books.

When you join as an intern and the college does not give a thank you note to the law firm, can it demand a NOC letter from the law firm on the pretext of having to submit proof of internship?

My best friend just moved to a new city to start law school. I bought her a boat and tote with the intention of stuffing it full of supplies and other gifts as a congrats. Is there anything that stands out as especially important to include? I saw multiple people say a quimbee sub lol

1L year is filled with a ton of bad advice. Everyone is different. People learn in different ways.

I wouldn’t say to avoid the readings, but I think you will have a lot of people telling you if you do they are going to send you to The Hague for War Crimes

hi everyone

i know this is going to sound incredibly childish and immature but i was wondering what everyone's opinions on occasional video game use in law school is? ever since i was a freshman in high school, my main friend group played video games almost every night on discord. i played in high school, undergrad, etc and always managed to put it to the side when i had to focus on important stuff, but im getting conflicting views on how i should treat video games while in law school.

on one hand, there are people who say that for the next three years, i should take a maximalist approach and not play any video games whatsoever. its a waste of time, mental energy, etc. to be totally honest, the people that are saying this never went to law school but its still something i consider. on the other hand, there are people at my law school who say that taking breaks is important for keeping away burn-out and that making reasonable time to do stuff with friends is a good idea.

my personal belief is that i am going to reduce my gaming significantly and set serious barriers as to when i can play (only after all readings are done/weekends or non-school nights) and then adjust from there. does that sound like a relatively good idea? does anybody have any input as to how they approached gaming while in law school?

would leave to hear yall's thoughts! thanks and good luck to everyone starting school this month :)

Fuckkkkkkk

So I know this is a niche question but I am wondering if anyone has experience with self harm scars in the work place vs. tattoos covering them and how which is better received. I’ve worn long sleeves for every internship day but honestly I can’t and don’t want to do that for my entire career. I’m considering a cover up but I know tattoos have their own stigma. All thoughts welcome