Nothing can ever really prepare you for the baptism by fire that is studying the Law. But you can be warned.
You arrive in law school all fresh faced filled with excitement. You passed your A levels and managed to tackle the beast that was the LNAT. In your head you are the next Harvey Specter or Mike Ross and no one can match your legal prowess….
That is until you attend your first land/property law and contract lectures and you realize that you are not quite sure what is going on half the time. You find yourself stumbling your way through the first few weeks of law school. And suddenly reality hits you, of course you are smart but this law school thing isn’t going to be an easy road. The temptation of Wikipedia-ing and E-Lawreasources-ing your way through seems like a great and tempting prospect.
But the reality is that if you want to reach the top it will require hours of trawling through the forever timing out Westlaw, reading journals set on the extra reading list as if you have unlimited time amongst the other essential reading. Having to understand convoluted judgements that make finding the Holy Grail look so easy compared to having to decipher between what is actually obiter and what is the real ratio. Sleep becomes a distant memory well before the exam season is even around the corner.
Suddenly law for you becomes synonymous to being a somewhat incognito philosopher as you , inevitably find yourself questioning “Why did I ever do this to myself?” How do you even Law? What is law, what does this law even mean, do I understand it…what hope do I have when even my lecturer isn’t sure where the law stands itself.
This is just a blog charting a personal experience of law school, and hopefully it will help out someone.
that made me a bit nervous for uni! hehe, I’m really excited tho to start my undergraduate degree in September in London. when you were in the process of applying and what not did you go to any applicant days? lovely photo!
I’m going for an applicant day soon for a few of my university choices, but I’m not sure what to expect. If you went, how was it for you and do you get to meet and know people? or is it more just everyone focusing on themselves and not really talking to people?
Author
Hey Ida, thank you for the lovely message, I did start to reply to it, However it ended up sounding more like another essay 😀 So instead, is it ok if I can reply to you in the form of a blog post later x
Wiii! yay, that made me so happy! Really looking forward to read it! thanks dear x
Thanks for posting this blog Lorraine, it gives a refreshing insight into the early years of being a law student. My first year was much like yours, far too much time using Wikipedia and http://www.lawteacher.net just trying to keep up with the overwhelming amount of information I had to process. And I think that information processing is what it all came down to for me, not intelligence or even memory, just a logical way of handling and processing information in volumes that I had never even dreamt of!
Author
Even in second year it’s still a bit difficult you kind of just learn as you go along and try and land on your feet. And you’re right it’s sometimes feels like a big memory test with conflicting judgments thrown into the mix to make it that much easier.
Great site. I thought you or your readers would also find my property law news & legal blogs site PropertyBlawg useful ( http://www.propertyblawg.com/ ). Also happy to have you or your colleagues get published there if you’d like?
Best,
Gavin
I am 25 and start my training contract next year having studied a history degree at the University of Exeter, GDL and LPC at BPP in London. I have been working in the period between securing my TC and the two year wait as a paralegal. I really like your page and posts. Please check mine out and any suggestions are welcome http://www.londonlawandmore.com. I honestly believe with law it is a case of when not if you gain a training contract although you might have to play the long game.