Law School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students

AUTHOR’S NOTE

A LOT HAS HAPPENED since the First Edition of Law School Confidential was published in the summer of 2000. First and foremost, the dot.com bubble burst, sending scores of disappointed entrepreneurs scurrying for the safe harbor of graduate schools. Law schools have scooped up a not insignificant percentage of these folks, and a higher than normal percentage of college graduates in the ensuing years has set its sights on law school. This has led to a significant increase in the number of applicants that top law schools are seeing each year—at some places, 60–80 percent more than just three years ago—and that, in turn, has led to higher yields and lower admission rates at these schools.

Today, it is harder than it has ever been to get into law school.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the book you are now holding has helped many people beat the odds, get into the law school of their choice, and succeed—and it can help you do the same.

As I have traveled the country speaking to prospective and current law students, and in responding to your e-mails, I have eagerly solicited and collected advice and suggestions about how to make this book better and more responsive to the needs of today’s students.

To that end, this new, completely updated Revised Edition of Law School Confidential features a brand-new and significantly extended interview with Dean of Admissions Richard Geiger of the Cornell Law School—who offers candid, fresh, and up-to-the-minute information and advice about the law school admissions process. It also contains the most recent counseling available about how to navigate the new federal judicial clerkship rules, and guidance throughout the book of three new just-graduated mentors lending significant, additional diversity to the mentoring team. Finally, by popular demand, we’ve added a chapter featuring interviews with the hiring partners at two prominent U.S. law firms to discuss what makes an attractive candidate for an initial hire and what makes someone partner material down the line.

I hope you’ll find the new additions to this book helpful and useful, and that if you have ideas or suggestions about how to make it better, you’ll continue to get in touch to share your ideas!

Of course, Law School Confidential would never have come together without the help of many people who need to be called forward into the spotlight. First, another rousing boomalacka to my literary agent, Jake Elwell, for giving me my start and providing me with such sound professional guidance over the past three years. Every young writer needs a champion, good counsel, and a steady hand, but few have the great fortune that I’ve had to have an agent who provides all three.

To my original editor, Melissa Jacobs, for having the courage to reach out to a new writer; and to my new editor, Carolyn Chu, for taking over this project with the enthusiasm that has fueled its progress.

To Dean Gary Clinton who, to the great fortune of Penn Law students, remains the heart and soul of Penn Law’s atmosphere of cooperation, for all the things he does to make Penn a different and better place than most law schools, and for honoring me with his Foreword to this book.

To Dean Richard Geiger of the Cornell Law School for giving so freely of his time and wisdom to take us all on a voyage into the often seemingly inexplicable world of law school admissions policy, and, more importantly, for his willingness to help future generations of law school applicants better understand what animates the process.

And finally, to my outstanding team of mentors: Carolyn, Keith, Joel, Steve, Alison, Allan, Pat, Bess, Elizabeth, John-Mark, Yvette, and Patrick for finding both the time in your busy schedules and the emotional fortitude to go back and relive your law school experiences in order to offer your good counsel to others. It is an honor for me to be associated with all of you for posterity in the pages of this book.

—Robert H. Miller

Hopkinton, New Hampshire

December 2003

FOREWORD

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, at a law school orientation party, one of the new students came up to me and, without introduction, threw his arms wide open, taking in the full sweep of Penn Law’s summer-green courtyard and proclaimed to me, "I own this place!"

I laughed. In fifteen years of law school administration, no one—no dean, no trustee, no faculty member, no administrator, and certainly no student—had ever said that before. Quickly thinking it over, however, I realized that he was absolutely right.

Since then, that message has become the core theme of advice I give to people contemplating a legal education, students starting out their first year, or those already deep into law school. Own the place, own the process, own your own time, and own the direction of your future.

Viewed from the outside, law schools are intimidating places. Viewed from the inside, legal education is often a confusing and sometimes a seemingly pointless process. Neither is necessarily true—and neither is deliberately true. Both views alienate the lay person from the attorney, and the law student from the educational process. After seeing this education up close for more than twenty years now, however, I can assure you that neither of these factors is deliberately crafted.

These views come about in part because legal education is neither sentimental nor romantic. Law school is a hard-edged training ground, meant to take the worldview of each law student (those things I describe as what we each inherently hold to be good and true and right and just and beautiful) and shake this worldview to its foundation. The goal is to allow the gut feelings we each carry with us to be challenged right to their intellectual, rather than their emotional, roots. When this process is over, the process may have altered the student’s values, bringing these values to a higher (some might say a more cynical) plane, or the student’s values may precipitate out into exactly the same system held before. In either case, however, the student should now know the reasoning behind that value system. The core goal of legal education is to teach the student to ask the critical questions, Why? and How? of any situation. The student must learn to accept nothing at face value, but to learn the relationship of facts, learn to know why this is not that, and how any number of seemingly disparate situations, facts, ideas, or problems are related.

This brings me back to the notion of ownership, because as your world is turned around, your ideas are challenged, and you come to feel that not only do you not know, but you do not know how to know, it is natural to feel that the process is alienating and cruel, and that you are not nearly as smart as you thought you were. Ownership, however, means coming to understand and accept the fact that you are now part of a larger process, and at the same time, that you are becoming a product of that process. This recognition allows you to use the process to better advantage. The goal is to walk through the door each day feeling that you understand, if not each night’s reading for each class, at least that you are fully involved in the process of your education.

The other significant aspect of taking ownership of your education lies in the contact you make with your classmates, professors, and administrators outside the classroom.

Most law schools attract a remarkably well-rounded group of individuals. Life and work experiences, political and social points of view, interests, career goals, hobbies, and educational values will cover a broad spectrum. Use that to your advantage. Stretch yourself, and allow your ideas and viewpoints to be challenged.

The student I quoted at the outset was, in some ways, the last person I would have expected to instantly know how to maximize his experience at law school. This student, in his mid-thirties, was a former street gang member from South Central LA who had finished college late and had held a series of jobs. Yet, his sense of joy in the opportunity, and his sense of ownership of that opportunity, never faded. He threw himself into it during his three years, eventually becoming president of a large student group, president of the student government, and vice president of his class.

When this student graduated, one of our professors—a man who had recently won both the law school’s and the university’s awards for distinguished teaching—said to me, I always liked having Michael in my classes, because he could be depended to wade on in when everybody else was looking down pretending to search their texts. He wasn’t always right, but he was always willing, and he always advanced the class. He took the chance of being wrong. And that’s what I call a fine student.

Rob Miller was another such student. He came to Penn and jumped right in on every level. His eyes and ears were open, not just to the cases, but to the multilayered processes of attending a law school. He too owned his experience, and made it work for him. The result is this fine book that will teach you how to do the same.

—Gary Clinton

Dean of Student Affairs

The University of Pennsylvania Law School

PART ONE

So You Wanna Be a Lawyer . . .

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

—VOLTAIRE

CONGRATULATIONS! By picking up and opening this book, you have just taken the first significant step toward building a productive, successful, and perhaps an even pleasant law school experience. Though you may not know it yet, law school can be an incredibly intimidating, foreign, and isolating place. Sure—at many law schools, you’ll be assigned a 2L or 3L to serve as your mentor, and if he or she isn’t too busy, you might glean a few nuggets of wisdom from that relationship. Your school may offer a dean of student affairs, a team of orientation counselors, or a lecture to help you transition from undergraduate life or the working world into the new experience of law school. At the end of the day, though, it’s still going to come down to you. In those desperate hours (and trust us, there will be many), after your mentors and counselors have given you all they can, it’s going to come down to you alone, beneath the glow of your halogen reading lamp, hiding behind closed doors wondering, panicking, and crying out for answers.

And that’s where I, and the rest of your Law School Confidential mentors come in.

We can relate, because we’ve just been there. We’ve given the wrong answer to a Socratic professor and sounded stupid in front of an amphitheater full of fellow students. Collectively, we’ve been caught unprepared, fallen way behind in our reading loads, botched exams, and received some horrible grades. We’ve papered our walls with rejection letters from employers and judges, thought about dropping out, considered alternate career choices, and anguished about choosing between coasts, cities, firms, and practice areas. We’ve feuded with members of our study groups and broken up with girlfriends and boyfriends who couldn’t understand why we didn’t have time to call or visit. We’ve worked on law reviews and journals, and we’ve been rejected by law reviews and journals. We’ve had articles published and articles rejected. We’ve thrived and stumbled in moot court competitions and legal clinics. We’ve pulled the all-nighters, blanked out during exams, cried behind our own closed doors, and felt the isolation first hand.

Despite all of that, we also graduated, passed bar examinations in six different jurisdictions, got the jobs we wanted, and have just moved on into the world of legal practice.

We’re not professors twenty-five years removed from the law school experience, clueless about the demands and requirements of law firm life, and waxing nostalgic about how wonderful law school is. We were students, just like you, and three short years ago, we were where you are. We know that law school often isn’t wonderful, and that it can be a cold, cruel experience for the unprepared.

We’re here to give you the confidential scoop about law school—all the stuff the books written by professors will never tell you about. If you want the truth about law school—what it’s going to take to get in, get what you want out of it, and get out with your self-esteem and personality intact, this is the book you want. We expose all the traps, dispel all the myths, cut through the rhetoric, and raise the veil which for so long has shrouded the law school experience in mystery and dread.

Possessing this book and applying its teachings will give you a distinct advantage over your classmates in almost every aspect of the law school experience. Most of all however, it will give you some peace of mind and help you to avoid making the same mistakes we made during the many weeks and months of hard work and isolation that lie ahead.

In a moment, I’ll be introducing you to your mentoring team—the group of recently graduated students from law schools around the country who will guide you through the next three years with their wisdom, advice, and experiences. First, though, a bit of advice about how to get the most out of this book. Whether you are a college student thinking about law school, a working person contemplating a career change, a student already in law school, or the parent, friend, or significant other of someone in law school just trying to understand what your loved one is going through, this book has something to offer you. Determine which of the following sections is most applicable to you, and read accordingly.

I am a college student thinking about applying to law school, or I’m thinking about changing careers and applying to law school

Great! If your law school experience has not yet begun, you’ve just stumbled upon a wealth of information and resources that will make your entire experience easier, less stressful, and, we hope, more successful. We suggest that you read this book from cover to cover before you begin the application process to confirm for yourself that you really do want to go to law school, and to get a good overview of the entire experience to help inform your interviews and application essays. Once you’ve read the material, familiarized yourself with law school terminology, and have a basic grasp of how the law school experience will proceed, you should then go back and read each of the individual chapters again as they become applicable to your experience.

I’ve already been admitted to law school, and I’m nervous . . .

Yeah, well join the crowd! Almost everyone entering law school is nervous about it because of the mystique associated with the experience. You, however, have come to the right place at the right time. Unlike your classmates, who will fumble nervously through the first few weeks if not the entire first semester not knowing exactly how to proceed, you will be escorted around the pitfalls and provided with a step-by-step, proven plan drawn from the experiences of the mentoring team you’re about to meet.

Take the time between now and the first day of classes to read this book cover to cover. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything right away. Just familiarize yourself with its content and with some of the basic ideas and concepts it presents. Then, when law school begins, keep Law School Confidential within arm’s reach and let it be your escort through each week of each semester, guiding you safely through the jungle that so many of your classmates will get lost in. Use it to measure your progress and to keep track of where you are.

This is a book of collective wisdom. Put it to work for you.

But I’m already in law school . . . I wish I’d found this sooner

Yeah, us too. The difference between us, though, is that at least you can still benefit from this book. We had to learn most of this stuff the hard way! The fact is, it’s never too late to start.

If you are already in the throes of law school, we recommend reading the entire book anyway—as there may be some earlier hints and suggestions that you can still capitalize on and apply. Then simply go to the table of contents, find where you are in your law school career, and begin in earnest. Read forward to the end of the book to get a feel for what’s to come, and then concentrate on specific chapters as they become applicable to you.

I’m the parent, friend, sibling, or significant other of someone going to law school

Want to give your friend or loved one the best gift you could ever give her at the time she needs it most? You have it in your hands. Before you wrap it up, though, you may want to skim it over yourself. In it, you’ll soon discover why your law student isn’t returning your phone calls, letters, or E-mails, doesn’t have time to come home to visit, and is frequently tired and cranky when you call. If you’re close to a law student, the experience will touch you, too—and the better understanding you have of law school’s incessant demands on time and energy, the easier it will be to accept the virtual loss of your loved one for the next three years. Your job is to be as understanding and forgiving as possible, and to place as few demands as you can on your law student. Reading Law School Confidential will help you to understand why by giving you some familiarity with the experience.

That said, it’s now time to meet the mentors who will guide you through the next three years. As you progress through this book, you’ll be able to follow their progress, recognize and learn from their mistakes, and watch their careers develop before your eyes. You can and should model some of their actions, choices, strategies, and experiences.

At the end of our law school careers, each of us walked away from law school shaking our head and muttering to ourselves, I wish I knew then what I know now. You are in the unique position to have that wish granted.

It’s time to get busy!

THE LAW SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL MENTORS

JOEL WATTENBARGER

Red Bank, New Jersey

B.A. Yale University

J.D. Harvard Law School

Harvard Law Review

1L summer: summer associate, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, D.C.

2L summer: summer associate, Ropes & Gray, Boston, MA

After graduation: associate, Ropes & Gray, Boston, MA

The biggest factor in my decision to go to law school was the three years I spent as a paralegal in Washington, D.C., after graduating from college. I found that I really enjoyed the atmosphere in that firm—I had never experienced such a concentration of bright, motivated, and responsive people. I also enjoyed the work I was doing, helping companies understand and respond to complex legal and business problems. I was also attracted, unsurprisingly, by the money that can be made by lawyers. A word of warning, though: Because I had to take out significant loans, it will take close to a decade for my investment in law school to start paying off.

Knowing what I know now, I would probably do it again. However, I would consider business school more seriously than I did four years ago—anyone who is considering a career in corporate law should consider life as a client, rather than as a lawyer!

Know what you’re getting yourself into. I almost applied to law school as a senior in college, primarily because I didn’t really have any idea what I wanted to do, and law school seemed like a respectable way to put off the decision for a few years. In retrospect, applying at that time would have been a huge mistake. I wasn’t emotionally prepared for three more years of any school (much less law school) at that point in my life; and I wouldn’t have had any clear idea of where I might be headed at the end of the three years, but I would have been deep in debt nevertheless. If you don’t know why you’re going to law school, don’t go.

CAROLYN A. KOEGLER

Bronxville, New York

B.A. Tufts University

J.D. University of Pennsylvania Law School

H. Clayton Louderback legal writing instructor

1L summer: summer associate, Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, D.C.

2L summer: summer associate, Bingham Dana, Boston, MA

After graduation: associate, Sulloway & Hollis, Concord, NH

I went to law school because (1) I was told by a number of people that law school really teaches you how to think in a way that even the best undergraduate education really does not; (2) because I felt that no matter what career I ultimately chose, even if I decided not to practice law, that people would take a woman with a law degree more seriously than they would take a woman without one; (3) because I thought that a law degree would open up more opportunities for me; and (4) because I majored in history in college and I wasn’t sure what else to do with that degree!

I don’t regret my decision to go to law school at all, but I think this is because my father was generous enough to pay for it. As a result, I don’t have to worry about paying off student loans, and I was able to take the kind of position I really wanted. I got a terrific education and a degree which has opened up opportunities to me that I never would have had without it. I do also feel that people take me more seriously when they find out that I have a law degree.

Having said all of this, I would not necessarily have made the decision to go to law school had I been required to pay for it myself. I have a number of friends who are very unhappy practicing law, but cannot leave their jobs because they have to pay off enormous student loans. After struggling through a tough three years in law school, they are now stuck in jobs they despise for the better part of the next decade. I enjoy my present job, working in a smaller law firm, in a smaller community, where I am getting a lot of hands-on experience, and where the work I do actually impacts clients I know and talk to. Knowing that if I ever stop enjoying it, I could just decide to do something else without worrying about having to make loan payments makes a big difference, though.

JOHN-MARK TURNER

Chapin, South Carolina

B.S. University of South Carolina

J.D. Boalt Hall School of Law,

University of California at

Berkeley

California Law Review

1L summer: U.S. Department of

Justice (Environmental

Enforcement Section), D.C.

2L summer: summer associate, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Seattle, WA

After graduation: law clerk, Hon. Michael Murphy, United States Court of

Appeals (Tenth Circuit), Salt Lake City

Associate, Sheehan, Phinney, Bass & Green, P.A., Manchester, NH

Like a lot of people, I fell into law. I had gotten my undergraduate degree in math, which I didn’t find to be particularly marketable. Teaching jobs were plentiful, but after a year of teaching, I found that I didn’t really enjoy it. I considered graduate school, but my older brother was just finishing up his doctoral dissertation in math and hadn’t really enjoyed it, so I decided I’d take a different path. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) was taking the LSAT, so I did too.

As I waited for my scores, I started to really get into the idea. I attended a few conferences and talks at Tulane Law School that were open to the public and became intrigued by the perspective that professors, lawyers, and law students brought to bear on issues that mattered to me. It was a very pragmatic, let’s get things done attitude. For me, college was spent developing a firm idea of all the things that I wanted to change about the world, but it didn’t give me the tools I needed to bring about those changes. A legal education offered the ability to develop an attack plan and to advocate forcefully for the things I believe in.

Before you apply to law school, you need to answer that kindergarten question: What do I want to be when I grow up? More specifically, do you understand what it means to practice law for a living, and is that what you want to do? Sometimes, it is difficult to get a good sense for what the practice of law is like unless you are able to observe it firsthand. You may want to consider spending some time as a paralegal or interning in a law office to get a better sense of it. You might also want to get to know law students and get their reactions to their summer jobs.

Like any career, there are pros and cons to practicing law. There are long hours, but they are usually happily spent in absorbing material. Much of your time is spent fighting or haggling with other lawyers, but it can be an exciting game of cat and mouse. You might represent people and causes you find morally repugnant, but you also might change the world. Before deciding on law, you need to determine if the trade-offs are worth it to you.

YVETTE Y. ROBINSON

Boston, Massachusetts

B.A. Boston University

J.D. Suffolk University Law School

1L summer: Hale and Dorr/Harvard Law School Community Enterprise Project

2L summer: summer associate, Foley, Hoag & Eliot, Boston, MA

After graduation: law clerk, Hon.

James Duggan, Associate Justice, New Hampshire Supreme Court

I’ve wanted to be an attorney at least since I was in the fifth grade. I was always the kid on the playground standing up to the bully, trying to talk people out of fighting or standing up for the kid who was getting teased. I think I was just a natural advocate. In high school, I wrote for the school paper and enjoyed being argumentative, writing controversial pieces, and stirring things up. I won the Law Day Award and at the ceremony, I met a lot of attorneys who encouraged me to pursue a career in law, and it seemed that being an attorney would be a productive career given my natural spirit of advocacy. Throughout college, I interned with attorneys and worked in law offices every chance I got in an effort to learn as much about the profession as possible before I applied to law school.

For me, law school felt very natural given my love of advocacy, reading, writing, and expressing my ideas in words. I would advise anyone thinking of law school to spend some time working for an attorney to get a real sense of it. When I did this, I relished the challenge of thinking on my feet, and developed a thick skin for criticism. You have to be willing to put your work on the table and take the heat. You also need to appreciate, not only the subject matter, but the environment, the personalities, and the fact that not every day is going to be like what you see on Law and Order.

KEITH KOEGLER

Bronxville, New York

B.A. Amherst College

J.D. Vanderbilt University Law School

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

1L summer: internship with criminal law judge

2L summer: split summer doing part-time work for two Nashville, TN, law firms

After graduation: in-house counsel for start-up technology company Associate, Ritchey, Fisher, Whitman & Klein P.A., Palo Alto, CA

Like many people, I backed into law school. At Amherst, I received the classic liberal arts education which meant that I didn’t really start thinking about a career until my senior year, when I began scrambling to find a way to support myself after graduation. I chose to paralegal for a large national law firm for a year, because I couldn’t think of anything better to do. The experience was miserable and after a year, I applied to law school because what else was I going to do with my B.A. in history?

I now work at a small firm in Palo Alto doing corporate securities work for start-up technology companies and I couldn’t be happier. My hours are reasonable, the work is interesting, and the people are fantastic. But I think I’m unusual—most of my friends are at large national law firms and are miserable.

ELIZABETH DECONTI

Albany, New York

B.A. Yale University

J.D. University of Miami Law School

University of Miami Yearbook of International Law Vice President, Moot Court Board

1L summer: studied evidence and European community law—University College, London

2L summer: summer associate, Pyszka, Kessler, Douberly & Massey,

Miami, FL

After graduation: associate, Holland & Knight LLP, Tampa, FL

When I entered my senior year of college, I was torn between going to graduate school and going to law school. My prospective field of study in graduate school was very narrow, and there was not much room to grow. Teaching positions were at a premium, and the greats under whom I had studied did not look to be ready to vacate their posts for a long time. I was determined that whatever I did should be worthwhile both to me and to society, and I began to get the idea that I would not have the opportunity to leave much of a mark on the world as an