The Best Thing About Law School

Now that my time is about to end at law school, I think I have had enough time to reflect on the good and the bad.

The best thing about the law school is the skills you gain. Law school is a unique combination of academic rigor and practical skills (an ongoing debate continues on what balance of these two it should be). This means you gain both a way of thinking and the skills to use it.

For example, writing classes provide practical skills like how to write a memo for your boss and a brief to the court. However, the usual 1L classes, torts, property and contracts, aim to teach you how to “think like a lawyer.” What people usually mean by this phrase is a critical analysis of a situation and the ability to apply law to facts. Although I personally feel like my brain now works like a hyperactive computer sometimes (haha), this means that law school has changed the way I look at the world (and my humor).

Whether one thinks law school is enjoyable or not, one comes out with an enormous ability to help people. A lawyer has the right to represent clients in court which can mean the difference between jail for years or winning freedom. Being a good lawyer is like having a superpower. Lawyers are permitted to enter rooms that no one else can. Lawyers are the only people (with a few caveats) who can represent people in court, write wills, put people in jail (as judges), file a business, and so much more. Being a lawyer is a privilege, so the best thing about law school is the skills you acquire to utilize that privilege.

The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape. – Ralph Waldo Emerson