The fact that law school can produce anxiety, OCD or depression is well-known. In this ‘How to survive law school’ series, we’re gonna analyze the top four destabilizers inside Law School (“LS”), especially during your 1L year—i.e., the first year of law school. These destabilizers can be summarized in four categories: (1) cold calling, (2) a sudden & huge workload, (3) the 1L curve, and (4) outdated lawyer stereotypes from the 19th century. These destabilizers are mainly environmental, which means that they arise from the law school’s environment itself. My goal here is for you to become aware of these “traps” so that you can navigate the LS battlefield with more awareness, confidence, and determination.

Below is a lil’ outline of this chapter in case you wanna jump to a specific section. 

1. The sudden (and insane)1L workload—defined

2. Impact on your psych: common feelings law students go through

3. How to manage the 1L workload

1. The sudden (and insane) 1L workload—defined:

“Close your Netflix account if you have one” 

A 2L told me this when I was a 1L myself. I remember he said it with a sour tone, as if law school had stolen that pleasure from him. Well, it did—at least in his first year. When it comes to workload, 1L is a beast. Period. I can’t and won’t sugarcoat it. 

During your first semester, you’ll have at least two to three core subjects as well as legal writing. And your second semester will generally be worse because you get an extra core subject. 1L core subjects are: civil procedure, contracts, torts, constitutional law, property, criminal law (and/or procedure depending on the law school), and legal writing & research (these can be together or separated as well). 

These core subjects will require you to read cases and rules—otherwise you won’t have any idea of what the hell is going on during class… apart from the fact that you can be cold-called (see the cold-calling article on here). Plus, your success and performance will be mostly based on your understanding of the cases and rules you learn in class. 

Time commitment: law school vs. college

I’m sure you’ve already heard that law school is not like college, where you might miss a couple of classes and “still be okay.” My friend, let’s get one thing straight (and I’m saying this because I want you to succeed): if you start law school with the understanding that missing a “couple of classes” is okay, you’ll likely fall behind. And falling behind in law school means not making it to the top of the curve. It means not being ranked the way you want to be ranked in order to access the best paying or more prestigious jobs. Remember, your classmates will be competing for the best grades, as well. If you’re running a marathon, will you stop at a hotel for a couple of days, and then continue running? Obviously not. 

Yes, you might need to take some days off for your body and mental health (I missed some days too!) and that is great. But do not start law school with the mistaken belief that the experience will be similar to college. It is not—at all. The stakes are way higher. The workload is way higher. The competition is way, way higher. The environment creates way, way more anxiety. Again, if I sugarcoat this, will that be of service to you? No. My mission is very simple: to give you as much information and tools as I can so that you can survive—and conquer—this law school thing. 

Now, let’s get to the actual time commitment you’ll likely have in law school. 

As for your average weekly reading, you’ll be looking at 50-100 pages (though it depends on your classes and law school), plus the time you put into your classes AND the legal writing and research homework you’ll get. So, if we were to divide the time in chunks, we might get something like this:

• Reading and preparing for all your classes [40%]

• Going to all of your classes [35%]

• Working on your legal writing memo or homework [15%] — pretty time-consuming yet an incredibly important skill for a lawyer

• Feed yourself and exercise! [10%]

• Sleep (which is non-negotiable, obviously). 

And as exams approach, you also need to start outlining (that is, extracting the rules from the cases you learned about—aka, your case briefs and notes from class; deepening your understanding of the rules, organizing them and creating roadmaps for you to apply during the exams, practicing hypotheticals or taking simulations…) and memorizing, if you have closed-book exams. This will take time—a lot of it (which will need to be added to all of the above). 

2. Impact on your psyche:

The (somewhat insane) 1L workload will translate into long hours at the library or at home, including weekends. And unfortunately, you’ll have the typical gunners tell you, at the very beginning of the semester, “how ahead they’re in their readings” and “how they’ll take ALL weekends off.” This is a classic. But wait for it… I’ve seen way too many law students be completely naïve about the reality of their 1L year, especially because there are people out there sugarcoating things to look “cool” on IG… Well, I am not in the business of selling you an unrealistic idea of success. I’m here to tell you what law school really is about and if you want to be a top law student, you will need to commit to what it takes… and law school takes a lot of time—reading, writing, and studying. As such, there will be very little time for social activities, Netflix, or anything that is not related to you performing well during your 1L year. Moreover, 1L grades operate as a filter for law firms and employers. That is, your first year grades will mostly determine your first job opportunities because this is how the system is designed. 

So, with all this in mind, below are the most common feelings and physiological responses law students go through as they adapt to the huge workload:

• Tiredness, literally

• Anxiety, especially when we’re falling behind

• Frustration or a sense of unworthiness because we’re learning about very complex things and that entails a learning curve…meaning, we’ll take longer to read at first, then we’ll become faster at it. Moreover, at the beginning we always end up spending extra time on things because we’re learning and adapting to a new system.

• Burnout, or the feeling that you can’t keep going 

• Impostor’s syndrome when not understanding most of the material you’re reading (this will be intensified if you’re a perfectionist… and let me tell ya, most of us law people are :-))

• Feelings of guilt, as you find yourself with less time for your partner, friends, or family (and also guilt for establishing boundaries with them)

• Sadness because you have less time to do things that bring you joy

Omg… as I write this, even my mind is like: please stop, this is way too f* depressing…

BUUUUUT there are ways through which you can avoid a lot of those feelings. Disclaimer: you won’t feel completely care-free 24/7 as a law student, especially as a 1L (because who does?!), but you will feel more confident, empowered and in control of your time. 

3. How to manage the insane workload:

[Note: grab a pen to write down your answers to 1 and 2]

1. Identify what tasks and activities constitute a waste of your time—and therefore a huge opportunity cost in law school (e.g., social media unless it’s a source of income for you, extracurricular activities in law school that ARE NOT related to grades or class—listen, this is not the time to become popular, I’m serious; you can do that after you’re done with your first year!).

2. Identify during what times of the day you’re most productive. Our brain tends to be more energized in the mornings and many researchers suggest we do the hardest tasks during that time; however, every person is different, so do what works for you.

3. Assign a similar amount of time to each subject (it’s very common to end up neglecting and abandoning the subjects that we don’t like). For example, I’ll dedicate 4 hours to Civ Pro this week and another 3.5 for torts (this will change depending on what subjects you find easier, of course). Stick to those times (e.g., if you didn’t finish reading for civ pro, keep moving onto the next subject—you’ll catch-up at a later time).

4. Work in blocks of time. Don’t try to do 3 subjects at the same time or multi-task with other things. Focus. Remove distractions (yes, your phone).

5. Tell your loved ones about your law school responsibilities and the time commitment it takes. Healthy boundaries will go a long way. You owe it to yourself. This lawyer dream is yours—nurture it. 

6. Have an organizational system with to-do lists or a method that allows you to keep track of your tasks/progress. When I was a 1L, I used a physical agenda but as a business owner, I now use Notion (it’s free). Choose whatever works for you—there are a million options out there. 

7. Maintain a schedule with your classes, your reading time, your cooking time (e.g., I would batch-cook on Sundays for the whole week), and exercise. This helps you stay organized. Please note that exercise is non-negotiable—every week you should put it on that week’s schedule. It’s incredibly important to make time for our body to decompress from all the law school madness. This will lower your anxiety levels and in turn increase your dopamine levels. 

8. Ask for help when you need it. Ask a mentor, a coach, a friend. You’re human and what you’re doing is really f* hard—don’t forget that. You deserve to feel supported. 

In sum,

an efficient use of your time, organization and self-discipline—that’s the secret recipe.*

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As always, thank you for being here. I hope this post was useful. If so, please share with it with someone who might benefit from it.

Sending you so much strength for your law school journey,

Espy