Congratulations! You’ve been accepted into law school and its time to get your head down and get to work.
No matter how much research you do before attending law school, it is impossible to be completely prepared for all the fresh challenges that this new world will bring. Don’t panic! Everyone else is in the exact same position and with the right attitude you will be just fine.
You will be particularly successful if you read this guide through first, and take on board the useful tips that we have put together for success as a law school student.
Tip 1: Build a network
Top lawyers have a whole network of people in the legal profession to call on for advice and information. You are at law school with the next generation of legal professionals, and you never know who it might help to know in the years to come. Networking is essential to enjoying college or university to the max anyway, but in law school it can be a massive boost for your future career as well.
Think about it, say you pursue a career in criminal law and end up representing someone in the public eye. Having that old friend from law school who is now a leading media law expert could come in handy.
Tip 2 – Be ready to work
If you have been accepted into a top law school you are clearly a very talented and intelligent individual. Law school is a different beast to high school exams, however, and if you let yourself fall behind on your study it can be extremely difficult to catch back up.
Trainee positions at law firms are incredibly highly sought after and firms will often look at individual module results as well as overall grades in order to differentiate between different candidates. Flying out of the blocks when you first attend law school will help you to get ahead and put you in a fantastic position to achieve the great career you desire.
Tip 3: Obtain work experience
Any sort of real-life legal work you can get during your law school days will be invaluable when applying for future employment. It will also allow you to find out if a certain area of the law is something you wish to work in going forward.
Just because work experience is not in an area of law you wish to pursue a career in does not mean you should turn it down. All legal experience is valuable and you should look to build as extensive and varied a knowledge of legal matters as you possibly can. You never know when you might be working a unique case and a certain piece of knowledge pops into your head and changes the outcome of the whole process.
Take these tips on board and you are well on your way to becoming a fully fledged lawyer. Who knows, you might even work for a firm like Aamer Anwar Scotland one day!