Howdy from North Carolina! I’m writing in as a 1L at Wake Forest University School of Law and a Class of 2025 Aggie grad. 

Biggest takeaway from my first week of law school? If one more person tells me, “It gets better after the first year!” I’m gonna sock ‘em in the jaw. The last thing you want to hear after one of the longest weeks of your life is that it gets easier after 30 more of them.

Now, six weeks in, I kind of get it. I’m writing this as a compilation of my 1L experience — tips, tricks and what to expect. I hope you can get something out of it!

If you’re still in the application process, listen to me: You are going to end up where you need to end up. A JD is a JD, whether it comes from the University of Texas or [insert worse law school here, I’m not trying to make any enemies]. You’ll go to school where you’re meant to go to school, and the rest of your life is up to you.

Get ready to work

In the fall of my senior year at Texas A&M, I was taking 15 credit hours (one of which was a graduate class), working roughly 20 hours per week for The Batt, holding leadership positions in two other orgs and alternately studying for the LSAT and applying to law schools. That was about half as much work as law school is turning out to be. I’m talking 16-hour days, working through meals and weekends.

Some of that will get easier with time, but for the most part, this is what life is going to be like for the next three years. If that doesn’t sound like your bag — and I say this with love, not judgment, in my heart — consider taking a couple of gap years to make sure you’re not about to be getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for something you’ll abhor.

Summer before 1L

People say all kinds of things about your last summer before law school. Read all the prep books, watch a hundred “How to succeed in law school” videos, get a legal internship. My take? Forget all that and go do something you enjoy. Better yet, do absolutely nothing. The last thing you want to do before the most grueling period of your life is burn yourself out before you even get there.

I would actually recommend not reading any of the law school prep books. Everyone’s experience is different, and most of the people who wrote those books went through law school 20-plus years ago. It’s the same with the videos — the only thing you’re going to do by drowning yourself in law school prep is begin stressing early. Trust me, there’s enough stress when you get here. No need to get a head start.

Getting hired

Things are moving faster than KC Concepcion out here. Basically, during COVID-19, firms realized they could do the hiring process online, meaning they don’t have to wait for everyone to get back to campus in January, so they keep pushing it further backward to snatch up the new talent before other firms can. A ton of applications just opened for summer 2026 associate positions. 

Some firms are hiring right now, six weeks into your first semester, for your 2L summer! Mind you, we won’t get our first grades until January. I haven’t even been in law school for two months, and already I’m supposed to know where I want to practice and what field I want to work in.

All that to say: Get ready to hit the ground running, because in addition to acclimating to law school and its insane workload, you need to be networking, creating a resume and applying for positions at the same time. Where you work over the summer is pretty much where you’re going to get hired, so be looking ahead. For example, I want to come back to Texas to practice, so it’s vital that I get a position in the state for both my 1L and 2L summers.

Disclaimer: This timeline is for non-public interest jobs. If you want to be a public defender or work for a nonprofit, you’ve got nothing but time.

Miscellaneous tips

It’s not like the movies. I don’t wear business professional — and thank God for that, because the only thing that makes torts bearable is that I can be in a hoodie — and cold calling is not as intense as in “Legally Blonde.”

Also, about cold calls: It’s not that deep. I promise, for every person in the room who knows the answer, there’s two more who are just grateful they weren’t called on. The back rows of the class are either shopping online or playing Chess.com (yes, even in law school). So just try your best. Plus, you can flunk every cold call and still get an A in the class — it’s the exam that counts.

That’s exam, singular. Your entire grade will come from one final exam at the end of the semester, and you probably won’t have any feedback up to that point. It’s intense, but TAs help a lot. Go to their office hours.

Quimbee is to law students what ChatGPT is to undergrads. I don’t recommend it. Getting canned briefs or watching the video instead of reading the case is easier in the short term, but as lame as it sounds, you actually have to do the homework. In undergrad, it was so easy to skim the readings, burp out a half-baked discussion post, and move on. That’s not the case in law school. Professors have a sixth sense for it — if you didn’t do the reading, you’re getting cold-called, buddy.

And another thing, if you didn’t do the homework for that day, maybe don’t ask a bunch of questions in class because I can almost guarantee the reading covered all your questions — and everyone will know you didn’t do it. Don’t be that guy.

If you get one thing out of this article, let it be that anyone can go to law school. I’m a KJD and the first lawyer in my family, and the guy who’s already worked as a paralegal for four years is just as confused as me. The only thing you need is a strong work ethic and the determination to see this thing through.

Charis Adkins ‘25 is a JD candidate at Wake Forest University School of Law and former opinion editor for The Battalion.