507: What Do I Need to Do Before the First Day of Law School? (1L Summer Series)

Episode Transcript
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Lee Burgess (00:02):
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we're talking about what you needto do before your first day of law school.
Your Law School Toolbox hosts are AlisonMonaghan and Lee Burgess, that's me.
We're here to demystify the lawschool and early legal career
experience, so you'll be the bestlaw student and lawyer you can be.
We're the co-creators of the Law SchoolToolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the

(00:22):
career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs TheGirl's Guide to Law School.
If you enjoy the show, pleaseleave a review or rating on your
favorite listening app, and ifyou have any questions, don't
hesitate to reach out to us.
You can reach us via the contactform on LawSchoolToolbox.com,
and we'd love to hear from you.
And with that, let's get started.

Alison Monahan (00:47):
Welcome back.
Today we're going to be talkingabout what you can do now
to get ready for law school.

Well, it is a new year.
Law school applications are up, peopleare getting ready to go to school.
It's kind of an excitingtime over the summer.

It is.
I feel like this is a time for peopleto get ready and get all of their
ducks in a row and set themselvesup for the best possible chances of
success when they start law school.

Yeah.
So, a question we frequently get from0Ls or incoming 1Ls is: What should
I read before starting law school?

Well, I love this question.
I mean, there're certainly booksand things we could recommend.
I think my biggest advice is alwaysjust read something that's hard,
that's challenging, and try to doit in a longer block of time than
you might do if you're just cruisingthrough the Internet on your phone.
So I think this is a greatopportunity to train that muscle
for reading and get in the habit ofsitting down and reading something

(01:45):
difficult for long blocks of time.
What do you think?

I totally agree.
And I just did this exercise formyself recently, because you and I
are working on some projects and Iwanted to go audit a bunch of books.
So I went to the library and I broughthome a bunch of books, and I sat down and
set goals for myself to read for hours.
Which I don't really do anymore.
I mean, I realize we work on thecomputer for hours, but sit down

(02:09):
with a book and I read for hours.
And then I took notes, because I wantedto share what I was reading with you.
So, that was something Ihadn't done in a long time.
And at first it felt a littleweird, because you realize
that that is its own skill.
But at the end of the secondweek, I'm telling you, I'm like,
"I finished my fourth book.
Here are my notes."And you're like, "Cool.
That's great.
Thanks for sharing." But it is a greatreminder that any of us can get back into

(02:34):
that swing of this academic auditing.
But I will tell you, Ihad to shut my computer.
I was taking notes on my computerat times, but I turned off my
phone and put it on silent.
I turned off my notificationson my computer and I just did
blocks of deep work, just likewe tell our students to do.
And it was pretty amazinghow much I got done in a few
weeks of really focused work.

It is really amazing.
I was very impressed by how manybooks you were actually reading.
I think Lee at this point has read every"how to do law school" book out there.

I think so.

We can maybe link to a couple of your favorites.
But yeah, I sat down this weekendand picked up a paper copy of
The New Yorker and read it almostcover-to-cover, and that also felt
really weird, that I was just sittingon the couch, reading something.
I think that is a habit a lot ofpeople either A) never developed,
or B) are out of the habit of doing.

I know.
I thought about this too when I wason a plane recently and I chose not
to pay for the Wi-Fi, and I realizedthat that was just going to be hours.
And I also still on this bookproject, so I read for a long time.
And we are really trained to justbe constantly interrupted, and the

(03:45):
speed at which we can work with focusis pretty amazing for most of us.
I think all of us will workfaster if we do it with focus.
If you have any attention deficit issues,it's even more important, I think.
But I was pleasantly surprisedat how productive I could be when
doing that focused deep work.
Now, is it easy to keep thatdiscipline past the couple

(04:06):
intensive weeks I did that?
Maybe not, but it's a worthwhile exercise.

But hey, and you're not going to law school.

Yeah, exactly.
So, I did just audit a bunch of booksin the "how to do law school" space,
and I think some of them are great.
I think if you really haven't hadany experience with law school, you
don't have any lawyers in your family- sure, I think that reading something
that kind of explains the schoolsystem a little bit can be helpful.

(04:33):
Some of them are very intimidating, someof them are very boring, some of them
are very nuanced beyond what you need toknow for those first days of law school.
I mean, we have a Start LawSchool Right course as well, that
focuses mostly on study skills.
It is not like you need to dothat to be successful on day one.
I think it is much more importantto be in the mindset of doing

(04:54):
reading, doing some hard work.
And if you want to learn about law school,that's great, but I don't think you
need to pre-study or read casebooks ortorts summaries or anything like that.
There's plenty of time tostudy that stuff in law school.

I agree.
I think this is more time to get a basicunderstanding of what you're getting
into if you don't already have that, andthen start training that reading muscle.
And it might be that you literally seta timer for 20 minutes one day, and then
40 minutes the next day, and then 60minutes the next week, because I think it
is a muscle that you really have to workand you have to be really cognizant of,
"Am I being interrupted or am I actuallyfocusing?" And I think that's the biggest

(05:31):
thing that's probably going to helpyou be successful later in law school.

Yeah.
And I was just talking about thisrecently with my son's elementary school
teacher who, I will say elementaryschool teachers give some really
great solid studying advice thatall of us can own and incorporate.
But we were talking about reading,as reading novels, and setting up
time for our family to do basicallydedicated reading time where we
all do silent reading together.

(05:56):
And then he said, "After the reading time,make sure you sit and you discuss some
takeaways or some reflections on whateveryou read, either the story or if it's a
book about learning something." And then Irealized that's what I was somewhat doing
with my own note-taking with this bookproject, because I was trying to save you
time, so I needed to have my notes makesense, because I wanted you to read them.

(06:18):
But also, that's its own skill oflike, "Oh, I read this, and what did
I like about it?" And so, this ideatoo of reading and then writing down
a few reflections, even if it's justa novel - I think that's another kind
of muscle to practice and stretcha little bit, because that's really
what you're doing in law school.
You have to read something, youhave to internalize it, and then you

(06:38):
have to be able to talk about it,and I think that that is helpful.
It'll also help with retention.

A hundred percent agree.

Yeah.
Oh, and you should read theMindset book by Carol Dweck.

That's always a classic.

Always a classic.

Yeah.
It's definitely a good one foryour pre-law school summer.
Alright, well, movingon to our next question.

Stay tuned (06:57):
What supplies and technology do I need to purchase over the summer?

Oh, this is always such a big one, because there is this
feeling that everyone needs new stuff.
But I feel like I'm always constantlyasking students not to use new stuff.

"I need a whole new system." Maybe not.
Maybe

not.
You do need a working computer, becauseyou're going to be doing computer work.
So, if you don't have a stablecomputer... It doesn't need to
be the fastest and most powerfulcomputer, but it needs to be stable.
It needs to be able to run Dropbox orsome other kind of file backup system.
You need stable Internet connection.
You're going to be writing papers.
And you're not doing really amazing...

Yeah, like heavy graphics.

Editing videos or something like that.
But you do want it to be stable.
So I think that's what I would say, is,if you do not have a stable computer,
you probably want a stable computer.
And most likely you're goingto want to computer to sit for
the bar when it comes bar time.
And so, you also need astable computer for that.
So sometimes I like to have peoplethink of it as like, if you're in law
school for three years, you definitelyare going to at some point need a

(08:05):
computer that's very stable for the bar.
So, you time it outlooking at that horizon.

Yeah, I think that makes sense.
If you have a perfectly functionalcomputer, there's no reason to buy
another one right now for law school.
You can buy one in a couple ofyears, and then use that for the bar.
Outside of the tech realm, Ithink thinking about ways to stay
organized, and whether some ofthose are physical is a great idea.
So, one of our favoritenotebooks, for example, for

(08:33):
taking notes, is the Circa system.
We don't get paid to endorse themunfortunately, but we do love them.
We do love them.
So, whether it's going to be a bunchof legal pads or something like that,
but I think there's a strong argumentto look at taking notes by hand.
You can also have thesort of tech by hand.
Forgot what those thingsI sent to you are called.

(08:54):
But anyway, there're certainthings you can write on.
There's the Kindle

Scribe and then there's another one that's its own thing.

Which I'm forgetting the name of, but anyway, some people
love those, some people don't.
But thinking through what areyour systems going to look
like, I think is a great idea.
And that includes even almost sillythings like tabs and highlighters.
I went through an insane amount ofhighlighters, because I book briefed
everything, so I had to have my fourto five colors on me at all times.

(09:23):
But stuff like that, I think sounds crazyto worry about, but those are the sort
of things that you can think through,kind of what's worked for you in the
past, how are you going to tab your notesor your books or anything like that.
And just go ahead andget all that set up now.

Yeah.
I also for fun read, besides booksabout law school, books about
organization and executive functioning.
I mean, I'm like thebest dinner party guest.
It's like, "Don't you want to hearabout what I've been working on?"

Seriously.
But

one of the things that I find interesting is, there is this
push to put together a binder, to goback to these old school techniques
that you and I grew up with.
In this one book I read, shewas talking about those little
whole punch reinforcement rings.
Do you remember those?

Oh yeah.

To make sure that the pages wouldn't fall out or if it ripped
out, you could do the little holes.

Yeah, you could patch it, basically.
Yeah, exactly.

And I had totally forgotten about those.
I remember having those in my binder.
I mean, we're not talking like trapperkeepers, but an actual three-ring binder.
But I will say that it is an interestingquestion to say, how are you going
to manage the paperwork in your life?
If you're going to take paper notes,how are you going to organize them
and make sure you don't lose them?
If your professors are giving youhandouts in class - even though

(10:38):
some professors will do thingselectronically in PowerPoint - what
are you going to do with those?
How are you going to makesure they don't get lost?
Don't just start shoving them in a folder,or then you just have a folder full of
disorganized stuff, which is terrible too.
So, I think it's a good idea tokind of assess what you've done in
the past that has worked for you.
And if you had an organizational schemein undergrad, you should keep it.

(11:00):
Don't toss it.
But if you didn't, if you wereable to just keep all of the plates
spinning in undergrad, it's possibleyou won't be able to in law school.
So, I think sometimes it can beeasy, as easy as a whole punch.
What we love about the LevengerCirca notebooks is there's a special
type of whole punch, which basicallyallows you to do the same thing,
but it's not as bulky as a binder.

(11:20):
There are lots of options, but youdefinitely couldn't find yourself
swimming in papers or emails fromyour class or supplemental things.
And then when it comes time tooutline, you're kind of like,
"What, did my professor send mesomething? I don't remember."

Right.
Well, that makes me think too, even ifyou don't have a paper organizational
system, because you don't have thatmuch paper, you also need to have
an organizational system for thesetypes of documents electronically.
So, if you're getting emails oryou're getting, I even think of
things like student loans, this isreally important information that
you're going to need to access later.
So just go ahead and have somesort of backup, whether it's

(11:57):
Dropbox or whatever you want.
But have all that stuff go intothat now, so that you're not
looking for it years from now.

Yes.
And I will say, and I use this I feellike almost every day, is the "Scan
to Dropbox" feature on my phone.
Basically, almost anything that comesin that's on paper gets scanned to
Dropbox and then shredded, becauseone, I don't want to keep paper, but
also, if you just get into that habit,then whenever you're looking for

(12:26):
something, I can be pretty sure thatit's been scanned to a file in Dropbox.
You just have to create these habits foryourself so things don't get too sloppy.
Even Bluebooks, Bluebookslove to be tabbed.
A physical Bluebook a lot of people findis easier than the electronic Bluebook.
You probably need to use both.
You also want to have a solidbackpack or a rolling bag.

(12:47):
How are you going to carry all that stuff?
I mean, it sounds silly, butit's really hard, it's heavy.
You end up carrying a lot of stuff.

Oh, I remember before I went to law school, I went to a store
in San Francisco and they made custommessenger bags and I picked out my
colors and I was really happy with it.
Then I put all these books in it.
It was like, "Wow, this was not thebest choice." But I did carry it for
multiple years, through all of lawschool, even though in retrospect,
having a normal backpack or somethingprobably would've made more sense.

I also started law school with a Timbuk2 messenger bag, but
I ended up having the messenger bagand then all my books in my arms, or
sometimes also a purse, and my lunch.
It's a lot of stuff.

Yeah, I mean, out of pride I refused to get rid of
that bag, but I recognize that itwas probably not the best choice.
So, be practical.
Be

practical.
This is not like your coolest moment.
This is a practical moment.
Okay.
Another question that we often hearis: How to set up your study space?
You may be setting up a new apartment,a new bedroom with roommates.
So, what are yourfavorite study space tips?

Well, I think if you're going to be studying in a
bedroom, you want to really carve outspace to do this on an ongoing basis.
If you're going to be studying somewhereelse in a house again, try to carve
space out where you can leave things.
I mean, I had a hybrid system, so I hada desk in my room where I did a lot of
stuff, and then after dinner, usually,we had a very small dining room with a

(14:17):
small dining table that me and my roommatehad gone to Ikea on day one to get.
Cheapest IKEA dining table - notcomfortable, but we did use it for three
years and I read a lot of my cases there.
But I think you want to havesomething that you can do habitually,
whether that is, go to a particulararea of campus, the law library.
I personally did not like tostudy at the law library, so I

(14:38):
went to a lot of other libraries.
But you want to kind of have yourcycle of places that you're going
to go, for when you get bored withone of them, you can go to another.
And different people thrive ondifferent levels of stimulation
when they're studying.
Some people need to bevery focused, no sound.
I studied better usuallywith some ambient noise.
So, kind of know yourself andthen figure out those options

(14:59):
that are going to work for you.

Yeah, I think it is definitely good to have options, and also
learn about what your school has to offer.
They have often quiet study rooms whereyou don't have digital devices, or that
people aren't allowed to talk at all.
You have the study roomsthat you can reserve.
So sometimes if you have a studygroup or a few friends, you
can even go use those spaces.

(15:21):
So I think it's also a good time in thebeginning and during orientation, find
out what's available to you and then,yeah, align it with what works for you.
And I used to eat and I usedto read at my dining table.
I had a very tiny dining table that Ibought off of Craigslist for like $10,
and the cutest yet most uncomfortablechairs at that dining table.
So, the only thing I will say is,you will spend a lot of time sitting.

(15:44):
And so if you're going to invest insomething for your workspace, make sure
that it is a chair that you can sit in,that is not going to ruin your back.

I think that's so true.
And also, I think having somethingmaybe like a laptop tray.
You're going to be doing a lot ofwriting, and you really want to pay
attention to these ergonomics to theextent you can, because even something
as simple as a particular type of $30mouse might save you from getting carpal
tunnel, and that's going to be huge.

Yeah, and I think you and I both use laptop risers.

Yeah, I've got a whole thing, because if I'm at a
different place, if I'm in, say, myTahoe place, if I start sitting at
the desk a lot and typing a lot, Iimmediately start to feel like, "Ooh,
my wrists are not feeling great. Myforearms hurt, my back is hurting."
And it's just because the ergonomicsthere are frankly not that great.

You've got to work on your study space.

I know.
I've been working on it yearover year, it's getting better.
But yeah, these are things that youmay not really think about that much,
but having a good chair and a solidlaptop setup, where your neck doesn't
have a lot of torque in it, andyour hands are aligned properly, is
definitely worth paying attention to.

Yeah.
I also will say that once you reallyup that computer time and that reading
time, when you end up being hunchedover, your phone time, you might
also find it is starting to be reallyhard on your hands and your wrists.
Oftentimes we spend a lot of timeon our phones, but we're not doing
all the reading and writing thatyou're required to do in law school.

Yeah.
Or even it may impact your eyes.
My eye doctor once when I leftmy law firm job was like, "Oh,
your eyes just got better.
What happened?" And I'm like, "Oh,I'm not reading on a computer screen
12 hours a day anymore." She'slike, "Yep, that would do it."

Yeah, I think I had a similar conversation with my eye
doctor after I left my BigLaw job.
So there are a lot of considerations.
I think my biggest thing iswhatever you set up for yourself,
make sure it works for you.
Really be honest about where thedistractions are in minimizing
those, because I think thatis really part of the key.

Yeah, absolutely.
You want to have a space that youcan go to and your brain is going
to say, "Alright, this is where westudy, or this is one of the places
that we study", and you're going tobe able to get things done, because
you don't want to be wasting time.
No one has time for that in law school.

No, no.
Okay, next up, let's talk a little bitabout mindset, and what mindset should
someone adopt before starting law school?

Well, I think this is a great question.
I think a lot of people feel apprehensive,maybe nervous, maybe scared even.
I think all these are valid.
You might also feel excited, sometimesyou can reframe nervousness as excitement.
But I think, frankly, I'm not sure mostpeople really understand what they're
getting ready to start doing or get into.

(18:28):
So I think there also are alot of misconceptions around
what law school will be like.
But I think the best mindset isreally embracing this as a challenge
and something that you're going tobe able to get through, with the
understanding that it's going totake some work, it's probably going
to have some difficult moments,but you know that you can do this.

Yeah.
I think we mentioned the CarolDweck book on mindset, which is
kind of still seen as one of thequality discussions on this topic.
I would say that if I had to think aboutone thing you really want to think about
going into law school is resilience.

Right.

Everyone is going to be challenged by something.
It could be in lawschool, it could be life.
Something will deliver that will makethis a challenging experience for you.
And you have to be resilient, becauselife doesn't stop for law school, but
law school also doesn't stop for life.
And I think that setting yourself up forthat resilience is also really important.

(19:28):
So you have to ask yourselfwhat you can do to do that.
Maybe that is making sure you havemental health support and that you have a
therapist that you like, or engaging withstudent services early in the semester
so you have mental health support beforeyou're finding that you are struggling
with anxiety or getting depressed orhaving insomnia, or one of the many
things that we see with law students.

(19:50):
But you also may know that thereare certain non-negotiables
that keep you resilient.
Maybe you're an avid runner, or youlike to go on long walks, or you
need to spend time with your dog.
Whatever it might be, it doesn'treally matter, but you need to be
honest with yourself so you canbuild that into your schedule.
And then that's going to helpyou show up to be the best

(20:10):
possible version of yourself.
And I think that if you can do that,then you can weather the bumps, and
hopefully keep a little perspective,because I think that the perspective
keeping is also really hard when you'rein this pressure cooker and everyone
is super stressed out and acting likeevery single thing is life or death.
And the reality is, it is hard, butevery single thing is not life or death.

No.
I mean, very little in lawschool is truly life or death.
It's hard to think of much of anything.
Yeah, so I think understanding thatthis is going to be a new experience,
you're probably going to feeluncomfortable at points, you might
even feel super lost in the beginning,you might feel really frustrated.
But setting kind of realisticexpectations going in.
There's the classic survey that I sawonce, I think it was 50% of incoming

(20:55):
law students thought they'd be in thetop 10% of the class and 90% thought
they'd be in the top half or something.
I mean, those numbers do not make sense.
So, the reality is, you don'treally control the outcome,
because everything's on a curve.
And I think that's a challenge for alot of people to really internalize,
is that not everybody's goingto get an A. Very few people are
going to get an A, and that's okay.

(21:17):
You don't need to get an Ato get through law school.
You don't need to get an A to get a job.
These things will come toyou regardless, basically.
So, you've got to kind of be opento these new ideas, to these new
ways of thinking and learning, butalso to this new evaluation system
that frankly is not very fun.

Yeah.
Yeah, and you have to just weather that.

Right, roll with it.

Roll with it.
Do your best.
We often will say, the gradeswill fall where they may, right?
We have no control overexactly what scores we get.
All we can do is show up and giveit the best chance that we can
with the best preparation we can.
And so I think if you can just keepthat in mind, that your goal is to

(22:03):
show up for those final exams, asprepared as you can be, with a good
mindset and giving it your all - thenthe grades will fall where they may.
But you should feel pretty good aboutthe effort that you put in, and I think
that's really your best case scenario.

Right.
And I would add having slept, havingeaten, having done all of the things
that you need to do to show upin a condition to take that exam.
That does not mean pullingthree all-nighters in a row
and eating nothing for two daysbecause you're too busy to cook.
That is not putting yourselfin the best possible position.
So these are all things that need tobe thought about when you're thinking

(22:38):
about how you want to approach this.

Well, that is a great segue into our last question for today, which

is (22:47):
What practical life arrangements should I make before classes begin?
Because this is really, I think,how you can keep your own personal
system up and running, right?

Right.
Making sure

that you're fed and you're moving your body and you
have a good living situation.
All of these things can reallybe set up before school starts.

Yeah.
And I think these are things that youwant to think about over the summer,
because once school starts, it's goingto be a lot harder to think about them.
So, hopefully, if people have beenliving on their own in university
or whatnot, you have some senseof how to take care of yourself.
But it might've been that you werejust eating on campus every day and you
didn't really pay attention to that.
Law schools vary - somehave meal plans, some don't.

(23:32):
But I think it's fair to say you'reprobably going to be doing more
of your own life arrangementsthan you did in undergrad.

Yeah, which means you've got to feed yourself.
And although there will be a lotof pizza on campus, you don't want
to eat that pizza all the time.

No.
It's not going to make you feel very

good.

No.
I think even figuring out how you'regoing to do meal planning and if you're
not familiar with cooking basic things,the summer's a great time to learn that.
It doesn't have to be anything supercomplicated, but if there are meals
that you like, ask someone to teach themto you so you can make them yourself.
For one thing that's going to saveyou a ton of money, most places,
than eating out all the time.

Yes, and doing batch cooking.
So, you cook on the weekends and thenyou have food for much of the week.
I think that's really great.
If you are not a great chef and you donot enjoy making your own food, which is
totally fine, I do think it's importantthen you figure out what else you can do.
So, a lot of times your loved ones inyour life will ask what they can do to

(24:33):
help, and it's possible that you couldsay, "Could you freeze me some meals?
Can you make me soups and have just soupsin my freezer?" Or portions of lasagna,
or whatever it is that you like to eat.
But I do think that that's a great wayto allow people to show up for you in
a way that would be really helpful.

Yeah, absolutely.
And I do think people wantto do that type of thing.
They might fund you sometype of meal program.
If you're willing to open up a bunch ofplastic bags and throw it together in a
pan, you can do HelloFresh or something.

It's true.

And maybe that's training wheels to get you started,
or maybe do it a couple times a week.
But I do think just thinking through,"Where am I going to get groceries?
How am I going to store them? How amI going to cook them?" What do your
cooking facilities even look like?
Depending on what your housinglooks like, that might vary a lot.
You might be in a dorm stylething with a shared kitchen, or
you might be in an apartment thathas a full kitchen, who knows?

(25:28):
But all of these things I think are worthlooking into, because again, if you have
to furnish the kitchen, then you needto get pots and pans or whatever it is.
You want to understand the situationthat you're going to be in, so that you
can plan accordingly and not be shockedat the last minute and say, "Oh my
gosh, I'm not going to have access to arefrigerator. What?" That's not great when

(25:48):
suddenly you're trying to start classes.

Yeah, it's so true.
I also think it's importantto keep in mind, what is your
support system going to look like?
I think that if you're relocating,especially for law school, it can be hard
to not have your friends or family around.
So, you may want to carve out time to hangout with new people and make new friends.
I was reading an interesting book,I can't remember which one, I've

(26:11):
read a lot of books recently.
But it was talking about how many hoursit takes as an adult to make a good
friend, and I'm just going to thrownumbers out that I think are right.
But it was something like a hundred hoursto make an initial friendship connection.
And as a child or an undergrad, you spenda hundred hours with somebody really fast.
It does not take that long.

(26:32):
But as an adult, a hundred hours talkingto someone is actually a really long time.
I wonder how many hours we'vetalked to each other over the

last decade, plus.
Oh my goodness.
Many.

Many, many.
But I thought that was interesting,because you do see adult friendships,
it takes longer, but part of it iswe just don't have as much time.
And so it may feel hard to createsome new relationships, and you
may feel a little lonely or thatyou haven't found your people.
So you want to either find your peoplethrough different activities, maybe

(27:00):
outside of law school, or just knowthat you can rely on your other support
network to get you through until youdo develop some of those friendships.

Yeah.
And I was going to say, I think it'sdifficult, but also beneficial to try
to develop some relationships thatare not solely based on law school.
Because yeah, you get thrown in andyou're going to spend a hundred hours
together really quickly, but thenyou also end up in this very pressure
cooker situation where everyone'sconcerned about the same things,
everyone's competing for the same things.
And those people can be greatsupports, don't get me wrong.

(27:30):
But I think it's also nice to havesomebody outside of that, whether it's
in an activity that has nothing to dowith law school or something like that,
that you can go to and say, "Hey, Ijust need a breather. Can we go take
a walk around the park with our dogsor whatever, and not talk about law
school?", because I think it doesbecome so all-encompassing for people.

Yeah, I think it's great to have a little bit of perspective.
Now, sometimes it can be frustrating.
I typically would date people not inlaw school, and then you'd have to
have some conversation about study timewhere I'd be like, "Okay, I will not
see you for a week." And I rememberthis one guy being like, "But we can
see each other on Saturday?" I waslike, "No, no, I have to do work.
I'm sorry.
I will not see you.

(28:11):
Sorry." He was notparticularly understanding.
He did not last very long.

Right.
I mean, fair.
Yeah, and I don't even want to getstarted on dating your classmates.

That's its own thing.

That's a whole another podcast.

That's a whole another podcast.

Just maybe put that to the side for the first semester.
Just going to say.

Yeah.
I also think it's really importantto take a look at your finances.
If you are living off of loans,you may want to make sure that
you understand what that is.
If you've never had a budget, if you'vejust been able to kind of make it
work, it might be a great time overthe summer to set up You Need A Budget.
We have some great podcast episodesfrom You Need A Budget about how to

(28:50):
think about money and being a student.
I think those are really powerful,and if you've never spent time
thinking about that, I think that'sa great thing to do over the summer.

Yeah, definitely, everyone in law school needs a budget.
You only have a certain amount of moneyto make it to the end of the semester.
You need to be able to eat at the endof the semester, so figure that out.
And I think things like just basicallybasic scheduling: How are you going
to have time to work on things?
When are you going to do other things?
Those are things you can startdoing now, in the summer.

(29:20):
You can't probably get the exactdates of your classes, but you
can get a general sense of whatyour week is going to look like.
What are you going to planto do on the weekends?
Do you have a block to doyour laundry and errands?
I think that's totally legitimate.
Are you going to take sometime off every weekend?
You can go ahead and put that into yourschedule and then adjust it later, but at
least you have something to start with.

Yeah.
And just know what you really need.
Maybe there are some hacks, right?
How do you do laundrythe most efficiently?
Especially if you've already relocated,figuring out how you're going to do that.
Or some cities, wash and fold is muchmore practical than using a laundromat.

So many people in New York did that, just because our
laundry situation was not great.
And again, it depends on what you have.
If you have an apartment with abuilt-in washer dryer - yay for you!
That's not a problem.
If you're in an apartment in NewYork City and they have three coin
ops for the entire building and twoof them aren't working most of the
time, that's a different problem.

Yeah.
I also think that lookingat your transportation, how
are you going to get places?
If you're moving to a new cityand perhaps you're not going to
have a car, do you understand howyou're going to get everywhere?
Especially carrying all the books,because it's a lot of stuff to carry.
So walking for an hour may notbe that pleasant if you have to
haul a ton of stuff with you.

(30:34):
So I think that's really important,as well as of course figuring
out a housing arrangement.
You don't want to be couch surfingat the beginning of the semester.
I definitely had a friend secondyear who slept in my living room on
the floor for three weeks becausehe couldn't get an apartment.
No,

one of my roommates my second year who came in as a first-year,
they didn't have space for her for thefirst three weeks, and she just showed
up at our door one day and I'm like,"What have you been doing for the last
almost month?" She's like, "Oh yeah,just sleeping on people's couches."
That's not a great way to start things.
It wasn't her fault, but at the sametime I was like, "That's pretty sh*tty."

If you can avoid it, avoid that experience.

Yeah.
I think the

other thing, along with your support network and trying to create
good habits is, make sure that you'vegot your sleep hygiene and your whatever
sort of movement, workout routines.
Go to all those doctor'sappointments over the summer.
Please don't do the eye doctor and thedentist and your gyno appointments and
your annual physical like in September.

(31:31):
That's just not a reallygreat use of your time.

No, and I think the same with your car.
You want to make sure you've got youroil changed and everything's up to
date and you have new wiper blades.
Anything that you think you couldneed in the next four months, just
go ahead and try to get it done now.
Did you delay

getting the REAL ID?
Now's your moment.
Go do it.
I've done this years ago, butI think there are a lot of
people who haven't done it yet.

I know you made me do it years ago, and when this came around
I was like, "Wait, didn't everyone dothis years ago?" I'm like, "Oh, I guess
not everyone has a Lee in their life."

Yeah, exactly.
So, those things can be a huge timewaster and a stressor when you're
already stressed with school.
So anything you can doto lighten your load.
And I think my last considerationhere would be, everyone's going to
ask you what they can do to help- that's what family and friends do.
And so, have some answers for them.
If it's food, ask them to make meals.
If it's to take your dogfor a walk, ask them that.

(32:22):
If it's to have a soothing phone call,if it's to buy you DoorDash gift cards.
Whatever it might be, just give thema suggestion of what could be helpful.
I'm sure you can think ofsomething that would be helpful.
And you just want to get the help that youneed, to really set you up for success.

I agree.
It's a team effort, so let the team help.

Exactly.
Well, I think we're about out of time.
Any final thoughts for gettingyour life ready for law school?

I would just say, try to think of all the things that you think
might come up in the next six months,whether that's having medicine that you
need or appointments or whatever, andjust try to get as much of it either
automated or taken care of now, so thatyou can really clear your plate and commit
wholeheartedly to this new experience.

Yeah.
I would also say, have a little fun.

Yeah, totally.
The summer before

law school is also a great time to go on a trip, take
that road trip you've wanted to take.
I had been working, so I had disposableincome and I went to Costa Rica
for part of July, before I wentto law school, and we had a blast.
I recently was goingthrough those pictures.
It was fun to go do something completelydifferent and be somewhere completely
new, and it just felt like a good sendoff.

(33:35):
So, I think trying to find some space tohave some fun, to blow off some steam,
and to kind of reward yourself forgetting ready to go do something hard.

Yeah, I agree.
And also, see all of your friends thatyou might not see for a while, whether
you have happy hours or whatever.
Make that little bit of effort, Ithink, then you'll have a nice memory
to look back on when you're miserablein the library in November and thinking,
"Why in the world did I do this?" Andthen you can probably call that person
and they'll be like, "You know what?
This is what you told me inthat happy hour, so I'm going
to echo that back to you now."

Yes.
And then you can do as my good friend didto me, and say, "Wow, you should really
not wear that fleece anymore. You've beenwearing that fleece for like a month."

We need our friends sometimes to point these things out to us.
Yeah, she's like,
"Lee Burgess: Don't you have any other clothes in your closet, friend?"
Maybe I'll send you a new sweater.

Exactly.
Alright, well, withthat, we are out of time.
If you enjoyed this episode of theLaw School Toolbox podcast, please
take a second to leave a review andrating on your favorite listening app.
We'd really appreciate it.
And be sure to subscribeso you don't miss anything.
If you have any questions orcomments, please don't hesitate
to reach out to myself or Alisonat lee@lawschooltoolbox.com or

(34:47):
alison@lawschooltoolbox.com.
Or you can always contactus via our website contact
form at LawSchoolToolbox.com.
Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!

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