How to Get in (and Stay In) TheTop 25% of Your Law School Class

Succeeding in Law School

Being a lawyer means making $100,000+ per year, right? Not exactly. In fact, the majority of lawyers make somewhere between $40,000 and $70,000. Yes, there are larger firms that pay first year associates into the 6 figures, but you won't be grabbing that job anytime soon unless you're part of the elite of your law school class. Even then, it's not guaranteed. The tips I'm about to provide are based upon my success and the success of at least 2 others I know in my law school class who obtained top 25% status after the first year and have maintained said status.

Getting into the Top 25% of your class (and staying in)

(1) Prepare for class. In your first year, you can't afford to pick and choose what you read for class. If your professor assigns you 50, 100 or 150 pages for a week, you should budget time to read the entire assignment. Thinking that's no problem? I was too, until I realized that being able to plow through a 400 page novel in a day was not comparable to reading legal jargon and cases written in 1930. It's a slow learning process, but prepping for class is half the battle.

(2) Volunteer in class. Many professors still use the Socratic Method (calling randomly upon people throughout class to instill fear and weed out the less serious students). But even for those who don't, volunteering to speak in class will help you to stay involved and in-tune to the discussion. You're paying to go to class, so you should get the most out of it that you can, even if you end up with a lousy professor. Yes, with laptops and wireless internet, browsing and chatting with friends is tempting. I'm not saying I never did it, but the classes in which I focused on the lecture and forced myself to participate were by far the ones in which I received my highest grades.