Law school can be overwhelming, but maintaining a clear vision of your end goal can help you stay focused and motivated. Whether you aspire to be a litigator, corporate attorney or public service advocate, staying aligned with your ultimate objectives is key to success.
1. Define Your End Goal Early
Start by defining what you want to achieve. Whether it’s a particular type of law or career path, having a rough idea will help guide your decisions throughout law school. Ask yourself: What kind of law do I want to practice? What type of work environment appeals to me?
2. Set Milestones
Break your end goal into smaller, achievable milestones. Short-term goals could include excelling in exams or getting involved in student organizations, while mid-term goals might involve internships or networking. Long-term goals will focus on passing the bar and securing a job in your chosen field.
3. Prioritize Time Management
Effective time management is crucial. Create a weekly study schedule, avoid procrastination and balance academics with extracurricular activities that align with your goals. Proper time management reduces stress and helps you stay on track.
4. Network and Build Relationships
Networking is vital in law school. Build relationships with professors, fellow students and alumni to gain mentorship and career opportunities. Attend events and seek guidance from professionals in your field of interest.
5. Stay Resilient and Adapt
Setbacks are part of the journey. Stay resilient and use challenges as learning opportunities. Be open to reevaluating your goals as you gain exposure to different areas of law.
6. Celebrate Small Wins
Acknowledge your progress, whether it’s acing an exam or securing an internship. Celebrating small victories keeps you motivated and reinforces your commitment to your end goal.
Conclusion
By defining your goal, setting milestones, managing your time effectively, building relationships, staying resilient and celebrating progress, you can stay focused on your end goal and make the most of your law school experience.
Your upperclassmen are your most valuable people to learn from to gain retrospection into the new environment of law school. Whether it be classes, future careers or places to eat, the upperclassmen always have some important insight. Networking with upperclassmen can seem like a daunting task for some. This will be a guide to help with the process.
1. Be comfortable with rejection.
The 2Ls are busier than you and the 3Ls are way more tired. Chances are that they have a lot more work to do, or that they have prior commitments, either socially or through work. To network successfully, the first stage is to be comfortable getting rejected or turned down. The easiest networking is done day to day, and persistence in decency is the best way to build lasting connections.
2. Acknowledge people, even if you don’t know them.
Acknowledging others, regardless of their position in relation to yours, allows them to feel comfortable engaging with you. The easiest way to build connections is to invite those connections to feel comfortable speaking with you. A lot of the time, I will just walk into a group conversation and listen in. Most of the time if I know someone there, I will be able to get an introduction, but if not, then introducing oneself is a great skill to have.
3. Join clubs.
Joining clubs is the easiest way to interact with upperclassmen who also have the same interests as you. The upperclassmen in clubs have the most direct path to the kind of law and career that you will likely follow because they have done a lot of the legwork in exploring those areas of interest. Those upperclassmen will be happy to share their knowledge with you, especially if they feel like you are interested in that path as well.
4. Feel ready to say yes to things even if you are unsure.
You should always be ready to agree to do activities when invited. Saying yes to going out after class, playing sports, or just being invited to talk in the commons impromptu can be a great way to meet a variety of your upperclassmen at the same time. Offering to bring a group of your classmates can be a great step in meeting your upperclassmen and gaining insight. If you have a conflict, try to reschedule or find other ways to stay in the loop. The community is very accepting, but your response to a first invitation can determine the extent to which you get invited again.
5. Engage with upperclassmen at their interests.
Many people inside and outside of law school are willing to give advice about law school and career paths, but our true passions lie beneath the law. Law school should be a crutch that you use when the conversation lulls, but not the focus or drive of the conversation. Ask questions and be curious, especially in subjects you do not know a lot about. Be genuinely curious about your upperclassmen and they will be curious about you and your interests.
Tip: Stay away from controversial topics like politics, relationships or religion unless they bring it up first.
The person who brings up a controversial topic in a conversational manner is more likely to be willing to have a conversation about the subject; however, controversial subjects and jokes have the potential to fall flat and cause damage. I would caution against saying anything of a controversial nature, unless you have a good grasp on the character and how the person might react to those subjects.
6. Be willing to listen.
When an upperclassman is offering advice, and believe me they offer a wide variety and scale of advice, take it in and let it live. You do not necessarily have to follow all the advice, but it is better to listen to the advice, digest it and then make an informed decision than to disregard any of it. My policy is that no information is bad information to know, even if that information is conflicting.
Likewise, people, no matter who, enjoy talking about themselves. It is the subject that they know the most about. Many people enjoy being heard, so try and reinforce positive things people say about themselves.
7. Invite Upperclassmen to activities.
If you have been invited to events by upperclassmen, it is important to repay the favor. No one wants to feel like they are not appreciated, so when you go to a social event or play a sport, invite the upperclassmen along. Even if you are 99% sure they have something better to do, make sure the choice is theirs to make.
8. Connect your friends with people you have met.
When you have reached a level of rapport with your upperclassmen, you will meet their friends. Now, their friends are your friends and future colleagues. It is important that when you get to that stage, you are also willing to connect your friends with the bridges that you have built.
9. Just be chill.
At the end of the day, if you are a good person and act respectfully and cordially to your upperclassmen and peers, people will like and respect you. Being well-liked is the easiest networking skill because it precedes your first impression.
Ultimately, extroversion and introversion are spectrums that you can play up or down depending on how much you want to be involved. A skilled lawyer will be able to put on an extroverted mask seamlessly when it is necessary because our profession asks us to be leaders in our community. Thus, you should treat networking amongst your peers as a skill to be developed, not something innate that people have or do not.
Five questions with Lukas Hecht, visiting scholar from Germany
Lukas Hecht
Lukas Hecht is a doctoral research assistant at the University of Bremen in Bremen, Germany. Hecht will be with KU Law until April 25, conducting research for his Ph.D. on the relationship between professional sports leagues and antitrust law. Professor Stephen Ware is serving as his faculty advisor during his stay.
Why did you choose to come to KU Law? How did you learn about our program and establish contact?
When I was considering conducting research for my Ph.D. in the United States, my supervising professor in Bremen suggested that we contact Professor Ware, whom we had the pleasure of meeting at the June 2024 International Conference on “Informed Consent to Dispute Resolution Agreements” hosted by my home faculty in Bremen. Professor Ware was happy to invite me to KU Law for a short stay and to be my faculty liaison.
What are your professional goals for your time at KU Law? What will be your next career steps after your time here?
I am currently working on my dissertation on the relationship between professional sports leagues and antitrust, or as we call it in the EU, competition law. When the European Court of Justice ruled against FIFA/UEFA in relation to their predatory actions against a proposed rival sports league similar in structure to the Major Leagues of North America, I knew that I wanted to include a comparative law chapter in my dissertation. In order to research this chapter, I am grateful to have access to your wonderful Wheat Law Library.
When I finish the monograph for my Ph.D. by the end of this year, I will begin a two-year legal clerkship in order to obtain the second legal state examination required to practice law in Germany.
How does the academic and research environment at KU Law differ from your home institution?
I would say the differences are huge. Just looking at the student-faculty ratio, Bremen currently has 15 tenured professors, a handful of adjunct professors and about 30 doctoral candidates responsible for about 1,200 students. However, the very traditional legal education in Germany does not require a bachelor’s degree, so it is not uncommon for about a third of the students to drop out before taking the first state legal exam.
When considering the university as a whole, it is unusual for universities to be concentrated on one campus, including student housing. In addition, college sports do not exist in Germany.
What are your favorite things about Lawrence? What about your home do you miss the most?
Lawrence is an amazing city with friendly people who create a welcoming atmosphere. I mostly miss my friends and family.
What advice would you offer to other scholars who may want to do research abroad?
First, I would generally advise scholars to do research abroad. The insights gained from a foreign law school and university are beneficial, regardless of the personal research findings gained from a stay abroad. Second, I would encourage scholars to plan ahead. My spontaneous and sort of “last-minute visit” to KU Law was accompanied by a few sleepless nights wondering if everything would work out.
In Green Hall, you’ll meet people from various walks of life and with different experiences with — and exposure to — the legal world. If you’re like me, that exposure was strictly confined to negative experiences with the criminal justice system and the countless barriers to accessing legal resources. If you are like many at the law school, then you may have family or friends who are attorneys or work closely with attorneys. Or maybe you fall somewhere in between or outside these categories. Whatever the case may be, your own journey through law school will be affected by your past experiences.
Now, this isn’t to say that your law school journey will be negatively or positively impacted one way or the other, but you will come in with different perspectives that influence how you navigate law school. For me, my past experiences have led me to two conclusions: 1) I would never (ever) work as a prosecutor or in big law, and 2) I wanted to become a tool and resource for my community. And, being a first-generation college and law school student, has also meant that much of my law school journey has been filled with confusion, solitude and dread. In an environment where your 1L year classes are chosen for you and where you will be placed on a grading curve, it is easy to be sucked into the idea that there is only one way to do law school. But my hope with this blog is to tell you there is no ‘right’ way and that finding/having community, purpose and grounding experiences could make all the difference.
Community
During my Admitted Students Weekend, I sat in the very back of room 104 with my uncle, aunt and mom. That morning, we had left my hometown early for the three-hour drive, but, as is typical with my family, we arrived a little late and slipped in as Dean Freedman introduced the schedule for the day. During the small moments of break and transition, I would turn to my family and give a brief synopsis in Spanish so that they could follow along. During one of our conversations, a student in front of us turned around and introduced herself in Spanish. Excited to meet other Hispanics, my family immediately bombarded her with questions: where are you from? What’s your name? Where is your family from? I was mortified, but my family was so excited for me, telling me that we had to stick together and help each other out. Funnily enough, we became friends and anytime I go home, they always ask about her and how she is doing.
At Green Hall, I was able to create a strong community filled with people with all different types of backgrounds. Through clubs like the Hispanic American Law Students Association (HALSA), the Public Interest Law Society (PILS) and the First-Generation Professionals (FGP), I found others that I could relate to and go to with all my questions. If you take anything from this blog let it be this: you need a community to get through law school. It’s long and arduous, but trust me, a group of people that care for and love you will make all the difference.
Purpose
Although the first couple weeks of law school can be daunting and overwhelming, I quickly leaned on my community for support. But with the fast-paced and never-ending nature of my 1L year, I often found myself lost in the ‘law school trance.’ I started thinking that I absolutely needed to do everything everyone else was doing. Namely, Law Review/Journal, Moot Court and On Campus Interviews (OCIs) became my narrowly focused goals. Had I heard about them before law school? No! But did I need them to be successful in law school? Of course!
After my first-ever finals season at law school, I found myself burnt out and exhausted. But instead of relaxing during winter break, I started stressing out about summer internships and preparing for OCIs. One night, as my sister and I drank hot chocolate at my aunt’s house, my uncle asked what I was working on. “Getting a job, for the summer,” I explained. My uncle was confused. “But, shouldn’t you be studying in the summer?” He took a moment, “Oh! Is rent expensive? You shouldn’t worry about that! We will figure it out, you need to study!” I tried explaining that usually, summers were meant to be used to gain experience in the legal field, but he would not hear it. “No, no, no. Those are distractions, you need to study!” (To this day he insists that I should not be pursuing internships/summer jobs). Although my uncle’s reasoning wasn’t necessarily to take a break, being with my family that winter allowed me to step back and assess what I truly wanted to do, and — though a very hard decision — I decided OCIs were not for me. I closed my OCI applications and instead decided to only apply for the Judicial Field Placement. I don’t recommend ‘putting all your eggs in one basket’ but I also don’t think applying to everything helps either!
This long-winded story is to say one thing: don’t lose sight of your ‘why.’ And maybe you don’t necessarily know what your ‘why’ is, but you also shouldn’t mindlessly follow what others are saying you should be coveting. I didn’t end up doing review/journal, moot court or OCIs, but have found success in other ways. I have especially focused on volunteering with local grassroots and advocacy organizations and giving back to communities I hope to one day work with.
Grounding Experiences
This last section ties very closely with my previous section. I would say my grounding experiences involve going home and being with my family — even though I often tell myself I will do work when at home, I never do — and doing things outside of the law school that center my hobbies. It can be tempting to spend every minute outside of classes and club meetings to study (my uncle would be very proud of you!), but you will burn yourself out with that mentality. It’s important then to consciously make time for yourself.
Although not exhaustive, here is a list of things I do that have helped me ground myself and take my mind off law school:
Reading for fun (currently: Circe)
Journaling (love my Hobonichi)
Writing postcards to strangers (I use Postcrossing!) and friends
Going home
Shopping at Wonderfair on Mass
Going to a cute cafe
Crocheting (currently: a star-shaped blanket)
Playing video games (Minecraft, Legend of Zelda games, Pikmin)
Sending long voice messages to my friends and sister
Do Attend Events: As a 1L, I have taken every opportunity to attend mixers with firms and attorneys. As a first-generation law student, these experiences have been invaluable in helping me understand what attorneys do and the variety of fields they can practice in. If you are unsure about what area of law interests you, meeting attorneys and firms can be an excellent way to explore different career paths.
Do Join Groups: 1Ls have many opportunities to get involved at KU Law, depending on their interests and long-term career goals. The groups at KU provide a great way to explore interests, attend meetings and find a sense of community. I have loved meeting 2Ls and 3Ls through these groups and learning from their experiences. The sense of camaraderie and the opportunities to learn about the law through these groups are invaluable and make the law school journey feel less daunting.
Do Get to Know Your Classmates: As a 1L, you will spend a significant amount of time with the same group of people throughout the year. Seeing the same faces five days a week for hours on end can be overwhelming if you don’t take the time to talk to your classmates. I have found that connecting with those who are going through the same experiences as you can be incredibly reassuring. No one else in your life can truly understand the stress and pressure of 1L year like your classmates, so take the time to get to know them.
Don’t Self-Isolate: Law school is challenging, and withdrawing from social interactions will not make it any easier. Expressing your struggles and discussing the challenges of law school with people you trust can help alleviate stress. In my experience, talking to friends outside of law school has been incredibly beneficial. While they may not fully understand the struggles of law school, they know me well enough to offer valuable advice and support. Additionally, faculty, 2Ls and 3Ls are available, and often eager, to provide guidance and encouragement.
Don’t Skip Class: Attending class five days a week with back-to-back lectures can be exhausting, and the temptation to skip a class can be strong. As a commuter, I often struggle with wanting to sleep in instead of making the trip to campus. However, skipping class can lead to falling behind or missing a key concept that could clarify an important legal rule. You are paying for your education, so take advantage of the opportunity to learn from your professors by attending class regularly.
Don’t Avoid Opportunities to Learn About the Law: Especially in your first semester, there are numerous luncheons and events covering a variety of legal topics. Initially, I tried to attend as many as possible because I wanted to learn about different areas of law and the legal challenges we face today. These events have been valuable for several reasons. First, they provide an opportunity to hear from experts in specialized areas of law. Second, they help increase awareness of current legal issues and how attorneys are addressing them. Finally, many of these events offer free lunches! While it may seem like you don’t have time to attend, I encourage you to take 50 minutes out of your day to go to a luncheon where you might discover an area of law that piques your interest.
Law school is a demanding but rewarding experience. By actively engaging with your peers, faculty and legal professionals, you can make the most of your time as a 1L and set yourself up for success.
Steve Novak doesn’t spend his time considering his legacy, but he does think everyone should plan ahead.
“I don’t want to be too cliché, but the old saying is true,” he explains with a laugh. “If you don’t create an estate plan, the state where you live will be happy to provide one for you. Chances are your family won’t be thrilled with what they have in mind.”
Novak recently updated his own estate plan to feature a planned gift to the KU law school. The decision to support the school with an unrestricted gift was easy.
“There is no way I could repay what I owe to the KU Law school,” Novak said. “I’m a huge fan of what the school did for me. The return on my relatively small investment has been unmeasurable. I am indebted to the school and this plan is an effort to, hopefully, help future students benefit from the school as much as I have.”
Novak, a Lawrence native and 2001 KU law school grad, is a partner and wealth advisor with the Dallas office of Corient, one of the largest integrated fee-only Registered Investment Advisors in the country. He spends a good bit of his time advising clients as they establish their estate plans. Novak had been a practicing attorney for nearly 20 years before turning his attention to financial services.
“I use my law degree every day,” he said. “Estate planning law, financial planning and investment planning have a lot of complications and overlap, so my experience as a lawyer has helped me navigate the financial world well.”
Novak is so passionate about the work of estate planning that he teaches a class at KU on estate planning. He travels from Dallas weekly in the fall to teach the class, which is offered jointly by the law school and the School of Business.
“The class is a lot of fun,” Novak said. “I get to be back on campus, in my hometown no less, and interacting with the students is inspiring. To be honest, it feels like I’m working to help the school even more, which is extremely gratifying.”
If you’re considering making a planned gift to the school of law, or have any questions about the process, please contact Kristin Shore at KU Endowment (785-832-7341).
