CU Law Profiles
Featured Questions & Answers

Get involved in something outside of class that interests you. CU-Boulder Law School has enough student organizations and activities for just about everyone. We have frequent speakers, lectures, and conferences in the building, and many more on campus. There are opportunities to write, to emphasize trial and appellate advocacy skills, to research and work for professors. Volunteer with a local organization that is in an area of interest. Do something every couple of weeks that lets you exercise your brain in a different way than preparing for class does. You might find yourself heading in a new career direction. At the very least, you?ll have an opportunity to meet new people and learn something different. And take advantage of faculty office hours. Go meet your faculty members, talk to them about class, ask them whatever?s on your mind. Get to know them. It will help you in class, it may help you get a job, and you might just make a lifetime friend.

This is probably your last fling with the freedom of student life. Choose activities that stimulate your interest and curiosity.

Apply your classroom knowledge to the real world as much as possible while you are in law school. Being a clinician, I have a huge bias in favor of experiential education, but I truly believe that people learn best (and do the most good as a student) by applying their classroom knowledge and their enthusiasm to ongoing legal issues. Despite the best of intentions, many people, after graduation, find themselves too busy to work at the causes that brought them to law school in the first place

Work as hard as you can in your classes and pursue opportunities to gain legal experience, e.g., clinics, externships, summer jobs in your desired field.

Re-examine your ideas about the world in light of what you learn in lawschool. If you came to lawschool thinking that defendants in criminal cases are usually innocent or that they get a raw deal, or that corporations are usually bad and need to be punished, or that civil liberties are being trampled and the balance needs to be redressed, or that tree huggers and environmentalists are standing in the way of economic prosperity, don?t shrink from re-examining those ideas in light of what you discover. You?ve grown a lot before you come to lawschool, but you haven?t stopped growing, and lawschool will put in front of you lots of ideas that will challenge the worldview that you already have. Nobody wants you to abandon the things you consider most important in life, but don?t think that what you believe when you enter lawschool is the last word ? in three years you?ll find out many things that you do not now anticipate, and what you learn will lead you in at least some directions that you don?t see now.

Work hard. Seriously. Don't buy into the myth that it doesn't matter how hard you work--it does. Work hard, and push yourself. And network. Try to find people out there in the world doing what you think you want to do, and meet them for lunch.

Make friends. Take classes that interest you. Work on one of the law journals. Don?t spend more time working and doing externships than you do attending class. You have your whole life to work, but this may be your only opportunity to gain an intellectual appreciation for the law.

Get to know your professors. Form study groups. Hang out after class. (The conversation after class, out in the hall, is often really interesting.)

Continue to maintain balance, in your social and academic lives.

Take advantage of special events and speakers hosted by the law school and student organizations

Find the areas and professors that you are most enthusiastic about and go with them. Also, be mindful of the opportunity to develop a network of contacts and career options as you get involved in an array of extra-curricular activities.

Don't let school interfere too much with your education.

Get involved and participate in class, organizations and school life.

Get involved. It's the best way to meet people in your classs, other classes and other schools as well as judges and practitioners.

Explore various facets of the law within and outside law school.

Show up and be engaged. Think about what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to study the Law. And don?t forget to smile and say hi to people in the hallways.

Go to class, do the reading, spend a lot of time on your outlines. After my first year, I found my outlines were really helpful reference tools when working on issues of contract law, tort law, etc.

Explore! Take a variety of classes, both ones you think you are interested in and others that would provide you exposure to other areas of the law. Take advantage of the clinical and externship programs, they provide valuable insight into the legal real world.

Get involved in activities, attend conferences. It?s not just about the classes.

Keep your perspective.

Read! Some will tell you to take a short cut by not reading or reading commercial briefs and outlines. I really believe the best way to learn this stuff is to struggle through it. Once we are out, we will have to be able to read a case and know how to use it- we may as well start now.

Also, remember what a privilege it is to have this opportunity. After spending the summer working in a law firm I realized law school is to be enjoyed. We have so much freedom and flexibility. Enjoy it.