One of the stranger things about law school is that, sometimes, it stops feeling like school. While the first year of law school is packed with classes – and so much homework there’s barely time to do something else – that changes a bit once you get into your second year. Even though I’m just out of my first year, I’m already experiencing that shift pretty dramatically.
This semester, I’m externing for a federal judge full-time. In every meaningful way, it’s a regular job. I work from 8:30 AM until 5:30 PM, Monday through Friday. I work on smaller assignments for the clerks, attend a couple of hearings a week, and I work on larger projects – sometimes analyzing entire cases based on the papers filed by the attorneys. I read these papers, do research on the legal issues, and deliver a memo – just like a first or second-year attorney might do. Of course, I don’t have the kind of responsibilities that an actual attorney would have. But while I’m obviously not a lawyer yet, I don’t really feel like a student, either.
The exception, of course, is when I’m in class. Right now I’m taking Evidence, a four-credit class, and definitely one of the more academically intense classes in law school. Balancing Evidence and work can be pretty challenging. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I take the bus from the federal courthouse downtown to campus. I usually have an hour or so between when I get to school and when my class starts, so I’ll grab a bite to eat and brush up a little bit on the readings for class. By the time my class is over, at 10 PM, I’m pretty beat – as you can probably imagine.
It’s a fun challenge. I especially love getting a taste of what the lawyering life will entail (and glad to report that, so far, I like it). But it certainly feels less like school, and more like a real job.
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