Law Student Outlook: Thoughts and expectations entering a final law school year

It might be hard to believe, but this month brings the start of our third and final year of law school at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. The readers of this column have loyally been with us since the spring semester of our 1L year, and we have grown so much through writing on a variety of topics that we explored and encountered during our time as students of the law. In this column, we will reflect on our time in law school and set goals for our year to come. We plan to make it the best one yet.

One piece of wisdom was repeatedly shared with us before we started law school by everyone who is a lawyer, wants to be a lawyer and knows a lawyer: “Law school will not teach you exactly what to do in every situation; it will teach you how to think like a lawyer.” Two years into school, we are starting to see that concept resonate. This summer at our respective summer associateships, we were faced with numerous legal questions that were not only complex, but in many cases, novel. When tackling these questions, in a professional environment with the added pressure of trying to earn a job offer, it is intimidating to even think about digging in and getting started.

With two years of law school under our belts, however, we have been faced with countless opportunities for growth. We have managed complicated cold calls in classrooms filled with our peers, navigated lightning-fast questioning with experienced judges in moot court and parsed through countless nuanced and intricate readings looking for kernels of valuable information to extract and carry with us for the rest of our careers. These experiences enabled us to rely on the weight of everything we learned in the past and develop a sense of confidence that we can bring to the working world.

Despite all of the confusion about what it meant to “think like a lawyer,” this summer we finally were able to see this thinking in action. Thinking like a lawyer means tackling the law with enthusiasm, vigor and confidence. Enthusiasm when receiving an assignment and deciding how to attack it; vigor in researching and formulating ideas for further questions to develop a legal theory; and, finally, confidence in producing work product and knowing how to ask questions and present the product of your work.

Beyond learning to “think like a lawyer,” law school has taught us valuable people skills. While some have been formal traits, such as networking skills, others have been far more informal and valuable. Law school has given us some of our best friends thus far in life. The experience of starting law school as terrified 1Ls who didn’t quite know what a motion for summary judgment was, struggling through our first cite-checking rounds on journal as 2Ls, and entering into our final year together – there are very few people who understand what we’ve been through in the last few years.

When countless attorneys said, “You’ll meet your best friends in law school,” it seemed like it was another cliche shared with incoming law students to ease some of their fears. However, during this chapter of our lives, we have been surrounded by some of the smartest, kindest and most interesting people we could imagine. Students and professors alike have shared stories over the years that have at times made us laugh and at times made us pause, helping develop those “think like a lawyer” skills we talked about earlier.

Despite every joke to the contrary, the vast majority of law students, professors, lawyers and judges we have met since starting law school have been kind, personable and fully in possession of a personality. Much to our comfort, being able to see these professionals as real people has taken some of the intimidation factor out of beginning our careers.

The last two years have flown by and have shaped our lives for the better. They haven’t been without some hardship and stress — we are, of course, in law school — but for the most part, we look back on them fondly. As we start our last year, it’s truly a bittersweet time for us. Both of us have been going to school nonstop for the last 20 years and are ready to join our respective firms. In other ways, it’s a hard thing to think that in a few short months, we will have to say goodbye to many of the people who have shaped this chapter of our lives.

For now, though, we’ll focus on the positives of starting 3L year and remember that we already know how to brief a case, create an outline and take a law school exam. And we don’t have to do any more journal cite-checking assignments.•

• Francesca Campione and Amanda Vaughn are third-year law students at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Opinions expressed are those of the authors.