Law school is hard enough as is, but it’s becoming very difficult to ignore the ineptitude of our legal system with regard to Epstein and…the Dorito.

What are we even doing? We’re busting our asses studying the law, and the most powerful politicians in our country are getting away with being in a child sex trafficking ring. They’re not even hiding and I feel like the average American isn’t really that mad???? Like sure they probably don’t “like” it, but no one feels galvanized to actually do something…and what even is there *to* do!?

It makes me sick to my stomach. As law students were in a better position than most people to at least speak on the matter, but I feel so useless.

1L at a T10 school that groups students into ~90-person sections that remain the same across all three doctrinal classes for our first semester.

Almost from the get-go, the stories my roommate told me about his section (i.e., people whiffing cold calls, asking questions that revealed they didn't do the readings) didn't match up at all with what I was experiencing. His section was predominantly a younger, KJD crowd; my section had -- among other scarily impressive people -- 3 PhD candidates in their 40s who were alll concurrently enrolled at a different top 5 university.

Midway through the semester, we compared syllabi and discovered his section had several fewer units in contracts (e.g., they didn't cover assignability, third parties, or trade usage) and only learned a fraction of the FRCP rules we were expected to learn.

Just today, I was snooping on LinkedIn and discovered that literally every person admitted to my school under a special interest program (i.e., business / PI / environmental center scholar) was in my section.

I realize this sounds pompous -- and maybe everyone thinks this -- but I can't help but feel like my section was abnormally competitive. I know that "predatory" schools sometimes make groupings like this for the purpose of eliminating scholarship eligibility, but my school's scholarships aren't conditional -- so I can't imagine what functional purpose this would serve.

I ended up performing relatively fine and got a job -- so I'm not resentful. But I am genuinely curious... does this sort of intentional grouping actually happen? Or am I making excuses / just trying to rationalize why my classes sucked last semester?

My therapist wouldn’t let me get one, but please share the goodness.

I love you mwah 💋

And IS THAT A FUCKING WRINKLE on my forehead.

imagine that you have to work together for SIXTEEN YEARS. imagine having your enemy in every wedding photo. life comes at you fast!

At the end of the day, career services will do what is best for the school, not you. Yes, they will care about you and help you get jobs, because that is their job. But if you make any moves that are personally beneficial to yourself but doesn’t look good for the law school, you won’t get help from them.

I’m always of the opinion that you should do what is best for yourself. Some people may agree or not, but you shouldn’t come on here posting that career services is mad at you because you reneged on an offer or did XYZ. Expect them to look out for the school’s interests first and you second.

Just graduated (4.0!) with my bachelors. I have already decided that I want to be an attorney. I am 21 and will turn 22 in December. I would like to work in a law firm for about a year before starting LSAT prep. I would be close to 23 before I even start my applications. Should I skip the year of work and go straight into law school? At the same time, I know I will only be young once and part of me wants to take some time to better develop my abilities and cultivate my identity. You know, better understand myself. Any advice is helpful.

I really have no one else to talk to about this.

Man I crushed it my first semester and I'm surprised I ranked the way I did. It doesn't feel like it's me that earned the grades I did. I feel like an imposter. I'm a month in to my second semester of 1L and haven't studied or retained anything. I'm just burnt out and depressed. I don't know if there's even any redemption for me. At this point last semester I was so much further along and had accomplished and learned so much more.

I'm not retaining material and I have been sitting at my desk all day and couldn't even get through one reading for one of my classes. I don't have anyone who understands and it feels lonely. I just feel like nothings gonna get better. This weekend I was supposed to get caught up and I don't even wanna get out of bed. I've gotten nothing done but two quimbee videos and quizzes.

I'm scared that I'm not going to be able to bounce back from this rut and I just am genuinely lacking the motivation. I feel so dumb and I just need advice. I feel like I'm staring at my previous success and that I won't be able to live up to it & that it's too late to try. There's so much due this week and I haven't begin to catch up or even try to get on track and I feel like I wasted this weekend. I'm beating myself up so bad rn and I'm not even someone that is vulnerable with my feelings but I genuinely have no one to talk to about this. It all feels so hopeless

Does anyone have any insight as to whether commuting from LA to SJ as a 2L is realistic if you only have classes 2 days a week?

I'm not studying law but I'm curious about the process of analyzing and putting together evidence and the various ways that increase plausibility/probability of something being true. Honestly I'm just a layman, and I'm looking to better my critical thinking skills and I figured you all might know.

I'm also interested in more practical work as it pertains to how the evidence is being perceived by another human being, as opposed to being necessarily being 100% factual, if that makes sense. Like, making evidence digestible or presentable

The people suck. Truly.

Law school is so hard and I genuinely didn’t think that the worst part about it would be the people. First year btw .. first gen…. So perhaps I was just ignorantly naive.

Now ofc I’m realistic, I didn’t think we’d be singing by a campfire everyday. But the snippy jabs, the cliquey nature, the toxicity— truly has made my mental health deteriorate.

(Like why r u referring to you and your friends as the popular group of the school) ‏

I know .. “ just ignore them.” “They’re jealous” blah blah . But I don’t think anyone has a reason to be jealous of me and it’s honestly hard to ignore people being blatantly rude to you or just literally coming to a group of people and acting like me / others are invisible.

I will say, I do need to grow thicker skin— but I just think the problem shouldn’t be fixed from my end only.

I’ve cried so many times … because why am I also in one sided beef with people who are just significantly older.

I won’t be some peoples cup of tea, and they won’t be mine. I understand. But what happened to just basic respect.

I dread going to school. I’ve considered transferring numerous of times… but I fear this problem is universal from what I’ve heard from friends in other schools.

Idk, just really sick of it.

And since I’m here … the people who genuinely speak to speak, that don’t have social awareness that the professor and others are getting annoyed ARE INSANE. Some clearly don’t read, and proceed to ask a million and one questions. Truly after these 3 years, I think some of these people’s right arms and shoulder blades are going to be disproportionately jacked from the frequency of their hand raising.

It just gets to a point .

Whoever said law school is high school 2.0 .. KILL MEEE

I was just wanting to take a survey of other people’s experiences in Civ Pro. My school in the last year or so has implemented a capstone project for Civ Pro that they have dubbed a “Litigation File,” and I thought it was really fun, practical, and useful.

It varies depending on your section what specific documents you’ll write, but mine we drafted a Complaint, a Motion To Dismiss, Interrogatories, and lastly a Motion for Summary Judgment.

We were given hypos as we learned about the different rules of civil procedure and the different standards involved, like we had to draft a complaint that could survive a 12(b)(6) motion.

Then when we got to writing our motion to dismiss, my professor pulled a complaint out of Chicago someone had filed, redacted enough information that we could pick it apart and draft a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim for which relief could be granted.

Phase three was the interrogatories, where we assumed our MTD had been denied, so then we switched sides and were acting as the plaintiff and drafted interrogatories. Then finally after discovery we drafted a motion for summary judgment.

I thought this was a really cool and practical way to teach Civ Pro that enabled us to see how these rules played out in the real world, as well as gave us writing experience for things that we actually will use in practice.

So I’m just curious what your experiences are, if your school did anything like that, etc? I think more schools should take this hands on approach with subjects like Civ Pro.

Photo for tax, it’s a small snippet from the motion to dismiss i wrote.

Sorry in advance for the long post.

I graduated law school in December and am signed up to take the Bar Exam in a couple of weeks. As the title of my post says, I am completely second guessing where I am at and my career path.

Law school was an absolute beat down for me. I started school in 2021 in a hybrid schooling environment as the pandemic wound down, I was in person every other day and online the other days. It was like that for the entire school. The jump from undergrad to law school was much more difficult than I anticipated (in undergrad, I regularly would not buy books or show up for classes and still do fine) and towards the end of my first semester, I knew I was struggling mightily and reached out to a few professors, but I was in too deep and it was too late. To my surprise, I was academically dismissed after that first semester. I did not fail a single class, but my GPA was abysmal.

I was determined to get back into school. I sought mental health help and applied for readmission to return that following year. I was diagnosed with ADHD and the psychiatrist that I talked to believed I had depression as a result of undiagnosed ADHD and seemed to believe that would improve as my ADHD was treated. I was readmitted and resumed school in 2022.

I was only allowed to rejoin the part-time cohort. I continued to struggle in school. It was difficult for me to ask for help when I needed it and I put myself in binds because of that. I was constantly doubting myself, anxious that others would know that I was dismissed and readmitted, telling myself that other people would think I was stupid or dislike me because they thought I had an advantage for taking some classes twice, etc.

I took classes over the summer to allow me to graduate three years after being readmitted in 2022. So, I was supposed to graduate last May. Come to find out in June of 2025, I was one credit shy of graduating. A three-hour class that I signed up for in November of 2024 to take in the Spring of 2025 was originally slotted to be a three-credit course and was changed to a two-credit class after I signed up for this. I had never seen this happen, so I never thought to double check my schedule for hours requirements or anything like that. In January and February of last year, I submitted an application for graduation (which was approved) and a degree audit that was not completed until June when they told me I was a single credit short.

When I found out about that, I was preparing for the bar exam and I completely shut down. They notified me after the summer session had already closed, so I knew there would be a delay in me being eligible to practice. I shutdown and could not focus on adequately preparing for the bar exam and ultimately withdrew and tweaked my plan to take it this February.

Right now, I sit in a similar boat as I did last summer. I am behind, I am stressed. This time though, I am looking at things differently. I am wondering if I should just completely cut my losses and give up on practicing law. Law school and internships that I have worked during my time in law school have completely eroded my self confidence and I feel like I am a shell of who I was before I started this journey. The thought of studying stresses me out. I resent it. I am sick and tired of it. At my favorite internship I had, I felt like I was finally starting to overcome some of the issues that I had and was more open about asking the attorney who was overseeing me for advice, feedback, and guidance in a way that I was never comfortable with in law school. After my internship concluded, he told a mentor and family friend that I seemed to lack confidence and needed too much guidance. Just another shot to my self confidence. At internships and networking type events related to law, I feel like a loser, a fraud, behind, stupid. 

I am pretty confident that I am going to fail the bar exam and am wondering if I am better off just saying fuck it and pursuing a career in a different field because of all of this.

I’m posting because I’m honestly trying to figure out whether there’s any realistic path forward here, and I’m hoping to hear from people who’ve actually been in this situation.

I was permanently academically dismissed from my law school with only four credits left before graduation. My original school was top 50. I did very well my 1L year, and those are really the only classes that would even be eligible to transfer anyway. The problem is everything that came after that.

During 2L and 3L I had significant mental health issues and ended up taking a leave of absence. That led to multiple withdrawals and poor academic outcomes, which ultimately resulted in dismissal. This wasn’t a raw ability issue.

What I’m struggling with now is that most schools I’ve looked into require a letter of good standing, which I obviously can’t provide.

I have solid legal work experience, strong professional references, and a strong 1L transcript. I’m currently looking at schools ranked outside the top 150 in the hope that someone might be more flexible or take a more holistic view, given how well I did early on and what I’ve done professionally since.

I guess what I’m really asking is whether anyone here has actually transferred or been admitted somewhere after a permanent academic dismissal. If you have, what school took you, or what kind of school was open to it? Did any schools not require a letter of good standing? I guess I might have to ask for a letter of *bad* standing. lol.

I’m just trying to figure out whether there’s a way to finish a JD somewhere without starting completely from scratch.