Transcript
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– Hey, Legal Eagles.
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There are a lot of extracurriculars available
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to students in law school.
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But the choices can seem overwhelming.
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They are very different from what you can do in college.
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So what extracurriculars are out there
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and what should you spend your time on in law school?
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Well by the end of this video
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you will have a really good idea
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of which extracurricular is for you.
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What will add to your resume
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and what is a good use of your time in law school.
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So stick around.
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(melodious instrumental music)
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All right, so first and foremost.
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Extracurriculars can be very rewarding in law school
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but generally speaking,
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grades are more important when you’re in law school.
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So while it may be tempting to sign up
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for lots of extracurriculars
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especially during the first week of class.
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As a general rule,
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you never want to sacrifice your grades
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for spending time in extracurricular activities.
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And that goes for even the most prestigious extracurriculars
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like participating on law review.
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It’s almost always better to have good grades
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than it is to participate in lots of extracurriculars.
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So with that being said and without further ado,
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here are the most popular extracurriculars in law school
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and my opinion as to how valuable they are.
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And I should tell you I know what I’m talking about.
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In addition to working in BigLaw for over 10 years,
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I have recruited for big firms,
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I have interviewed many law students for associate jobs
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and I have read more law student resumes
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than I could possibly count.
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So, let’s talk about the most popular
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extracurriculars in law school.
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The first one and the most popular
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and usually the most highly regarded is law review.
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Generally, law schools have one flagship law review.
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A law review is a weird student-run publication
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that publishes papers by professors, professionals
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and other academics.
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While other fields have peer reviewed journals
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that are run by professionals or experts in the field.
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Law schools have these student-run publications
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that do two things.
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They review, curate and proof the academic papers
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mostly of professors and then publish them.
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And Law Reviews will publish the papers
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of students who are on law review
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and those are called notes.
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Sometimes without attribution
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to the individual student who produced it.
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but the law review serves the purpose
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of publishing academic papers.
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They tend to be the most prestigious legal journals
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in the legal field
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and they also publish the papers of students.
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Now if you want to publish in law school
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you should join law review.
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There are, generally, also a lot of other journals
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or law reviews that specialize in different topics.
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But almost always the most prestigious journal
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in a particularly is law school the law review.
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And there are a couple very famous ones,
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the Harvard Law Review comes to mind.
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It’s an incubator for future professors and legal scholars.
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It’s really the top of the field
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when it comes to legal publications.
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And while there are a number
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of different journals and law reviews in law school,
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generally, the main law review is the most prestigious,
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it can be a real resume bump.
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Out of all the things that you can do in law school
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as an extracurricular,
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there is no doubt that participating in the Maine Law Review
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for your law school is by far
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the most prestigious extracurricular that you can do.
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It is a real resume bump
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especially when you get to the top law schools
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where the law review itself
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has an actual reputation in the field.
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But that being said, it is a ton of hard work.
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You are constantly proofing and reviewing different papers,
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only a few of which are going to be published.
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It’s really thankless work.
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It is very persnickety,
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you have to have a real eye for proofing,
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you have to be a very good writer
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and it’s also very difficult to get on to the law review.
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Some law reviews require you to have top grades
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before you can participate
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and other law reviews have a straight merit-based system
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based on writing on to the journal.
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So you show a writing sample and that’s how you get on.
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Other law reviews have a combination of the two
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where some people will grade on
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and some people will write on.
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But once you get on to law review
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you can anticipate that you’re going to spend a lot of time
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doing writing related activities, a lot of proofing
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and a lot of publishing related work.
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So that brings me to the second most popular
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extracurricular in law school and that is moot court.
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Moot court is where students
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pretend to be appellate attorneys.
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Students will write appellate briefs
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and then they will argue that brief
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usually on a very narrow part of the law
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in front of a panel of judges.
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This panel of judges is sometimes real judges
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if the school is able to get the judges to participate.
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But usually some lawyers from the community
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who are judging the students on their ability
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to argue on either the appellate brief
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and/or their oral argument ability in front of them.
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There are a number of different moot courts,
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some specialize in international law or patent law.
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And some are just sort of a general civil
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or criminal appellate jurisdiction
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where they’ll give you a topic that is of wide appeal
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and you’ll argue that particular topic.
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Some moot courts are just for the particular school
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where it’s just amongst students in that school.
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And some are against schools from around the city or state
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where students will be competing against each other.
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In some moot courts you’re graded on the brief
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and some it’s just your oral argument
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and some is a combination of the two.
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Now moot court is certainly a resume bump,
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not as much as law review.
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But if you have moot court,
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especially if you are a successful moot court competitor
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then employers will look favorably on that in your resume.
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Especially if you can show that you are someone
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who was very good at arguing, very good at writing,
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those are the kind of skills
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that future employers want to see.
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So it’s not quite as prestigious as law review
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and it’s not quite as much of a bump in your resume
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but it’s certainly a positive mark
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on your law school resume.
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It’s also a great way to hone your oral argument skills.
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It feels like, there’s a bit of a bait-and-switch
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when you get to law school
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where you think you’re gonna be arguing all the time
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but really you’re just sitting in a lecture hall
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listening to your professor.
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And at most you’re going back and forth
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in the Socratic method
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when he or she peppers you with questions.
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But this is one of the true places
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where you are able to get better at arguing
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and have a chance to compete in that type of competition.
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So that brings me to the third most common
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extracurricular in law school and that is mock trial.
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Don’t get mock trial and moot court confused.
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If moot court is a simulation of appellate advocacy
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then mock trial is a simulation of a real trial
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at the trial court level.
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I did both moot court and mock trial in law school
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and while moot court is a lot of fun and it’s great,
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I thought mock trial was way more fun.
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You get to do all the aspects of a trial.
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You guys to do opening statement,
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examination of witnesses, cross examinations,
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closings, objections.
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It’s like Law & Order but in real life but still fake,
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if that makes sense.
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It’s not dissimilar to mock trial
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in high school or in college
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but it’s operating at a much higher level.
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There are different mock trials and they vary by topic.
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There are civil mock trials,
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there are criminal mock trial competitions,
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there are employment mock trial competitions,
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there are a lot of different formats too.
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In some mock trials you provide your own witnesses,
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in other words their fellow law students
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who are training to be a witness
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and you prep them ahead of time.
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And in some mock trials,
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the competition actually gives you a witness
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that you’ve never met before
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and you only have a couple of minutes to prep them
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before they go on the witness stand.
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So there are a lot of different venues
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that can be a lot of fun to participate in
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because they’re so varied.
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Mock trial is probably less prestigious
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than law review and moot court.
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But I would say that people in the know really understand
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that mock trial is an incubator
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for people who really want to be in court.
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So you can show that you have the skills
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of a real practicing trial attorney
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if you hone them in mock trial.
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So while it’s not quite as much of a resume boost
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as moot court and law review,
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it’s still something that’s worthwhile doing
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if you’re prepared for the time commitment.
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So that brings me to the next extracurricular in law school.
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It is by far the most popular
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and it’s the one that
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almost every law student participates in
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and that is drinking.
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There’s a lot of drinking in law school.
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I’m talking in jest, that is an extracurricular.
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But I am telling you this for two reasons.
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One is that, your social life
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is an important aspect of law school.
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You should go out and you should meet other people
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and have a little fun on occasion.
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And number two is that,
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when people go out to go drinking
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they usually call it bar review.
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And the first time anyone ever hears
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that they’re going to bar review on Thursday night,
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they often make the assumption that it’s a study group,
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it’s not.
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Bar review means going out for drinks.
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Just FYI, you have been warned, it happens.
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And you know, go out once in a while, it’s worthwhile.
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Okay, so back to all seriousness,
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the next extracurricular
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is the various student groups on campus.
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There are a lot of student groups in law school,
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you have human rights groups,
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you have ethnic and cultural groups,
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the Federalist Society, outlaw, Black Law Students.
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There are a lot of social groups and cultural groups that,
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it’s sort of a loose association,
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they try and bring speakers in, they often hold conferences.
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This isn’t that much of a resume boost
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but it’s a great way to network,
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so I wouldn’t discount it entirely.
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It’s also a good way to meet friends
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and other attorneys in the community
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who share similar values to you.
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So you know a part of law school
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that most people overlook is networking.
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And you should spend some time
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getting to know people in the community
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especially if you want to work in that community.
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Because it’s a great way to form
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a social network of your own
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that may come in handy when you’re looking for jobs
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later down the line.
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So after that, I would say the last big extracurricular
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are social committees in law school.
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These are things like participating on law prom,
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putting together the big dance for law students.
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If your school has a law school musical,
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putting together the musical.
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There are also public interest committees
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and various fundraising activities.
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Again like the social organizations
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these are not necessarily a big resume boosters
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but they’re great for networking
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and a great way to spend some time on something
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other than the black letter law in your particular classes
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which you know sometimes we get tunnel vision
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and we focus just on studying
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and not other social aspects of law school.
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So don’t discount the social committees as well.
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Now if you want even more information
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and strategies and tactics before you get to law school,
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please download our free ultimate pre-law checklist.
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It’s our free gift to you.
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The link to that is below.
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It will help you demystify law school.
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The more people that subscribe,
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the more videos we’ll make on how to crush law school.
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So what extracurriculars are you going to participate in?
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Let me know in the comments below.
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And until next time at Legal Eagle,
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think like a lawyer and ace the exam.
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What you should spend your time?
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We’ll work on it.
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My nose itches.
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My nose.
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Let’s see.
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(speaking indistinctly)
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Okay.
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Let’s see, right, okay.
