08/17/2026
IMPORTANT ADVICE FOR FIRST-YEAR LAW STUDENTS
As the fall semester gets underway, you should be doing everything you can to put yourself in the best possible position to make Law Review ... and secure the job and clerkship oppotunities that follow from it.
My advice is simple:
1. Go to the Reserve Desk at your law library.
2. Request the old exams and model answers for each of your classes. Copy them. ALL OF THEM!
3. Set aside an hour or two each day this week to read the exams and the model answers ... and take notes.
4. Figure out what each professor is looking for and the depth of analysis each one expects.
5. Put the exams away.
Then:
6. In mid September , pull out the exams and re-read them.
7. Compare your own understanding of the material to the information and analysis reflected in the model answers.
8. Identify any gaps and close them with some extra work.
9. Put the exams away.
Then:
10. During the first week of October repeat Steps 6-9.
11. START WRITING PRACTICE ANSWERS TO OLD EXAM QUESTIONS UNDER TIMED CONDITIONS.
12. In mid-November repeat Steps 6-9.
13. CONTINUE WRITING PRACTICE ANSWERS TO OLD EXAM QUESTIONS UNDER TIMED CONDITIONS.
14. Refine your analysis, organization, and issue-spotting skills
Finally:
15. Use AI intelligently.
Specifically, let it help you connect cases to doctrines, doctrines to larger themes, and concepts across courses. Let it test your understanding, generate hypotheticals, and help you identify weaknesses in your analysis. (MORE ON THIS LATER IN THE WEEK.) But never let it do your thinking for you. AI is a tool. It is not a crutch.
16. CRUSH YOUR EXAMS.
17. Put yourself in the strongest possible position for Law Review and every other opportunity that follows from outstanding 1L performance.
Best of luck!
SEAN
