A Day in the Life of a Law Student


Welcome to a day in the life of a Law Student. I am going to outline my day, Tuesday, and break down what life really looks like when you are a Law Student. FYI, it is the furthest thing from glamorous....






Technically my day starts at 5:00am when my husband wakes up for work. I get up with him to take the dogs out, make him oatmeal while he showers and kiss him goodbye before he heads out to work and support us. It is the least I can do for how hard he works to take care of us. I then climb back into bed with the pups and get another hour or two of shut-eye before my day starts for real.

7:30am: My alarm goes off... I hit snooze about 7 times, snuggle with my puppies and pretend the world outside my bed does not exist and then eventually bring myself to a sitting position and proceed to scroll aimlessly through my phone, putting off the inevitable, for as long as I can get away with.

8:00am: Now that I have dragged my sorry butt out of bed, it's time to drink coffee, get dressed, make myself look presentable, drink more coffee, get my things pulled together for the day, take case of the pups, eat a quick breakfast of cereal or oatmeal and get my to-go coffee mug ready to go. Notice a trend? It's called coffee.

9:00am: Off to school! It takes me 10-15 minutes to drive to the school, depending on traffic, so I always leave myself ample time. On my drive, I get the most upbeat music I can find to get hyped for another exciting day of law school (lol).

9:15am: I arrive at school, find a seat in the lounge area and review my notes/readings for the day or talk to my friends. Most importantly, I crack open that to-go travel mug and top-up my caffeine level.

9:40am: Time for Torts. I am glad this is my first class because I actually find Torts very interesting and I have a great teacher. We also get a break halfway through which helps to make the over 2-hour class survivable.

11:50am: Torts is over and now I have a lunch break. This is a great time to hang out with my friends, discuss school, life, have meetings for student organizations, investigate if anyone is offering free food and overall just get a small break in a long day of Law School. Sometimes I have to finish up some reading or review but mostly I try to leave this time law school-free.

1:00pm: Civil Procedure is up next. I love this teacher and generally, this class is pretty fun. Also, being right after lunch and a break, I am fresh and ready to focus.

2:30pm: I have a long break before my next class so I fill this time with reading, studying, outlining, ICW's, Core Grammar, legal research assignments, printing things in the library, visiting professor office hours and pretty much any other random things I have to get done.

4:20pm: My final class for the day, Legal Research and Writing. Often times we have Westlaw and Lexis training during this class or we do a lot of group activities. Mostly, by this point in the day I just want to go home and it is a struggle.

5:50pm: My day is finally complete at the Law School and I head home. Traffic varies and this can take 10-20 minutes. Most days I blast good music or call my mom to fill this time.

6:00-6:10pm: I arrive home, take care of my very happy pups and make dinner for my husband and I. I like to cook good meals that take some time and we always sit down at the table together and talk about our days. After dinner, we do the dishes, pack our lunches for the following day and usually snack on something sweet.

7:00pm: We relax. My hubby usually has long days at work and Law School is exhausting so we take some time to watch TV, take the dogs for a walk, sit on the front porch; anything that involves relaxation and spending some quality time together. This is my favorite part of the day.

8:00pm: This is when i try to sit down to do homework but it often gets a little later because we get caught up in a movie or the walk turns into an adventure. while my hubby gets his precious ESPN time, I head into the office to get to work. I read for the following days classes, review from that days class and if I am extra ambitious, I outline a bit.

11:00pm: If my homework did not take this long, I usually filled the time with laundry, house cleaning or an episode of Fixer Upper if I am really lucky. I am a night owl so anytime before 11pm I am just too wide awake to think about sleeping. I also do not have class until 1pm the next day so I can afford to burn a little midnight oil. 11:00pm is when I head for bed and start my bedtime routine: shower, remove makeup, moisturize, brush out my long hair, lay out tomorrow's outfit and pack my bookbag for the next day.

11:30pm: Finally time to climb into bed. It takes me forever to wind down so I usually read a chapter in a fun book (currently The Royal We), watch a bit of TV, scroll through Pinterest or Facebook. Whatever helps me to wind down and get sleepy.

Midnight: Usually by midnight my eyes are heavy and my day has caught up with me. Lights out and sleepytime!

So that's my typical Tuesday... it's pretty boring and unexciting and filled with a whole lotta Law.


2 comments

  1. Hey! I'm so glad that you are blogging your one year experience. You give such good advise and I've adopted many of your study tips to my daily routine (ie. the different color highlighters for briefs. Unbelievable how much time that saves me!) I love reading about your blog. It really helps me to calm a little while I struggle through my first year in law school.

    I was wondering if you abide by the cardinal rule of studying 4 hours a day for each credit hour you have. I have tried to do it but it seems nearly impossible. My mentor believes that I should nearly 40 hours a week on my studies OUTSIDE of the classroom. How many hours do you typically spend studying?

    Thank you for your time! Keep blogging! You are the encouragement that I need on this law school journey!

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    1. Oh my goodness you are too sweet! You simply made my day! I do not follow the rule of 4 hours outside of class. It just doesn't take that long and if it does you should reevaluate your study methods because thats just ridiculous. Everyone is different, some read faster than others so in my opinion, if you are understanding the material, keeping up in class and feel prepared and keep up with notes and outlines, whatever time that takes you is sufficient.

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