Written by Eshi Ayezha and Adapted from the ‘Being Guide’ Published by the LSS

A Love-Hate Relationship

with Law School

Law school is many things. A dream, an ambition, and a stressful profession. We’re thrown into the thrill of engaging with complex issues, both a privilege and a challenge. Early in my first year, a professor shared that the study of law is meant for those who courageously conquer its challenges.

Here are some of the ones I’ve learnt to love:

Materials

As your workload increases, you’ll find yourself sacrificing sleep to understand paragraphs. Then comes the horror of learning multiple legislation in one class. Sometimes, we cannot read all our materials word for word.

Make use of case summaries, look through online forums, libraries and discuss within your peers! I take an extra step by reciting case outlines out loud and roleplaying as a barrister with friends–after all, law is fun when you want it to be. I find that printing out legislation helped to make it seem more real. When I start to lose focus and the readings feel bland, I remind myself that I am interpreting existing, working provisions that serve a particular purpose and impact.

Being Assessed

A big part of law school is being assessed and the idea of knowledge gaps is often intimidating. So, enjoy the process, and ask more questions! We’re encouraged to be curious, use hypotheticals and challenge what we know. Not a lot of things are more entertaining than a room of law students bouncing off each other's ideas, and we don’t see enough of it.

Exams are the cherry on top! They’re my favourite challenge simply because of how rewarding it is to condense our learnings into a 2 hour paper. To make the process more fun for myself, I’d often create a bucket list of things to do post-exams with my friends as something to look forward to and a dedicated Spotify playlist for each unit.

Lastly, Your Purpose

The greatest challenge of all is dealing with our doubts. This is what most of us loathe when we’re lost. I’ve learnt to silence my insecurities by also acknowledging that I don’t want to give up. Not at all. As you learn to tackle your tasks with curiosity and creativity, remind yourself of why you started and that might just do the trick!