Stuf Law Students Like: A How to

A How to Guide to Becoming a Law Student

Isabel Lowe

The law student is a uniquely constructed and largely predictable character. A bizarre concoction of Latin maxims, cafeine, booze and late-night library sessions. Our favourite pastimes of textbook readings, legal memes and the law society bi-annual start of semester drinks are surpassed only by our love for the prestige of a law degree. We enjoy nothing more than complaining about how hard our degrees are and telling people that we study law.

The frst step towards becoming a law student is not what ‘lay people’ may assume. The purchase of our frst textbooks is a key milestone. They will later prove our most prized fashion accessories to be sported around campus and neatly displayed as expensive paperweights on our desks. However, one is considered a true student of the law upon the completion of their Facebook status update. The sweet thrill that runs through your fngers as you type the words ‘law student’ is like no other. This branding will help you connect with other like-minded law students. For the overachievers among us, this update will be coupled with the purchase of your frst law society hoodie.

LAW

A prized piece of couture that may be purchased each year and later framed as artwork decorating the walls of our dimly lit, unorganised offices. This is just the beginning of our new lives as legal proteges.

By the time we fnish our second year of law school, we are equipped with a basic understanding of the law and can now assume our roles as educators of our ‘lay’ peers. Our prime times are on night outs with friends and during family gatherings. All those years of watching Suits and mimicking the poise of Harvey Specter in our high school study sessions have proved fruitfall after all.

As a rite of passage into our third year of law school, we develop our elegant and professional LinkedIn profles. This is to become the Tinder of our remaining law school lives and beyond. Almost instinctively we share these profles across our social media platforms, cementing our position in society as intellects. Simultaneously, we hope a glance at our profles from a Partner at a law frm might land us with an internship. Unpaid of course.

By our fnal year of law school, only 20% of us have remained. They, of course, have bravely entered the world of unpaid internships which consist primarily of mastering the art of photocopying and cofee runs.

When those of us who have made it through the wilderness of law school fnally graduate, we will complete our fnal step as law students. This entails the obligatory graduation post, where at least one or more people will compare themselves to Elle Woods.

We are now law school graduates. Let the bragging continue.