This is a weird time to be a 2L. We spent all of last year battling through the seemingly unconquerable slog of readings, papers and 100% finals that is 1L, all the while overawed at the bastions of knowledge and wisdom that were the upper years (or at least that’s how I’m playing it off). Now that we’re past that mountain, we’d normally get to pay all the help we got forward to the new 1Ls—to enjoy being the ones with all the answers. Except this year, you, 1L reader who is probably wondering where I’m going with this, don’t have the luxury of talking to people who’ve done it all before. You don’t have anyone to tell you to “Relax, because if we can do it, you can do it too, and here’s a step by step guide to tell you exactly how everything is going to work.” In fact, last year’s September edition of Ultra Vires included just that—a “Definitive Guide to 1L”. But even though there’s no one who has gone through the same exact Sisyphean nightmare as you’re about to, the old adage remains the same—relax. You can do it, and the upper years are here to give you what help we can. So without further ado, here’s the Definitive(ish) Guide to 1L.
Studying, Stress, and Stressing About Studying
To the five or six of you who didn’t skip right to the grades section, kudos. This section is way more important. Managing your stress and mental health is absolutely essential to a successful 1L year. This is in a sense unfortunate, because it’s probably the most difficult as well. The new 1L structure was mainly meant to tackle this problem, but with every 1L taking two large sections, a small group and graded LRW this semester, you can bet the work will start to pile on soon. When it does, you need to trust yourself, because you’ve gotten this far for a reason. When you talk to a classmate and find out he spent 10 hours briefing cases in the reading room last night, and you only spent a couple hours reading before going to gym/playing video games/hanging out with friends/anything else that isn’t studying, the absolute worst reaction you can have is to freak out, scrap your whole routine and try to emulate someone else. That isn’t to say you don’t need to put in the work—believe me, you do—but what’s important is to keep your head and stick to the work and study habits that have clearly succeeded for you in the past. People learn in different ways, and at different speeds. In other words, see above: relax, and trust your instincts.
Another thing not to stress about is that creeping feeling you get sometimes that everyone else knows what they’re doing, and that you’re the only one who is confused, struggling and stressed. The reality is that every single person here has felt that same way at some point or another, and if they tell you they haven’t, they’re a filthy liar. It may seem like your year is a pack of hyper-intelligent, super-accomplished geniuses, and that your admission here was some kind of cruel joke or horrible mistake. But it isn’t. The adcom knows what they’re doing, and since you’re here it means you have it in you to excel.
If you’re looking for something more substantial and less Yoda-esque than that, keep in mind that the Faculty offers free, confidential academic counseling and the SLS can match you into a study group if you don’t make one on your own, so take advantage of those if the workload starts to appear too daunting. Which brings me to…
Four Brains Are Better Than One
I know I just told you that everyone is a unique snowflake and learns in their own way and at their own speed, but seriously, join a study group. Your peers, as you probably have figured out by now, are an amazingly intelligent group of individuals, and attacking legal problems successfully means analyzing every angle. A few differing viewpoints, along with sheer combined brainpower, will be an invaluable tool for you not just during exam time, but throughout the year as well.
Grades, and Why They’re Not As Important As You Think
Nobody is going to make the case that grades aren’t important. What many 1Ls don’t realize is that they aren’t the be all and end all when it comes to finding employment. True, nobody is going to hire you with transcript chock-full of LPs (I didn’t even bother talking about Fs, because literally no one fails), but the vast majority of students will be applying to firms with Ps and Hs. These students will get plenty of Bay Street interviews (whether or not this is something you want is another conversation altogether). What’s important after that point, however, is how you handle the interviews your grades got you. Law is about customer service, and firms want sociable, interesting, and personable people, even if those people have average grades—not a walking pile of HHs with nothing else to offer. If you want to work in New York, you’ll need higher grades, and clerking at the SCC will obviously require you to be near the top of the year, but for the majority of you, don’t skip out on opportunities to build your human capital and improve your small talk skills to get an extra hour or two of case briefing done.
Exams
Here’s where the guinea-pig nature of this year’s 1L program really comes to the fore. Until now December exams were a time to practice your skills, and find out what works and what doesn’t. Many people received a rude awakening when they got their December exam marks back and used that preparation to great success for the real exams in April. Now December exams are the real deal. You’ll be given mid-term practice tests, but whether those will be as effective as a true practice exam period remains to be seen, especially considering you won’t be given much time off class to prepare for these practice tests. To that end, here are some basic tips to streamline the trial and error period:
- Make a concise map: A beautiful 50-page summary with detailed briefs on every case will be less than useful in an exam scenario. A good map is short, to the point, rule-based, easy to navigate and, simply put, essential to doing well on an open-book exam. If you’re not sure how to make a map, ask your Peer Mentor, or any upper year, really, to send you a good one or two as a template.
- Go over your map with your study group: Doing this will (hopefully) expose any gaps in your map and force you to confront areas of the course material you’re less comfortable with. You’ll realize that this point or that point is actually more complex, vague or downright confusing than you gave it credit for, and you’ll benefit from puzzling it over with help. Most importantly, don’t just assume your map is right and anyone else’s that differs is wrong—give other people’s interpretations of the material their fair shake.
- Do the online practice exams under timed conditions, and, again, take up the answers with your study group. This will give you the feel for what it’s really like to try to cram every “in the alternative” legal argument possible in a paltry three hours, and will lead to much better time management when you’re actually writing the exam.
Extra-Curriculars
The law school has innumerable clubs, clinics, journals, and associations all ready and willing to devour every second of free time in your schedule. There’s always the urge to sign up for a ton of different things since they all look worthwhile— and it’s highly important to resist that urge. Think quality over quantity. It’s much better to get actively involved in one, two or at most three things than spread yourself thin over five or six. It will lead to leadership opportunities down the road and more interesting small talk in job interviews. And if you’re so inclined, you’ll have another two years to try out things you skipped over in 1L. Whatever it is you pick, make sure it’s something you actually enjoy—interviewers can smell chronic resume builders from a mile away. Here’s an overview of many of the different ECs you can join, complete with shameless plugs by their upper-year members.
Journals
There are five student-run legal journals at U of T Law: The University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review (UTFLR), The Journal of Law and Equality, The Journal of International Law and International Relations, The Indigenous Law Journal and Critical Analysis of the Law. As a first-year student editor on one of these journals, you’ll generally be given several articles to read and comment on. The subject matter of these articles will depend on the journal or the cell group that you are a part of. Some journals also require first year students to do footnote checking or to conduct background research to determine whether an article has been plagiarized, puts forth novel arguments (etc.).
U of T’s journals offer 1Ls the chance to learn about subjects not often covered in the 1L curriculum. Alternatively, if you’re interested in working in a specific practice area, signing up for a journal/cell group can signal your interest to employers in that area. Most importantly, student editors get to debate the merits of interesting articles over free food!
Clinics
Options: Artists Legal Advice Service (ALAS), Downtown Legal Services (DLS), Advocates for Injured Workers (AIW), David Asper Centre, Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC)
The various clinics give you the opportunity to experience nitty gritty, real-world legal work. You won’t be checking citations or inquiring philosophically about the state of modern tort law—you’ll be expected to do legal research and writing for a practical purpose or specific client, or even get on the phone and call the other side. If that sounds intimidating, don’t worry—the 1L clinics are supervised, and there’s plenty of infrastructure to keep you from making any lawsuit-worthy mistakes.
- Artist Legal Advice Service: “Volunteering with ALAS is a great opportunity to learn more about intellectual property and entertainment law. A typical shift involves shadowing lawyers who are giving legal advice to artists, actors, musicians, writers, and filmmakers. The lawyers actually make sure that you understand the advice, which makes ALAS a valuable learning experience. For the rest of the shift you answer phone calls and emails in order to book appointments with clients for future shifts. ALAS also only requires that you attend three shifts each semester. So, this clinic is great if you can’t commit a lot of time but are still looking to volunteer in a clinic setting.” – Natasha Chin
- AIW: “Volunteering at AIW was great and memorable. You are given three files as soon as you start, and serve as your clients’ legal representative in workplace insurance disputes. This involves regular client interaction, developing case strategy, crafting written submissions and perhaps an oral hearing, if you’re lucky. It can be overwhelming at first, but the upper-year volunteers are extremely supportive and patiently hold your hand while you learn to navigate the shadowy world of workers’ compensation law. The supervising lawyers are two lovely people, who go above and beyond to ensure that you’re constantly learning and producing high quality legal work. The work is incredibly rewarding and is a great way to build up karma before you spend the rest of your legal career (i.e., three years) working for Big Business. The time commitment is three hours a week, though sometimes more is required if a deadline looms. The best part about AIW is the view: a roof with a dog.” – Brad Valley
- David Asper: “The Asper Centre is unique in providing first year students the opportunity to deal with constitutional and Charter rights issues and to examine the impact of current government legislation on real people. There are plenty of options to become involved: join a working group, contribute to the Outlook, work as a Summer Research Assistant, enroll in the upper-year clinic, or lead a working group. As a 1L I volunteered with the Refugee Law Working Group. I gained knowledge about immigration and refugee law I wouldn’t otherwise have learned in class, not only through researching for a memo, but through the other group members, the refugee law practitioner who supervised our public legal education workshop, and the frontline workers at the workshop.” – Alex Wong
- DLS: “Working at DLS is a great use of your scarce free time because it gives you the opportunity to develop working legal skills while experiencing law in the context most of us got into it for. You get to help the poor, the underrepresented and those who face down a legal structure that they find both menacing and troublingly obscure. When you talk to your first or second (or seventh or eighth) client on the phone about their legal problems you also realize how much you really do know about law. On a personal note, you also develop the exact kind of skills that future employers (and OCI recruiters) want to hear about. You learn to manage documents, docket time, deal with clients, manage case strategies and work as part of a team. In short, you get a better grasp on what being a lawyer actually means day-to-day then any class will be able to teach you.” – Bernd Buschke
- PBSC: “PBSC) is a national organization that started right here at U of T in 1996. Our students volunteer with amazing clinics and organizations working in family law, human rights, immigration, LGBT rights, health law, and so much more. When you volunteer with PBSC, you develop the kinds of skills will serve you well for the rest of your career, let alone the skills employers want to see in a student. You get exposure to areas of the law you might never encounter otherwise, meet practitioners devoted to those fields, and work with like-minded students to help people who really need it. It doesn’t stop with 1L, either. Our upper year placements provide opportunities to work with small claims court judges, the Law Society of Upper Canada, and even to personally represent the underrepresented. Some of our most exciting upper year placements even recruit students from their first year placements, so it’s never too early to get started!” – Aron Nimani
Clubs
Got an interest? There’s a club for that. And if there isn’t, go ahead and start one. Some clubs are geared more toward building human capital, others toward cultural groups and social causes, and yet others toward putting out a specific event or product. What’s below is just a small cross-section of everything that’s out there.
- Women in the Law: Ever since women legally became people in 1928, “being a woman” has become increasingly popular. Today, you can even be a woman in the law! This has led to many commentators to ask, “how do they balance being a woman and being in the law?”, or “does she REALLY have it all?” Women & the Law wants to assure that yes, you can be a woman in the law, and we are here to help you succeed. Join one of U of T Law’s oldest and most established clubs to meet mentors, make friendships, and build networks that will last a lifetime.
- Ultra Vires (that’s us!): “Let’s face it—legal writing can be intellectually stimulating, thought provoking and downright insightful, but it’s stuffy as hell. If you’ve got the writing bug, UV is a great place to write about the legal universe and the goings on in the law school, but in a much more relaxed, informal environment (we can swear!). God help you if you miss a deadline though—that part doesn’t change when you switch to journalism.” – Alex Carmona
- Law Games: Law Games is a cross between the Olympics, Bring It On, and a three day, half-lucid jaunt through a distillery with hundreds of other people. You will play sports. You will “network” with students from other schools. You will get uniforms with a colour scheme that is, like, totally in this season. You will meet, laugh, cheer, compete, dance and, due to hotel accommodations, spoon with your fellow classmates. You will create memories and recall them later under the luminous glow of heartfelt camaraderie. But most of all, you will never experience lower performance expectations in your entire first year of law school. – Tyler Henderson
- Law Follies: “Law Follies is one of the biggest student clubs on campus – and one of the most fun! Every February, Follies showcases a law-themed comedy show written and performed entirely by law students, with some faculty involvement. Last year’s performances featured scenes including: “Bay Street’s Back”, a show-stopping song and dance number parodying “Backstreet’s Back,” and “Raptor and Raptor LLP”, a sketch about a 2L student interviewing at a firm run by raptors (the dinosaur, not the NBA team), and a Breaking Bad spoof video featuring Professor Stewart as Walter White and Professor Niblett as Jesse Pinkman. The show is definitely a highlight of the year, and is well-loved by students, faculty, friends and family. Law Follies also records an annual music video, parodying well-known songs and dances. Last year, it was a ‘90s mash-up, and the year before – well, it was the year of Gangnam Style. Getting involved with Follies is really easy – no theatre or writing experience is necessary. The time commitment is what you make of it – everyone is welcome to submit scripts (and come to the sometimes rowdy brainstorming sessions), and play as big or as small a role in the production and performance of the final show as they choose.” – Hayley Ossip
- Board Game Club: “The Board Games Club is awesome because you get to meet people in a social setting that forces co-operation, negotiation, deal making and more than a little backstabbing. In short, it’s the best environment to get used to the Seven Sisters/OCI experience. Of course I’m joking, but the club allows people from different years to meet up and actually interact with one another, which can be pretty difficult in the existing structure of the school. We play everything from advanced strategy games (super fun!), to joke/word games (learn who’s funnier/smarter than you!). The club is inclusive, low commitment, and lets you wind down in a place where you will have a great reason not to drift into discussing your most recent LRW assignment (seriously, don’t talk about LRW).” – Bernd Buschke
- Trivia: “The trivia competition is a popular event that involves everyone at the law school. Last year there was great participation by all years, so it’s a great way to meet people outside your section and outside your year (we make the teams). Some staff and faculty even joined in! The time commitment is minimal—just one lunchtime and there a few more if your team advances. The winning team goes on to face Osgoode and a team of alumni at two separate pub nights. Last year we… embarrassed Osgoode and we’re hoping for a repeat! And if we beat the alumni they provide a generous subsidy for the Law Ball. Did I mention the trivia part? Yeah, Graeme Rotrand and I wrote the questions and we think they’re preeeetty neat.” – Andrew Lynes
Intramurals
SPORTS YEAH. Ahem. Intramurals are a great way to get some guilt-free procrastination (also commonly known as “exercise”) in and meet new people. There’s a wide variety of sports on offer, from hockey and basketball to squash and ultimate Frisbee. Plus, sometimes teams go for beers after to negate all the calories they just burned. Win-win.