If you are considering law school after your time at Missouri State, there are things you should know ahead of time. Law school is everything you read about. Studying consists of long hours trying to relearn how to think. Instead of multiple choice exams that were typical in high school and undergraduate school, law school focuses a lot on essay exams which test your reasoning skills and understanding of the law.
Individual classes are set for you during your first year with the basics of law. Typically, you will have classes in Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Property, Torts, Constitutional Law, and Legal Research and Writing. Teachers vary in how they conduct class but you can expect to be called on at random to answer questions the reading that was assigned that day. While this was the most stressful part of classes for me in my first year, it doesn’t take long to readjust to the new system.
Most of what you will hear about for the first month of school is the grading system. Unlike most college classes, law school classes are graded on a curve. This means that the median GPA for any given class is typically set with the school. For Saint Louis University Law, the curve for first year classes is set at 2.7-2.9 meaning that the grades in the class average out to a C+/B- (there are exceptions to this but this is the general rule). Most of the time, as teachers will tell you, the curve will help you. For example, my Property professor said that his test averages a 50% meaning that a 50% on the test would put you in the range of a B-.
After the first year, you begin taking classes that interest you. These classes range from the rules of evidence to health law and can shape the type of law you do after graduation. The main question you have to think about is whether you want to work in a courtroom setting or an office setting. If courtroom work is what interests you, the best way to get that experience is through public interest jobs such as the public defender or prosecuting attorney’s office. Those positions typically give you the best hands on experiences working inside a courtroom while firm jobs typically help you work on your writing skills drafting memos and pleadings. Internships and externships also exist at SLU for non-courtroom skills including working with in house counsel and learning to draft contracts and estate plans. For those interested in judicial clerkships, opportunities with the Missouri Court of Appeals, U.S. Federal Courts, and local state courts also exist.
All of this being said, if you are interested in the legal field, hard work should not scare you off. The friends you make during law school work both as a support network and a professional network as you develop into your careers. Your classmates’ backgrounds will be as varied as the profession itself. Friends and classmates are pursuing legal careers with judges, firms, non-profits, and government entities. The areas of law they are entering into range from criminal work to health care policy to financial services to domestic work. There is an area of law for everyone to get passionate about.
There are things you can do while at Missouri State that will help you be ready for law school. The biggest help was undoubtedly Dr. Pybas’ classes. His classes are as close to law school courses as I had and taught me everything I needed for my first year Constitutional Law class. While the structure of the class might change, the content that we went through in Dr. Pybas’ classes were roughly the same as in Constitutional Law.