Be in Charge of your LL.M
The school year has just started, and for many LL.M students it is the great adventure. However, many think that pursuing the LL.M degree and taking a state bar exam will be enough to fulfill their dream. Well, it won’t.
Completing the LL.M degree and getting admitted to a state bar are huge accomplishments, but those are only the pieces of a bigger picture. To be more specific, those two elements are part of your formal education as opposed to informal education.
Formal education is classroom-based, provided by trained professors. Informal education happens outside the classroom. The distinction is important as both are at the crossroads between success and failure.
To be in charge of your LL.M means taking control of both elements. So how do we do that?
Taking control
‘Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.’ It couldn’t be any truer!
There is actually an abyss opening up after receiving your degree. All these years studying and suddenly your OPT period and its countdown have started. So what are you doing now? Have you done what you’ve been told to do?
And that’s when you realize: doing only what you are told to do will lead you somewhere where everyone else is going. Don’t get me wrong, people are here to help you. You do get help with your lectures, your resume & cover-letter, and even with the Bar Exam, so there’s shouldn’t be any reason to panic. Except that there is.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”—Joseph Campbell
The truth is that your law school provides you with all the tools you need to go on your path. Sure, there’s many ways to get back control of your life, but what you really got to do is to understand those tools and use them to your advantage.
Whether you use them or not is beyond the formal legal education, and this requires self-discipline, self-education and strategy.
The first point here is that you should be self-educated. Be curious: what do the J.D. students do differently? What are all the steps to get admitted to the Bar? What do employers look for? etc. The more you know, the more control you will have on your path.
Avoid mistakes
Right away you should identify the mistakes to avoid during you LL.M program. Ask former students about their experience? What are their biggest regret? Is there any Tips to succeed on the LL.M?
That’s also when our Blog comes handy because we can answer your question.
In general, there is three mistakes to avoid: first, you must attend and prepare for your classes. You’ve done the readings, so you already know everything? Wrong. Go to class, participates, get noticed!
Second mistake is to stay passive. It is bad for you. Don’t be shy! Do something that scares you at least once a week for instance! Get out of your comfort zone.
Finally, don’t pretend to be someone else. If you are an LL.M student, you are different and that’s your strength! Take the classes you want! Write about something that you like. You already had a career? Tell us about it!
Make no excuses
Listen to Harvey. “I don’t have the time” means nothing other than “I am not willing to do it”.
In fact, 99% of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. You don’t understand something? Then ask someone. Bar Prep is too difficult? Then get help. You are interested in a field? Then enter it rather than observing it.
Seize the opportunity
And what about opportunities? Can you look back and say you’ve seized every opportunity that has ever presented itself before you? A moot court competition is terrifying, yet it will distinguish you from the others. Writing a paper for a journal takes forever, yet again it will change the game for you.
Look around you: are you really jumping on those opportunities? Are you using the tools that are provided to you? Don’t beat yourself up when you missed a great opportunity but dust yourself off and keep going.
The most important thing in the end is to take control of your LL.M. Understand that your formal education is only half of the picture. Be self- educated, avoid basic mistakes, make no excuses and don’t wait for opportunity to knock. Instead, be prepared to create and seize control of your LL.M, because if you don’t, nobody else will.
