The first day of my law career.

I heard that a lot today. About how every first-year law students’ conduct from this day forward is going to follow them into their professional careers in the future, so we all better be kind, considerate, professional, and smart.

All sorts of professors, deans, and alums gave one rousing inspirational speech after another. And they worked. I am now incredibly fired up and excited about law school.

At the same time though, I feel ridiculously overwhelmed and scared already. It’s not going to be easy. I think that’s finally sunk in. The fact that I’m in law school has also begun to really hit home. I’m going to be a lawyer. Someday. Relatively soon.

Things I’ve learned:

- Network like a crazy person.

- Focus only on law school this first semester. Don’t worry about jobs or anything else.

- Use every resource available. Hastings has so many faculty, programs, departments, groups, etc. that it is seriously going to be impossible to keep track of everything.

I have homework already. I read two sample contract cases for a sample class tomorrow morning as part of orientation. For some reason, I always thought that cases were going to be cut and dry. I don’t know why I thought that because clearly, from what I just read, it’s murky, confusing, and a lot of he-said, she-said business. Applying the law to real circumstances takes clarity, judgement, and a lot of work.

I definitely don’t have those skills yet, but the two rules I took away from the cases?

1. No matter your intentions (ie, if you meant it as a joke), if you create and sign a contract in good faith, the person you made the deal with has every right to expect you’ll come through on the bargain.

2. If you sign a contract, it is your responsibility to know and understand what you just signed.

Take that! From a budding baby pre-lawyer to you.Welcome to my office. It may be on the floor right now, but someday it’ll be in a real building. Maybe even with windows. And a view.