Law School

Getting Readmitted to Law School

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I don’t need to be readmitted again. I have started my last semester of law school and will graduate in May.  This post is for those who are trying to be readmitted to law school after being dismissed for academic insufficiency.  “Kicked out of law school” or some variation is one of the most popular search terms bringing people to my blog even though I haven’t written much about law school.  For those searchers I’m posting what worked for me.  Hopefully, it will work for them as well.

Different schools have different processes but at my school when you were kicked out you had an opportunity to present your case to a committee on why you should be readmitted.  The first thing the committee wanted to see was that I was able to do the work.  Since I had finished my first year with good grades this showed that I had the ability to do law school work.  Next I needed to show a reason why I hadn’t done well the past semester and why I would do better if readmitted.  The reason I did poorly was due to depression.  After being dismissed I started counseling which helped with my depression and allowed me to do my law school work at a normal level again.  Even with being able to show why I would do better if readmitted I probably wouldn’t have been readmitted if it weren’t for the fact that I had a school administrator strongly advocating my case for me.  I can’t thank her enough for her help and I’m glad that I’ve shown with my performance since being readmitted that it was the correct decision to readmit me to law school.

Your reasons won’t likely be the same as mine but this should give you an idea of what you need to do.  If you are kicked out in the spring semester and want to be readmitted for the fall semester there are several things you can do over the summer to help your case.  You could take a non-law school law class. Or you could write a legal paper.  Or you could work in a law office, it would be very helpful if they allowed you to show some of your work.  I think the thing that would be most helpful though is to convince a member of the readmission committee to advocate for you.  The committee members are going to give much more weight to a fellow committee member’s opinion than anything you tell them.  If you can’t get a member of the readmission committee to advocate for you than an administration or faculty member would be your next best choice.

I can’t guarantee that these tips will get you readmitted but they should help your case.

Law School Loan Forgiveness and Income Based Repayment

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I wrote a post about law school loan forgiveness and income based repayment back in March. At that time both were still proposals but back in October they became official after being passed by Congress.

It is nice to know that if I do 10 years of public service that my law school loans will be forgiven. It is even nicer to know that my loan payments will be capped at 15% of my income above 150% of the poverty level and any remaining balance will be forgiven after 25 years. I hope I’m not still paying on my student loans in 25 years but it is good to know that my payments will be capped at a level I can easily make.

The only drawback is that if I have loans forgiven they will be treated as income for that year. That would most likely result in a huge tax bill. I’m not going to worry about that for now though. If it appears likely that I will have my loans forgiven than I’ll come up with a strategy for dealing with the taxes at that time.

Law School is Over for the Semester

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I had a final Monday and another final Wednesday and that was it for the semester. I have to do a little work for my clinic but I am basically done until next semester starts. I wish I could say that I’m confident that I did well enough on my tests to stay in law school. I feel okay about one of them but I’m worried about the other one. I don’t have a high enough GPA to bomb on a final and still maintain the minimum GPA for law school. It has always been very difficult for me to gauge how well or poorly I performed on a law school final. I’m hoping that I did good enough on the final but all I can do now is wait. Unfortunately, I will probably be waiting for a while. Based on my past experience I probably won’t receive my grades until after the next semester starts.

On a positive note, if I do manage to stay in school my next semester will be easy. I only have 9 credits and they are all pass/fail. I will have to do my 30 page R&W and I’ll have to actually appear in court for my clinic. Those are both things I’m dreading so next semester won’t entirely be a cakewalk but compared to my other semesters it will be pretty easy.

Oral Arguments

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Oral arguments are presentations you make before a panel of judges stating the legal reasons why your client should prevail.  It isn’t the same as a speech because the judges will frequently interrupt you with questions about your case.  As a law student you usually have to do an oral argument during your 1L year as part of your  legal research/legal writing class.

I had to do an oral argument during my 1L year but when I transferred my current school said that my former school didn’t say anything about oral arguments in their class description.  They made me take another class that requires oral arguments.  I didn’t want to take it but it is required for graduation so I did so.

I got one of my oral arguments done today.  In this class you have to do two oral arguments and I’ll be doing my second one in a couple of weeks.  I really hate public speaking and I don’t think that is going to change.  When I’m a lawyer I might occassionally be required to speak before a court but I’d prefer to keep those occassions to a minimum.  I doubt I’ll ever feel comfortable with public speaking and for now I’ll be happy to get my oral arguments behind me.

Halfway Through the Semester

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I’ve made it halfway through the semester. I have two half-semester classes.  I took the final for one on Friday and the other one will be on Tuesday.  Having my half-semester classes completed means I’ll now only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  That should save me a little gas and I hope to increase my productivity with the extra time.

I’m dreading the rest of the semester though.  Since I transferred they’re making me take a class where I have to oral arguments-two of them to make it even worse.  Public speaking is almost my least favorite thing in the world.

For my clinic class I have now been assigned two real cases.  I’m not looking forward to calling the clients and setting up appointments and then interviewing them to collect the information necessary for the case.  This all stuff I’ll have to do if I become a lawyer but not stuff I like.  People skills aren’t really an asset of mine.  Of course, I knew this is what I’d have to do when I started law school but didn’t worry about it when it seemed far off.

Sometimes I feel like quitting law school but it would be stupid to do so this late in the game.  Anyway, I’m halfway through the semester now so I might as well finish.  And if I finish this semester I’ll only have one part-time semester left so I might as well do that and get my degree.  I’ll probably be more positive about this once it is all over.