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So you?re a freshly minted law school student.

You?ve been accepted. You?ve done the orientation.

You?re now in your first few weeks of classes, learning the building blocks of tort, criminal and contract law that will serve you in good stead for the rest of your career.

This seems like an ideal time to tell you some of the things you need to know about law school, because at this point, you?re pretty much in it to the end.

2.) Your marks are important. Your profs and the careers office and pretty much everybody in a position of authority over you will tell you over and over again that marks don?t determine who gets a job. This isn?t entirely true. Marks don?t determine who gets a job all by themselves, but most employers looking at articling applications will have a benchmark. At a big firm, it?ll be a high threshold. At a smaller firm, it can often be a lower one, but that?s no guarantee at all.

More importantly to you, marks usually become quite important if you want the easiest route through law school to an eventual career: the second-year summer student position at a medium-to-large firm which results in an articling hireback. Most first-year law students come fresh out of university and don?t have anything interesting on their resumes beyond, maybe, some volunteer work or an odd extracurricular activity. What distinguishes you from other students, all too often, are your marks.

3.) Don?t assume it?s the end of the world if you get a C. Everybody gets a C at some point.. The brainiest student I know ? someone who rewrote her papers for fun, someone who had an A average and who?s now clerking for a very important judge ? got a C in administrative law. It?s practically impossible to avoid a C during your time at law school. Interviewers won?t care about one C. Like a scar, it?s a mark of character. It makes you relatable.

Besides, nobody really trusts a person who?s good at everything.

So good luck to you, and try to enjoy the ride.

- Christopher Bird, Toronto

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