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Reviewed: 03/03/23
After working hard throughout your undergrad, you may wonder what to do the summer before law school. Read on to learn the top 15 things students do before starting their legal journey!
Congratulations! By the summer before law school, you’ve likely already completed your difficult four-year bachelors, spent all your free time pursuing useful extracurriculars to boost your resume, written and scored high on the dreaded LSAT, and got into some of your dream law schools.
Now that you’ve finished the arduous application process, what’s next? This guide will give you some ideas on what to do the summer before law school!
Considering you’ll be spending the next three years completing a rigorous legal education, your summer before law school should first and foremost be enjoyable! You should use it to reset and refresh to be prepared for the challenges you’ll face during your first year.
With that being said, here are some ways to spend your summer:
One popular way students spend their summer before law school is traveling! Whether it be spending months backpacking across Europe, sitting at the beach for a week in Mexico, or road-tripping across the States, now is the best time to check off any bucket-list destinations you want!
Since you’ll want to spend the summers of your JD pursuing clerkships or internships, you’ll have little time to travel for the next three years! To avoid feeling like you’ve missed out or getting burned out, it’s important to travel and check off some of those bucket-list items.
Reading great books before entering law school can help you develop your vocabulary, increase reading comprehension, and improve your critical thinking. We don’t mean reading legal textbooks or trying to memorize legal definitions from a dictionary.
Read books that interest you, whether science-fiction tales of aliens taking over Earth, historical non-fiction about America's past, or autobiographies of your favorite celebrities.
Reading books can stimulate your cognitive abilities and enhance your communication skills to prepare you for law school better!
It’s well-established that law school comes with a hefty price tag. To help offset some of these costs and enter your first year feeling more financially prepared, you might want to pick up a summer job.
This job can be related to law if you’d like to begin building your professional resume, but it doesn’t have to be! You’ll have plenty of time and opportunity to join a legal job during the summers between your law degree, so feel free to pick up any job that interests you!
Of course, over one summer, you won’t make enough to cover a significant amount of your tuition, but you can use this money to cover your textbooks, food, or personal expenses! Any extra cash can help make the high costs of law school more manageable.
If you feel nervous about joining law school and want to gain experience in the field beforehand, you can spend your summer pursuing a legal internship. You can search for these opportunities at local law firms, organizations, or universities.
Many universities offer summer internships that help students build skills that will aid them in law school.
A legal internship can help ease the transition into the academic and professional world of law. For students who may feel nervous or uncertain about what to expect, gaining firsthand experience in a legal setting can provide a sense of comfort and clarity.
By working at local law firms, organizations, or universities, you can get a better understanding of the day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and culture within the legal field.
Reach out to current law students, alumni, or professionals in the legal field through networking events, LinkedIn, or local bar associations.
Building connections early can provide valuable mentorship and insight into navigating law school and the profession. It’s never too early to start creating these relationships, and you never know what they’ll lead to!
Participating in volunteer work can help you develop empathy and advocacy skills—qualities essential for a successful legal career.
Whether it’s helping at a community center, organizing charity events, or working with legal aid organizations, this experience will enhance your understanding of social issues and broaden your perspective.
Another helpful step is to read up on the professors, programs, and clinics aligned with your interests. You can map out a rough plan now—for example, identifying classes you’ll need to take to qualify for a clinic or noting when mock trial tryouts occur so you can prepare early.
Understanding the processes for getting involved in journals, moot court, mock trial, or clinics before starting law school will make these opportunities feel far less overwhelming when the time comes.
If you already have an idea of the type of law you want to pursue, start researching the experiences that can help you succeed in that field. Big Law often prioritizes strong grades, journal participation, and moot/mock trial experience.
Summer judicial internships typically require a polished writing sample, while public interest jobs value demonstrated commitment through clinics and volunteer work. If you’re unsure what kind of law you want to pursue, that’s perfectly fine too. Use this time to explore your interests and remain open to new opportunities.
By proactively identifying potential experiences to pursue, you can make more informed decisions and feel better prepared to meet the expectations of your chosen path.
Law students tend to have very inactive social lives because of their limited free time. During the summer before law school, you should spend time with your friends and family.
Spending time with your loved ones now will help you make up for the lost time you’ll have and establish a strong support system, which you’ll definitely need throughout law school!
If you have any weaknesses that could affect your performance in law school, spend your summer working on them. For instance, if you’re a nervous public speaker, find opportunities that will force you to speak publicly. Perhaps you can volunteer as a tutor or join public speaking workshops or local debate clubs.
Challenging yourself to address weaknesses before law school is important because it allows you to enter this rigorous environment with greater confidence and readiness.
Before entering law school, you must develop healthy habits that you can rely on. This means it may be time to retire your typical college weekend habits and adopt more healthy, proactive ones.
Once you have a better understanding of what your schedule will look like, establish a routine that fits it. Wake up and sleep at an appropriate time, consider implementing physical activity in your routine, and have a roster of stress-relief methods to fall back on when you’re overwhelmed.
Starting law school with healthy habits in place is like setting the stage for success. A good sleep schedule, some exercise, and go-to ways to unwind will keep you feeling your best and ready to tackle whatever law school throws your way!
Research to determine the estimated costs of attending your law school. Consider housing costs, food, transportation, textbooks and supplies, and other personal costs if you're moving away from home. Always budget more towards the higher estimate to prepare for emergencies or unexpected expenses.
Creating a budget can help ensure you make it through your legal education with as little financial stress and burden as possible.
It's difficult to know what to expect on your first day or first year of law school, but by using reliable sources, you can better understand what law school is like. This doesn’t mean rewatching Legally Blonde to learn how Elle Woods navigated Harvard and successfully (and unrealistically) won a legal case as a 1L student.
Instead, reach out to peers that have already completed their first year, read online forum posts of law students, and consider reading guides written by law professors or students.
You want to go into law school with realistic expectations so that you aren’t overpreparing and overstressing yourself out while also readying yourself for the workload. It’s also nice to have extra tips and tricks on how to really excel your first year to make a good impression and start your degree off strong.
You don’t want to go into law school unprepared. Create a list of essentials you’ll need to pack and ensure you have them well before your move-in date. Understand your schedule well and move in as early as possible to become familiar with the campus and know where your lectures are.
Early prep and staying organized will simply make this process easier on you. Law school isn’t easy but you can ensure the transition into it is!
Consider what’s on your bucket list and spend your summer before law school checking some of these items off! Have fun doing whatever it is that makes you happy!
Spending time with the people you love and doing what you love will help you focus on your studies for the next three years without any regrets!
Here’s a quick checklist to help you prepare for law school:
Take time to relax and explore new places before law school! Once you’re in law school, you’ll be spending your summers pursuing clerkships and internships. You should also consider reading to enhance your vocabulary, reading comprehension, and critical thinking.
This doesn’t mean reading legal texts, but any reading will make it easier to read those complex legal texts when you need to!
You should also develop a sustainable routine with balanced nutrition, exercise, and sleep. Experiment with different stress-management techniques to find which works best for you so you can rely on them later.
For some added peace of mind, you should also try to learn more about what your first year will be like. To get the most authentic insight into what to expect, look on Reddit or other forums to hear from actual students.
Gain some exposure to legal environments and build relevant skills through internships, if possible! This isn’t necessary and the majority of law students don’t have direct legal experience, but it can make the adjustment to law school and your clerkships easier.
Save as much as possible for law school and create a budget. Plan your year accordingly and develop the habit of sticking to a budget. No matter how carefully you plan out your budget, unexpected costs are inevitable, so ensure you have an emergency fund.
Below, you’ll find the answers to the frequently asked questions about what to do the summer before law school.
You shouldn’t spend your summer memorizing legal textbooks and trying to get ahead of all your readings. Spend your summer having fun, developing your reading skills, working on weaknesses, developing healthy habits, and gaining a realistic understanding of law school.
Figure out stress-relief techniques that you can use in law school, establish a healthy routine for yourself, create a budget to limit your financial stress, and spend time with your friends and family, as they will be your rock when you’re met with challenges in law school.
You do not have to do an internship the summer before law school. While it can help you feel more comfortable in the legal setting, you’ll be expected to join internships and other opportunities during the summers of your JD anyway!
While you should expand your knowledge and skills by reading interesting books, some books can help you prepare for law school. These books are written by legal professors and students that can help you navigate the rigors of law school!
There are dozens to choose from, but our top picks are IL Of A Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School by Andrew J. McClurg and Law School Done Right: Proven Tips for Success from Recent Grads Who Killed It by Brian Savage And Michael Seringhaus.
Your summer before law school should offer some reprieve between your undergrad and JD. Use this precious free time to pursue your interests and aspirations and prepare for law school. Have fun, and get ready to commit all of your time and energy to your legal education for the next three years!
