Normalizing Struggle

A person who is effective in law school, on the bar exam, and in practice utilizes the same set of skills in each of those scenarios: close, critical reading; synthesis of multiple sources of law into a coherent rule or schema; appreciation of both the big picture and the fine details of a set of rules of law; analysis of a factual scenario for facts that meet or fail a legal test; assessment of the validity and strength of counterarguments; and, of course, clear, concise, thorough, organized communication. Because all these skills are useful from the first day of law school to the last day of practice, it’s silly to treat legal education, bar passage, and the practice of law like different topics. It’s also silly to assume that law school is separate and distinct from the bar exam or that academic support is somehow outside the regular law school experience.