BEING METICULOUS

Being meticulous is essential to success; and failing to not be meticulous will not bring you average success, but possibly ruin. A student in my online law school prep course failed to follow instructions three times in one week. In response to this, I provided him the following letter.

Mike, I want you to do well in law school and I think you have the potential to do well, but you must follow instructions.

In law school many professors are hard and fast about their instructions, and sadly too many law students find this out after the fact. Law school professors are generally meticulous and anal people. Additionally, law professors are constantly concerned with whether students will competently represent clients. They are willing to take hard stands on minor issues to teach students lessons so that students do not make those mistakes in the real world and subject themselves to complaints, or even worse, malpractice suits.

Mike, I don't mean to be or sound harsh, but I am very sensitive to this issue because I made mistakes practicing law because I was not paying as much attention as I should have been and was lucky these mistakes did not cost me.

Entering law students should understand that law school is a professional school that is preparing them to practice in the profession of law immediately upon graduating, and that law professors see themselves as one of the gatekeepers of the profession. Law school professors are inflexible with instructions because they are very sensitive to issues concerning a student's competence, especially the competence to represent clients. The ability to follow instructions is one aspect of a law student's competence that is directly tied to an attorney's ability to follow a judge or client's instructions.

Students must understand that the legal profession is one in which clients entrust many sensitive and important personal issues to attorneys, and if those instructions are not followed no amount of damages from a malpractice suit may compensate the client. Furthermore, for the attorney no amount of good doings before or after an act of malpractice may be able to rehabilitate the attorney's reputation, and in the legal profession an attorney's reputation is his or her most important asset.

Good luck in law school!

If you have any questions or comments about this article, or want to write your own article about the pre-law or law school process, feel free to contact me.