The Archetypes of Law Students: A 3L’s Snapshot

A year later from when I first wrote about the archetypes of law students, I decided to rewrite this fun piece after having more experiences and exposure of law school life and the students it’s filled with. Take a peak below to read on the updated take of Law Student Archetypes.

The Advocates (/ˈadvəkəts/): their voices thunder off the acoustic walls of the lecture hall as they champion an opinion or point of view, usually from a progressive standpoint, until their position is made clear. Upon encountering this sensation, you’ve met the Advocate. For my law school particularly, these law students are commonplace in Environmental, Immigration, and Criminal Law environments. However, those are just a few legal fields that run in the circles of Advocates. They’re often very passionate, striding to bring correction to the many institutional problems within their intended legal field. For an Environmentalist, that may mean correcting legislative loopholes greenhouse gas emitters exploit to produce excess CO2 emissions; for an Immigration attorney, it’s getting the impoverished immigrant child reunited with their parents detained in an insidious ICE facility; last, the Criminal Justice law student, who may strive to correct the disproportionate sentencing of low-income minority communities. One thing is for sure about these law students, and that is their passion and commitment to utilize the law as a tool for the causes and communities they seek to benefit demands admiration. For that is more often than not, their sole focus in their law school journey.

BigLaw Posse (/biglô’päsē/): a LinkedIn update is seldom missed, they’ve memorized the Am100 chart, and they are suspiciously always “elated” to announce a newly secured internship or job. Need another clue? Well you shouldn’t, because members of the BigLaw Posse will ensure you know who they are. Often in the top 15% of their class, this group undeniably has an admirable work ethic, possesses fantastic outlines, and have the peculiar trait of speaking with fellow members of this closed-off group as if they’re both a friend and adversary. The latter being understandable as many of these law students run within the Corporate Law circle, which means fierce competition within a small pool. They certainly get bragging rights when it comes to predicting which law school circle will pay off their student loans the quickest, as many of the BigLaw Posse begin their 3L year having secured $170k-$200k 1st year Associate offers from their summer jobs. Though there’s always two backs that need scratched in the corporate world. The price BigLaw Posse members pay for those starting salaries is they’re crowned the monarchs of the highest annual minimum billable hours requirement. This will mean billing 2100-2300 hours a year, and that’s all without non-billable work factored in! Still, for many of these law students work is in fact, play, so to each their own on that note.

The Explorers (/ikˈsplôrərs/): if their class schedules appear to be as if a jenga tower crashed with each log having a different field of law written on it, you’ve met the Explorer. This law student can never furnish a singular answer to the question: what field of law are you going into? While their indecision may seem scattered-brained at first, they’ve developed multiple legal interests and understand that law can do a lot of good in a lot of different areas. It’s not necessarily whether they want to practice law that’s the question they can’t answer, it’s simply which field. Though the Explorer won’t likely be your most decisive friend, they’ll definitely be the most knowledgable. Through all the exploring of various legal classes they’ve taken, this law student embodies a commendable bandwidth of legal knowledge, and that achievement is noteworthy in itself. These law students can often be very personable and well-liked, given all the social circles they’ve had exposure to in making their rounds. Regardless of which field of law these law students ultimately choose to pursue, one thing that’s certain is that they’ve probably learned which fields of law that aren’t a good fit better than most law students. Ultimately, by the time they settled on a field of law, they’ve become masters of the process of elimination.

The Hackers (/ˈhakərs/): all work and no play, you know how it goes..and no other law student embodies the work-life balance philosophy more than the Hackers. These law students do not live to work, they work to live. Always busy, but never swamped and always available, but never carefree, these are the laws students who strive to obtain prestige without it having to cost them a substantial portion of their individual freedom. They’re essentially anywhere between the BigLaw Posse and the Small-timers in both salaries, which can range from $120k-$165k, and annual billable hour requirements, more in the 1700-2000 realm. In a sense, they “hack” the competitive binary system most law schools foster that functions to shuffle law students into either “superstar” or “average”. They also appear to lay an undisputed claim to the envious medal of having the highest level of life-career satisfaction among law school graduates. Last, since they refuse to compromise their preferred degree of independence, they’re unshackled from the pressures to pursue specific fields of law that, while pay handsomely, they may not be quite as passionate about than others.

Small-timers (/smôl-ˈtīmərs/): sometimes aloof, into community, and always willing to lend a helping hand - these are the Small-timers. The title is by no means meant to patronize, rather emphasize that these law students are sincere in their quest to utilize the law to aid their fellow man, much like the Advocate. They’re often into community and make whatever firm they join after graduation their home for many years. They enjoy the smaller scenes, and thus these are the law students that are commonly found working for solo-practitioners or smaller, regional firms whose attorney numbers never rise more than 20. In light of this, these law students are uncommon in the large urban metropolises many of their colleagues congregate, and instead are more likely spotted in the small towns and cities in wherever they choose to settle. Although they don’t crave the bigger legal playgrounds many other law graduates tussle in, these law students are in no way bottom of the class. Simply put, they’re more into the practice of law itself and what it can do for the average citizen more so than average corporation.

So, there you have it. An updated take of at least in my law school, the five most common tribes law students consist of. Of course this piece should be taken with a grain of salt, as it does not seek to portray the law school experience for everyone.