1L Dilemma (What else is new?)

Since the partial scholarship will hold through the spring semester, then I would finish out your first year to see if you can pull your grades up.

Law school is too much work if you aren't sure you want to be a lawyer. At least if you finish out the first year, you could start again after a year sabbatical. During that year you could get a job or figure out what you want to do.

As far as the summer internship, you will have to look for smaller firms to interview with and be honest with them in terms of your grades and why you think you were given them, i.e. slow test taker. Tell them you are working on it and expect to have the grades you deserve in the spring semester. You can also tell them you're a hard worker, etc. This worked for me, I had a 3.0 the first semester, figured out how to take law school tests and was able to pull it up.

Also, if you have something else you are interested in, then you could use your first summer to explore that option. It depends on if you want to work for "big law". If so, then its a very finite track to follow: top grades, 1st summer big law (or maybe mid-size if top 20% of class), 2nd summer same or clerkship, then bar and big law job or clerk for a year and then big law.

For other non-profits and the like, I noticed when I was interviewing and for the non-profit internship I had, they wanted to see something different than summering at a firm.

It's tough because being a lawyer who litigates is one type of life. While you look at the transactional lawyers, or those who practice at a slower pace and its completely different. Maybe look into what type of law you would be interested in practicing and look into your alumni index, make some contacts and see if you can intern.

/r/LawSchool Thread