Law School Preparation

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Blog Posts

February 13, 2025
Start with the End in Mind: Preparing for 1L Exams from Day One

So much of your success in 1L is tethered to your performance on the final exam. It makes good sense to focus on those exams as early as possible. Here are our best tips.

January 22, 2024
Four Tips to Excel in Your 1L Year

A year ago, our Pre-L advisors Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino wrote a blog for us on their best tips for 1L success. After another busy cycle of Pre-L advising and 1L Success Coaching, they've reflected on the last year and have one more piece of advice to add!

January 16, 2024
Now Accepting Reservations for Pre-L (One-on-One 1L Success Coaching)

So you’ve applied—now what? Want to hit the ground running once you finally get to law school? Check out our Pre-L program, which just opened its registration for the 2024 cycle.

August 21, 2023
Three Tips for Brand New 1Ls (+ 1L Success Coaching)

Congrats to those of you launching your law school careers this month! As you navigate orientation and the heady first few days of classes, we thought it’d be a good time to share some advice—and an opportunity—from our Pre-L/1L Success team.

December 12, 2022
3 Tips for 1L Success (+ Opening Pre-L Course Registration)

We get asked a lot for advice on how to get ready for law school, so we’ve asked the Pre-L coaches on our team to share a few habits and mindsets to adopt to succeed as a 1L.

December 14, 2020
Prepare for 1L with Our One-on-One Pre-L Classes

To help get a jumpstart on what law school actually entails and on 1L preparation, we are launching our seventh year of Pre-L packages for applicants starting next Fall.

June 21, 2018
Time Management, Self-Care, and Motivation

Advice on handling anxiety and stress in law school.

May 27, 2017
Admissions Consulting and Pre-L Capacity/New Hires

A few Spivey Consulting announcements regarding our programs.

March 7, 2017
Now Accepting Spots for our Pre-L Program

Job well done on getting into law school. Guess what? The challenge has just begun.

Podcasts

August 6, 2021
Interview with Four-Time Olympian & Student Loan Expert Lauryn Williams

In this episode of the Status Check with Spivey, Mike has the opportunity to have a conversation with Lauryn Williams, four-time Olympic athlete and financial advisor with a specialty in student loans. In addition to discussing Lauryn's life and experiences as an Olympian, they also talk about the differences between taking out student loans for undergrad vs. for law school, income-driven repayment plans, public service loan forgiveness (PSLF), how to save for retirement while paying off your student loans (and the perhaps surprising tax benefits of doing so), and more.

As an Olympic sprinter and later bobsledder, Lauryn earned the accolade of being the only American woman to have won medals in both the summer and the winter Olympics. Today, she is a financial advisor, student loan expert, author, and podcaster specializing in improving financial literacy in young people and athletes. Lauryn's book, The Oval Office, is out now, and also be sure to check out the Student Loan Planner podcast and the podcast Lauryn hosts, Worth Listening.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

Mike also references the legal field's bimodal starting salary distribution in this podcast. See below (via NALP):

July 17, 2021
Recapping the 2020-2021 Law School Admissions Cycle & Predicting the Upcoming Cycle

In this podcast, Mike Spivey is joined by PowerScore founder and CEO Dave Killoran and Spivey Consulting Business Intelligence Director Justin Kane — a wonky law school admissions/LSAT crew if there has ever been one! — to discuss takeaways from this previous 2020-2021 admissions cycle and to make predictions for the upcoming 2021-2022 cycle.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

July 23, 2021
Law School Admissions Q&A with Mike Spivey

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting COO Anna Hicks asks Mike some admissions questions from Reddit, covering large-scale changes to law school admissions due to the pandemic, reapplication strategies, how law schools look at "KJDs," whether or not you should explain why you want to go to law school in your personal statement, how to write Why X statements when you can't visit a law school and don't know anyone who attended, and more.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

We mentioned a number of other blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos in this podcast — they are linked below:

August 5, 2021
Law School Admissions 101

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting COO Anna Hicks goes over the basics of law school admissions for those who are at the beginning of their application process and don't know much about how it works yet.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

This episode is meant to provide context and a basis on which you can expand your research — here are some further resources you may want to check out next, many of which were mentioned in the podcast!

Basic Law School Information & Rankings

Personal Statements

Diversity Statements

Other Application Components

After You Submit Your Applications

Other Concepts Discussed in this Podcast

August 21, 2021
Interview with Author on Resilience & Former Biglaw Hiring Partner Clint Schumacher

In this podcast, Mike interviews Clint Schumacher — author, podcaster, and former biglaw hiring partner — on resilience in the legal profession, imposter syndrome in law school, what hiring partners look for in applicants, and more.

Clint spent the first part of his legal career at Locke Lord, where he went on to be a hiring partner, then transitioned to Dawson & Sodd, a boutique firm with a focus on eminent domain. In addition to his legal practice, Clint hosts a podcast, The Eminent Domain Podcast, and recently published a book about resilience and overcoming adversity, Second Wind.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

August 18, 2021
The Coming Law School Admissions Cycle: Brief Thoughts

In this podcast, Mike provides a brief recap of the historic last cycle (2020–2021) as well as the short version of our best predictions for what's to come this cycle (2021–2022). If you'd like a longer and more in-depth discussion of these topics, please listen to our full podcast on these topics, "Recapping the 2020-2021 Law School Admissions Cycle & Predicting the Upcoming Cycle" (featuring Spivey Consulting's data wonk Justin Kane and PowerScore CEO Dave Killoran).

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.