[MRM]

She should not, under any circumstances, work her first year. The ABA prohibits first years from working more than 10 hours a week at anything. Trust me, a first year law student should worry about only one thing and that is law school. The less she has to worry about life in general, cooking, fighting traffic, and other mundane pains in the butt of everyday living, the better. I wanted to live on campus, but the dorms were all full so I took a room in a house across the street from the dining hall and took the meal plan. I woke up in the morning, walked across the street for breakfast, walked the rest of the way to class, spent the day at school, walked back to the dining hall for dinner, walked back across the street to my room, shut the door and started it all over again the next morning. Really, in a strange way and for a short period of time, it was a pleasant way to live. There is always time for fun. Hanging out after classes, the evenings aren't completely studying, and you can do things on the weekends. But the more she can narrow her life to law school for her first year, the better off she'll be, and the more free time she'll have for fun when she is caught up with her reading.

She should try to work the summer after her first year, and should try to get a clerkship in her second year. It's very important to get a clerkship by the summer after her second year, but if it doesn't happen she shouldn't sweat it. In fact, she shoudn't sweat anything about law school. 99% of it is a big mind game. If she uses her own judgment, maintains perspective, and resigns herself to a marathon rather than burning out in a sprint, she'll be just fine.