Into the fourth week of 2L, I’m still waiting for it to be “easier than 1L,” as I’ve been told more than once. At BC Law, students are back on campus full time since the Covid-19 outbreak. For many of us, balancing in-person classes, work, student leadership, and free time is a new challenge. My recommendation for anyone who hasn’t started their 2L year yet is to avoid unnecessarily overloading your schedule. I’ve outlined a few tips that apply to classes and extracurriculars that are helping to ease the stress:

LexisNexis® Courtroom Cast

LexisNexis® Courtroom Cast is a database that houses AudioCaseFiles, which include downloadable MP3 recordings of judicial opinions. It doesn’t have every case you’re likely to need, but the recordings are so helpful to listen to while driving to campus. This way, I can refresh my memory on the case just before class and recoup some of the time lost from commuting again.  

OneNote

One of my best friends who recently graduated law school had recommended OneNote before I started at BC Law. I think it was the best advice I received about law school. OneNote has proven even more helpful as a 2L because I am constantly going back to search my 1L notes. Civil Procedure and Torts have been especially relevant in my upper-level classes and it is incredibly useful to have access to that information quickly. The other day I ran into some computer issues and it was a relief to know I could view my notes online and from the app on my phone. If you didn’t use OneNote during your first year of law school, it’s not too late; I still highly recommend it.

Google Calendar 

This one might seem obvious, but if you are heading a club (this often falls on the shoulders of 2L students) you can also create a designated club calendar to share with your members. Whenever you create a meeting or event in that calendar, it will automatically show up on every subscriber’s calendar as well. I wish more clubs did this because it is so easy to overlook an email or forget about a club event. I also recommend Canva.com for creating club posters and including QR codes to direct people to your calendar or website.

Follow Legal News

Following legal updates gets much more useful once you start to narrow down your career path. Keeping up with news in your future industry will probably help to understand your summer work and can be easy talking points at networking events. Most law students can utilize discounts on books and media through the school’s library or even follow relevant groups and hashtags on LinkedIn and Twitter. Lexis Plus also offers Topic Alerts where you can even set the email time and frequency.

Don’t Forget About Resources from 1L

In 1L year, you’re constantly reminded of all the tools at your disposal through orientations, bootcamps, and mentors. All of that dies down a bit during 2L. It’s easy to forget about those resources or feel like you’re past asking for help. 

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Fiona Maguire is a second-year student at BC Law. Contact her at maguirfi@bc.edu.