This has been a relatively interesting evening at work. I talked to a dermatologist who is also a lawyer (but is currently not practicing law)...he told me that he actually wanted to attend law school and med school concurrently, and inside, i cowered at his dedication and obvious brilliance. I also helped out a rather computer-illiterate public defender who was doing research to defend a witness whose life is being threatened by a gangster. I really feel I helped someone.

I Googled "bad law school grades first semester" and found these encouraging words:

First Semester Law School Grades
This post is for whoever found my site searching for "bad grades first semester law school". My first semester grades were disappointing. I did not even make Dean's List my first semester and my class rank was decidedly unexciting. By second semester I had graded onto law review (for what that was worth -- more later on why law review was not my bag) and I got all the job offers I cared about (an interviewer teased me about my Torts grade once, but we laughed about it together and moved on). Now my school was very small and I happened to do very well second semester but the message is, everyone's just figuring all this stuff out, and so how you prepared for, took, and scored on first semester exams is not an accurate predictor of how you are going to do in law school or in life. It just isn't. Now you have a clue about what to do and how to study and what to expect -- you didn't before. So quit freaking out and turn your attention to the fascinating and baffling topics they're asking you to learn THIS semester. You are just as smart and full of potential as you were in September. Smarter, in fact. Go learn.

More on Bad Law School Grades
I don't have much more to say about getting off to a bumpy start in law school, gradewise. But good heavens, lots of people are doing Google searches or writing me about it. My heart goes out to all of those of you who were disappointed, heartbroken, shaken by your grades, who are now doubting yourself and looking to Google to make sense of it all.

Look, guys, I got a C- and a C+ my first semester of law school. (And two A-s and a B+, to be complete). I was 22nd in the class after that. The next semester I got two As, a couple of A-s, and another B+, and I was 4th in the class. I just kept moving up, and I graduated first. So it's not hopeless. You're not destined to have dismal grades for the rest of your law school career. They needn't hold you back.

Stop gnashing your teeth about what these grades MEAN about who you are and what you're capable of and what the Rest of Your Life is limited to. You are just as smart as you were the day before you got your grades. And now you know something you didn't know before: what to expect from law school exams. March your butt into your professors' offices and sit down with the exam and talk to them about it. We all know you studied your head off, but did you articulate what you knew, or did you study the wrong stuff, or did you have trouble identifying the issues, or were you a disorganized mess, or did you confuse the terminology, or what? Whichever one(s) it was, you're going to fix it next semester. The professor will help you, if you ask. And now you know to ask.