This easy-to-read, upbeat and motivational book is designed as a guide for law students who have completed 1L to help you finish law school strong, pass the bar exam, and begin law practice on a solid and positive footing.

Part I of this book is about you as a law student and the path you are on as a future attorney. It is about the challenges and rewards of focusing on continuous improvement (including dedicating resources to your health and happiness), and on your work now and for the remainder of law school to enhance your own learning and educational experience as you prepare to serve clients, the courts, and our legal system. This book is candid about how hard law school really is and how many people let the trials of first year negatively impact the remainder of their studies. But the upper division years fly, and you deserve to enjoy your studies and enjoy being on a positive path, heading toward a meaningful and rewarding career. Reading this book provides an essential pause to help contextualize, acknowledge and appreciate 1L challenges, reclaim your power, and reframe your focus with growth mindsets and strategic tools and practices for a lifetime of doing well and doing good.

Part II focuses on fundamental lawyering skills—skills you can train during law school to help prepare for bar exam success and success in law practice. Such training is especially critical now as the NextGen bar exam includes much more heavy testing of practical lawyering skills than did prior bar exams. The chapters in this section of the book will provide some key background and foundational knowledge that will guide students in preparing for success on performance tasks and other practical exam components.

The final section, Part III, looks forward, providing a window into the future –with some food for thought on making the rest of law school rewarding and fulfilling and positioning yourself as well as possible for success on the bar exam and in law practice.