Day in the life of a PGDL law conversion student

I’d love to say I start my mornings with yoga, but that would be lying. Usually, I take my time getting ready and head to the tube just after the rush period then the work begins. As soon as the doors close, the Quizlet flashcards come out. By the time I step off the train, I’ve already reviewed my key cases and legal concepts for the day; the prospect of being called on in class is (slightly) less scary.

9:30am | Library Deep Dive
Coffee in hand, I often head straight to the campus library to finish preparing for my afternoon workshops. Though I could do this at home and commute in later, I find ULaw libraries have a focused energy that can’t really be replicated at home; being able to sit with classmates and tackle the material together is always an added bonus. I’ll usually have completed most of my notes by this point (there’s no way to cram in 6 hours’ worth of prepare tasks before lunch!), so this time is spent tackling practice questions and getting ahead for other workshops.

12:30pm | Refuel & Catch Up
I usually meet up with a few friends from my cohort and treat myself to something from a café nearby (I’m only on campus two days a week, after all). We try (and often fail) not to talk about law for at least forty minutes though it’s very reassuring to realise that none of us understood that part about promissory estoppel…

1:30pm | Back-to-back Workshops
Wednesdays are pretty fast paced with two workshops back-to-back: Tort Law and Contract Law. However, at ULaw these aren’t just hours of passive listening. Rather, we’re using fictional client scenarios to actually apply legal concepts, working in groups to solve complex problems and speaking to lecturers (who often are practising or retired lawyers) about similar situations they experienced in their own careers. Nevertheless, by 5:30pm, my brain is usually fried that’s when the best part of the day comes in.

6:00pm | From Statutes to Socials
After a long day of studying, almost my whole class heads together to the local pub (a Wednesday tradition) and usually does their quiz. You’d think a team of future lawyers would have an unfair advantage – and honestly, after winning our very first one, we definitely let the fame go to our heads – but it turns out that knowing the intricacies of Contract Law doesn't help much when the question is about 90s pop trivia.

Ultimately, being a law student is a balancing act it’s about working hard enough to feel like you’ve earned that downtime at the end of the day. Wednesdays are definitely the busiest part of the week, but they’re also the time I feel most like a future lawyer if I can survive them, you can too!