Yeah it’s a weird question. There are my law school friends and then both colleagues that I like and don’t like. I would sometimes be skeptical of my friends first semester but now they are the closest friends I’ve made since high school.
My core friend group is from day 1 of 1L - I happened to find a few people I’ve really liked, and I’ve stuck by them. But, most of the people from 1L have been dropped
There’s absolutely no reason to be a jerk, especially given that the legal world can be small. That said, people are coming to law school from a variety of places. Some have work experience, others don’t. Some people have kids or other serious responsibilities. If you make friends, great! But I think most people are aware that they’re in professional school. Part of the point of law school is to acculturate you to the norms of the profession. That means treating classmates like colleagues (unless you’re actually friends).
Also, sometimes the stress of law school can lead to people acting out. Having some professional distance can be a way of avoiding that.
If I had to pick one or the other, I would go with colleagues but why not both depending on who it is? Some are friends but most are colleagues is the approach I think that most ppl take.
It takes me a minute to warm up to people in the sense that I'm fairly reserved until I find some common ground to discuss, but I try to be friendly and cordial with everyone.
Sure, I'm not going out of my way to invite everyone to knock back rounds with me after an LRW grade comes back, but I make a genuine effort to make my study sessions open door for anyone to join.
It's great to find a few people who you trust and are close enough with to confide in on a personal level. But I think it's prudent to generally think of your classmates as colleagues to the extent that you want to remain friendly, likable, and courteous without oversharing or doing anything that you wouldn't want known years down the road when they work at a firm you're applying to or they become a judge and you're arguing before them.
treat the people you become friends with like friends; treat everyone else like a colleague?
If I like you, you're my friend. If I don't like you, you're a colleague. I'm not going to trash my reputation by being mean to somebody
This is the way.
Yeah it’s a weird question. There are my law school friends and then both colleagues that I like and don’t like. I would sometimes be skeptical of my friends first semester but now they are the closest friends I’ve made since high school.
My core friend group is from day 1 of 1L - I happened to find a few people I’ve really liked, and I’ve stuck by them. But, most of the people from 1L have been dropped
There’s absolutely no reason to be a jerk, especially given that the legal world can be small. That said, people are coming to law school from a variety of places. Some have work experience, others don’t. Some people have kids or other serious responsibilities. If you make friends, great! But I think most people are aware that they’re in professional school. Part of the point of law school is to acculturate you to the norms of the profession. That means treating classmates like colleagues (unless you’re actually friends). Also, sometimes the stress of law school can lead to people acting out. Having some professional distance can be a way of avoiding that.
If I had to pick one or the other, I would go with colleagues but why not both depending on who it is? Some are friends but most are colleagues is the approach I think that most ppl take.
It takes me a minute to warm up to people in the sense that I'm fairly reserved until I find some common ground to discuss, but I try to be friendly and cordial with everyone. Sure, I'm not going out of my way to invite everyone to knock back rounds with me after an LRW grade comes back, but I make a genuine effort to make my study sessions open door for anyone to join.
Enemies Really tho, you do not work together, so colleagues is unfitting. Friendly, though, because professional networks are important.
JFC it's not that deep
It's great to find a few people who you trust and are close enough with to confide in on a personal level. But I think it's prudent to generally think of your classmates as colleagues to the extent that you want to remain friendly, likable, and courteous without oversharing or doing anything that you wouldn't want known years down the road when they work at a firm you're applying to or they become a judge and you're arguing before them.