I’m a high school / college student interested in law. Can you supervise my project, or can I work with you as a research assistant?

With regret, I only have bandwidth to supervise current Penn law students as RAs (research assistants) or on their own research.

What should I do in high school to figure out if I want to go to law school, or to learn more about the law?

If you’re curious about the law, my advice is (1) to reada lot about the law, and (2) to learn about the law in the real world!

What to read:

Nearly all good fiction, non-fiction, and journalism involves the law. The law is what we use to structure our societies. So if you pay attention, you’ll learn a lot about the law by reading about the world. Law is also a highly verbal profession - law is built of language, after all - so the more proficient you are at reading, writing, verbal expression, and analytic thinking, the better you will eventually be at the law. You just can’t go wrong by reading as much good writing as possible.

You can also read legal blogs like SCOTUS Blog, The Marshall Project (if you’re interested in criminal justice), LawFare, and plenty of others.

There is no dearth of law-centered literature, including classics like To Kill A Mockingbird and Crime and Punishment and popular fiction like John Grisham novels. I recently read Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography with my young daughter (the young adult version), which we both enjoyed.

And finally, there are innumerable excellent law-centered or law-related podcasts, TV shows, and movies. Some of my favorites are Serial, Season 3; The Wire; and The Ezra Klein Show. I have We Own This City on my agenda.

How to learn about the law in the real world:

Talk to any lawyers you know or meet about their jobs and their lives. Ask lots of questions!

Go court-watching! The public has a constitutional right of access to criminal trials (protected by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution), so criminal courts are generally open to the public. Find out where your local state-criminal-court proceedings are held and just walk on in. You will likely need ID, will have to go through security, cannot bring a weapon, and may have to temporarily hand over, seal, or turn off your phone. But there is no substitute for seeing the law in action.

You can also generally watch FEDERAL court proceedings, which tend to be much calmer, more formal, and more legalistic than proceedings in state court. Do the same thing - Google federal court in your area, check out the website for info on attending court, bring ID, etc.

Finally, if you have the luxury of doing an unpaid internship, consider trying to intern with lawyers in a non-profit organization that does legal work, a public defender’s or prosecutor's office, a law firm, or a government office, or an in-house counsel’s office for a company.

Alternately, intern with ANY organization that provides non-legal “direct services” to people struggling in their lives - with poverty, housing, mental health, substance abuse, immigration challenges, educational challenges, whatever!! In short order, you will see that the law structures our society in all kinds of ways. Sometimes it provides tools to help others. Sometimes it could be used to help others, but we are lacking the laws that would do so. And somethings it even impedes people from accessing things that they need. The more experience you have with challenges that people face in their lives, the more focused and effective your eventual legal education and legal career will be (and the better a candidate you’ll be for law school down the road).

What should I do in college to figure out if I want to go to law school, to learn more about the law, or to position myself to get into a law school?

My advice to college students is pretty much the same as my advice to high-schoolers: read a ton, work on your writing and logical/analytic skills, and get out and learn about the world.

Do not major in “pre-law.” You can start college as pre-law to learn what kinds of skills your school thinks are useful preparation for a career in law, and to take advantage of whatever career guidance your school provides. But you should ultimately use your time in college to expand your horizons and develop your own intellectual passions. Top law schools like Penn admit students with all kinds of undergraduate majors - literature, history, philosophy, political science, molecular biology, physics, neuroscience, engineering, computer science, you name it! Law schools want students with diverse backgrounds and expertise that they can bring TO the law. Our best students tend to come from the humanities, where they’ve honed their analytic and writing skills.

You should also use your time in college, and in my view a few years after, to learn how the world functions. Get a job! Work during your college summers, work for a few years after college. Try to get a sense of what different kind of jobs and work environments are like and what you’d like your role in the world to be. Consider the same kind of positions I suggested above for high-schoolers but (if you can) with a salary: an entry-level position in a non-profit organization that does legal work, a public defender’s or prosecutor's office, or a law firm, government office, or in-house counsel’s office for a company; or ANY position with ANY organization that provides non-legal direct services. If you are a Penn undergrad, check out Civic House and the Netter Center’s ABC courses and other programming. Get involved in your community.

And, as I suggested for high-school students: talk to lawyers about their jobs and their lives! Go court-watching! (See above for more detailed advice on court-watching.) Read about the law and law-related things and see if it interests you.

To reemphasize one point: I highly recommend working for a few years after college before attending law school. You’ll have more knowledge about the world, better perspective, more of a sense of your own priorities and ambitions, and more motivation. You’ll be a more attractive candidate for law schools and have a better time once you get there. It doesn’t matter what work you do, except that the more interesting to you it is, the better. Working as an investigator at a public defender’s office is one fantastic post-college job. I’ve also had students who had formative, powerful experiences working as English or high-school teachers in underserved communities or abroad—or working as a restaurant server, nanny, organizer, legislative aid, lab assistant, police officer… It’s also fine to work as a paralegal or consultant, but lots of people do that before law school so your story is less likely to stand out and, frankly, most students I know who came that route did not enjoy the job. Your early twenties are a great time to explore. Take advantage.

The law is changing fast, as is the rest of the world. AI will rapidly be able to take on many of the most mechanical aspects of lawyering. The value of our profession, in my view, will increasingly lie in the specifically human qualities of wisdom and judgment. There is no way to cultivate those qualities except by living—with curiosity, openness, generosity and empathy toward others. So do some living before you take up the law.

How do I become a law professor?

Luckily, the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) has this one covered: Check out their great website with info and resources.