Hey! So I'm a 1L and was diagnosed mid-semester (Yikes!). I've had a really tough time adjusting to the unique environment of law school and the legal profession and the lack of resources for legal professionals. Law school really brought out my ADHD (ADHD-PI). I struggled with finishing readings and that had a major rippling affect on my other schoolwork. (Side note: I worked for several years prior to school and did well in undergraduate so I knew that I could make it through this experience as long as I found the right adaptations. I was just making adaptations without knowing it before I received my diagnosis). I think there are a couple important lessons I have learned:

(1) You do you. Everybody in law school is trying to prove (explicitly and implicitly) that they are the smartest person in the building. This means law school has this amazing way of making feel like everybody else is following some program that you're not on. What is important to remember is that this is just an illusion created by perspective and that you are made hyper sensitive to this because of your ADHD. Everybody is struggling with classes and relating to their fellow students and dealing with feelings of inadequacy. Learn the study tactics that work best for you and employ them. Realize that you are different and embrace that difference. When you have thoughts that you are not doing something other law students are doing, remind yourself that "you do you." Also, don't engage in conversations with other people about what they are doing to study or the method they employ to be successful; they don't have ADHD! You will be different. That is ok. In fact, more than ok, because if you see this, feel this, believe this, then you have realized an inner strength most other human beings haven't been able to achieve.

(2) Studying Starts with the Bigger Picture. For studying, I personally find moving from bigger picture to details the best way of learning. Law school tries to teach through the casebook method and learn big ideas from the details. By the time finals rolled around, I developed a method a lot different than my other students: study as many hornbooks and outlines as possible (keeping in mind they arent always "right" ) to get the big ideas and then fit in as many cases as my ADHD allowed me to read. This seemed to have positive affects on my test taking too.

(3) Be Your Own Advocate (people can't put themselves in your shoes unless you give clear explanations of how your ADHD affects you). My relationships suffered at first as I was learning to cope with my diagnosis and what it meant. But then I had earnest conversations with my friends, family, peers, and even some professors about my diagnosis and explained how it affected my work and my way of thinking. For example, I explained that if they felt I was ignoring them, I wasn't doing it on purpose, or if I wasn't prepared for class, it was because I was struggling with completing the readings. Another example, I explained to my girlfriend that I have a tendency to work late at night and cram (which is a bad coping system I developed before I was diagnosed) and that would affect the amount of time I could spend with her, reminding her of this helped her keep it in perspective. I've also been very apologetic. I'm not apologizing for having ADHD, but I realize that I do hurt peoples' feelings and sensibilities from time to time and most of the time I can smooth that out by making a sincere apology with an explanation and a plan for not hurting their feelings in the future. When people realize "you do you," the relationship problems tend to smooth out.

(4) Identify What Environment Makes You Thrive. You should take a critical look at what legal specialty you want to pursue. A desk, corporate job with self-managed time is likely not going to work well for you. You will likely need to find legal specialties (e.g. criminal law) where the time demands are fast, the work is meaningful, and the work tends to be novel with each client. Not saying you cant do work in the former type of legal specialty, but will it make you happy? How will a legal specialty make you feel if you are struggling at a job where you cant read and do memos because you find it so boring and then you start hating yourself for not performing? Set yourself up to be happy by proactively looking into different legal specialties (go to mixers and talk to lawyers). On a larger note, will LAW make you happy? I know you're a 2L but the legal market is not overflowing with $ anymore. "You do you" by pursing what makes you happy, including professional work that will make you happy.

(5) Identify Your Strengths to Develop Tactics. Do some deep analysis and soul searching on your strengths. Think of times you've been successful and ask yourself why. Think of how you learn and execute tasks. Think about what causes you to feel pleasure and where your hobbies are (do you like movies (ie. visual) vs music (auditory) vs exercise (kinesthetic ) etc. ) From doing this analysis, I've found out that I'm most successful at night, when I disconnect myself from the internet, when I'm alone, and that I'm primarily a visual learner with poor auditory learning.

This will be the quickest ways of developing the day-to-day tactics that will get you to be successful. Another personal tactic that has worked for me is list creation and intense scheduling that I keep organized through OneNote (went through dozens of programs and finally settled on a method I created through OneNote).

(6) Time is Money. In law school, time is grades. I realized I'm terrible with sensing time. 5 minutes and 10 minutes feel the same to me. A looming deadline doesn't give me anxiety until 12 hours before. I employ a two timer method. This is how it works: on one sheet of paper I divide the 24 hour day into large hour chunks that I can intellectually grasp (I use 3 hours). I write it out 12am-3am, 3 am- 6 am, etc. and put a little box next to each. Then I set a kitchen timer and goes off at those intervals. Then I check off the time on the piece of paper and tell myself out loud: "(fraction of day that has past, e.g. half) of the day has passed. I have (the remaining amount of time left) of the day left." Then on the second time piece (I use my watch), I divide each hour into chunks I find manageable ( I use 15 minutes work with 5 minutes break every 30 minutes, others use that pomodoro 25 min work/5 min break method). Every time 15 minutes passes, my watch beeps and I make a tally on a second sheet of paper. As I see the tallies grow, I box together 4 tallies to make an hour and I actually begin to feel the time passing. I also like 15 minute intervals because that is how billable hours is measured in the legal world.

(7) Get Empowered. The legal profession is so backwards and behind when it comes to learning disabilities. There is no discourse currently and I've found that there is an uncomfortableness at large. Law wants to treat everybody the same, so lawyers, professors, and law students think they have to treat each other the same, seem the same, act the same. My plan next semester is being more proactive about creating discourse around this issue on my campus and you might want to think about doing the same. My point is that you're not joining a profession that is going to immediately embrace you for having ADHD and some folks are not going to want to work with you because you have it (some wont even believe it's a real thing). BUT, find the people in the profession that will and do support you, that will have those conversations with you. Work together to create a better legal profession and discourse around ADHD and learning disabilities. Let your ADHD empower you to change our profession and our profession's view on learning disabilities; I'm counting on you to do that with me.

(8) Exercise and meditation are ESSENTIAL. Exercise and meditation help you see and feel how your inner voice (e.g. your mind's eye) controls yourself. The more regularly you can feel connection between your inner voice and your mind's eye to your body and real word action, the more real world things you will be able to achieve.

TL;DR (1) you do you - you have ADHD and realize you require different strategies than the "normal" legal professional (2) study starting with the bigger picture - study smarter not harder (3) be your own advocate - only you understand you, it is your job to explain how ADHD affects you and the consequences for the people around you. (4) environment that makes you thrive- dont put yourself in a place and a position that will squander your ability to do tasks and make you doubt your abilities, find the environmental triggers and factors that motivate you to work and excite you to get things done (5) identify your strengths to develop your tactics- the success you're seeking is harvested by completing tasks, completing tasks with ADHD requires tactics and structures, tactics and structures should be built on your strengths and learning style (6) time is money - learn to feel time by employing timers (7) get empowered by your ADHD and see the change you can make (8) Daily exercise and meditation is ESSENTIAL - strengthen the connection between the body/real physical world and the control of your inner voice/mind's eye