It comes as no surprise that your law school GPA is a significant factor future employers may consider.  But what does your GPA really say about you?  I would propose that the answer is generally different for non traditional law students as opposed to traditional law students.

For the most part, a traditional law student will devote most of her time to school (study, law review, moot court, etc.).  For the non traditional law student however, law school is in addition to work, family, and probably many other responsibilities.  Of course we must also balance the fact that many non traditional law students do not attend full time either.  That notwithstanding, most stresses for traditional law students come from school, while for the non traditional law student they come from many more sources.

That being said, for a law student who has basically all of her time to devote to school, she will probably obtain a very nice GPA if she wants to.  For the rest of us, it may be almost impossible to pull the same GPA simply because we do not have enough time to devote to our studies.  Does that mean that we are not as intelligent or as hard working as our traditional counter parts?  No.

I do not have a 4.0 GPA.  But I work full time.  I have a wife and six children.  I cut the grass and pay the bills.  I take the kids to activities.  The list goes on and on.  If you are like me, and I know some of you are, you know exactly what I am talking about.

I am very competitive and put a lot of pressure on myself.  During my first few terms I did very well grade wise, but my family and personal life suffered somewhat as a result.  In my later terms I have decided that being a 4.0 student is not worth three years of alienating my family, church, and friends.  This is not to say that I do not strive to do the best that I can do.  This is only to say that I realize that I must prioritize my life and create a proper balance.  Grades are certainly important, but they are not the most important.

I carry a class load that I feel comfortable with; that I can maintain a good GPA and still have time for the other important things in my life.  I have just had to except the fact that if I want to graduate from law school before I am, ahem, too old, I will probably not attain the GPA that I wish I could.

But consider this.  If you can average a 3.0 (or even a 2.5) with a moderate amount of study time, just think of what you can do if you really apply yourself during your study for the bar exam.  If you are serious about learning you will learn the material.  When you go for your bar review course it will all come back to you.  Then you can take 2-3 months and really cement the material into your mind.  Moreover, once you are a lawyer you will not have a full time job other than that of lawyer.  For me this means 40+ hours a week that I will have to familiarize myself with areas of the law that I did not have each week I was in law school.  After all, ethics do not require you to know the law in an area before you take a case.  They do require you to be able to learn the law through proper research and preparation.

So if your GPA is not as high as you would like it to be, take a moment to reflect why.  Is it because you are lazy?  Is it because you really just don’t care?  Or is it because you have made the commitment to prioritize your life and accept the fact that law school is not the most important thing in the world to a non traditional law student?

Don’t read this and think for one minute that I am promoting any slackers out there.  I study hard.  I just don’t study as much as I would like to because there are only 24 hours in a day (and I like it when my kids remember who I am.)  If you are doing the best you can, and you are not on academic probation, buck up and be happy.  When the bar review rolls around you will kick some booty!  God bless and have a great day.