Dear Incoming GW Law Student,
Greetings again! We are writing with some additional information and important deadline reminders. Please refer to our checklist, which can be found on the Fall 2023 Orientation website, with all of the tasks we have sent to you and the associated deadlines. We will continue to add to the checklist as new tasks become available.
Course Schedule and Book Lists
Your fall course schedule is now available! You can view your course schedule on GWeb
by logging in with your UserID and password. Navigate to the Student Records and
Registration page and click Registration Menu to view your registration information. In addition, your book lists are now available. You can find your book lists by searching the bookstore website. In addition, a list will be posted to the Records Office website in August. If you cannot see the books for your course(s), that is likely because faculty have until Monday, July 31st to submit the books for their course. Please note that, while unlikely, your registration is subject to change up until Orientation and should be considered when deciding when to purchase any books. Please note that you will not have access to the MyLaw Portal and your course pages yet.
Inns of Court
As 1Ls, you are assigned to one of six Inns of Court, named after former Supreme Court
Justices, and will take all 1L classes with your Inn. You can determine your Inn by looking
at sections of Torts or Contracts to which you were assigned.
Section No. Inn
11 O'Connor Inn
12 Marshall Inn
13 Jackson Inn
14 Cardozo Inn
15 Brandeis Inn*
21 Jay Inn
*Brandeis Inn students will have some Section 21 courses
Student Bar Association (SBA) First Year Team
Each year the SBA has a team of upperclass students working all summer to help welcome you to the law school. You can find more information about the First Year SBA Team here. They are working to ensure you are connected by maintaining the 1L GroupMe, Discord, and Facebook group to stay up-to-date with announcements & events while getting to know your future classmates. In addition, they are excited to bring you a week of community building events during orientation week! We'll share more details in the coming weeks; please see this “save the date” flyer.
Today is the Last Day to Withdraw from GW Law without Financial Penalty (Due: July 27)
(NEW) Mentorship Program (Due: July 28)
Sign up as a mentee for the SBA's Mentorship Program! You'll be paired with a 2L or 3L who can help answer questions, be a friend, and generally guide you through your first year of law school. The form takes less than 5 minutes to fill out. The SBA will be making matches during the first week of August and you'll meet your mentor at the end of Orientation Week at the Mentor-Mentee Meet & Greet event.
Apply for GW Law Footnote (Due: July 28)
Does the phrase “hiding the ball” sound like something a person does with their dog? Does a tort sound like a dessert? If so, keep reading. The Dean of Students Office, in partnership with the Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, is offering the Footnote program, two additional days of orientation programming on Monday and Tuesday, August 14th & 15th. We created a schedule designed to provide participants with a preview of the law school classroom, insight into legal careers, and strategies for maintaining balance. If you are the first lawyer in your family, or you think that you could really benefit from a little insight into what to expect in your 1L year, please fill out our Footnote application.
(NEW) Financial Aid’s Cost-of-Attendance '202' Presentation (August 10)
The final session for the GW Law Student Living: Cost-of-Attendance '202' presentation will be in-person on August 10th at 3:00pm in the Burns Moot Court Room. If you are using financial aid, including federal student loans, for living expenses, and were not able to attend one of the eight virtual sessions, please plan to attend the final session if you will be in the DMV area. In this session, the GW Law Financial Aid Staff will present on living within the cost-of-attendance (COA) while attending law school. In this session, the COA components will be discussed in detail as well as helpful budgeting tools.
Interactive Budget Tool
If you are feeling confused about how you will spend money during law school or the idea of loans is stressing you out, you can also use the Interactive Budget Tool created by the SBA to map out your finances during law school. To use, download a copy of the budget and edit the copy with your personal information.
Character and Fitness Disclosures (Due: August 20)
Please ensure your application to GW Law provides disclosure of any legal volitions, college disciplinary matters, or similar issues, including any that may have occurred after you submitted your application. State boards of bar examiners will note any issue disclosed in your bar application that occurred before you enrolled in law school and specifically ask the Law School whether GW Law was aware of that issue when you enrolled. If an inconsistency exists between information obtained by the bar examiners and your law school admission application, that inconsistency could impact your admission to the bar.
Please make any necessary disclosures to the Admissions Office on or before Sunday, August 20, using the inatGW@law.gwu.edu email address. Please err on the side of disclosure. If you have questions regarding whether something needs to be disclosed, please contact the Dean of Students Office. It is in your best interest to review your law school application to GW and email any updates to Admissions now before you formally "matriculate" as a law student.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions!
