I was diagnosed with ADHD during the last few weeks of law school. Looking back, there are three things I wish I had understood before I started. Before I begin, I would like to introduce myself, I’m Bekah Mercer, a lawyer and a coach-in training at Partner Up.
1. Law school is not structured for neurodivergent students to succeed.
In many educational settings, there are multiple points of accountability: homework, quizzes, midterms, projects, and regular feedback. Students have opportunities to figure out what they know and what they still need to work on.
But in law school, you carry the responsibility to create your own systems of accountability.
Law students quickly find that they have hundreds of pages of dense reading, occasional cold calls, and one final exam at the end of the semester.
Entering law students have to quickly figure out:
• What is actually important?
• What does the professor expect me to know?
• How each professor is going to test me?
• How to retain all of this information?
• And how do I create my own deadlines when the ultimate deadline is months away?
Neurodivergent law students can find these demands and lack of structure overwhelming.
Most neurodivergent students and professionals thrive when expectations are clear and there are regular points of accountability. We also do well when we can hyperfocus—but that’s difficult when you’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin.
2. ADHD contributes to imposter syndrome.
The second thing I wish I knew when I started law school was how much ADHD contributed to my imposter syndrome.
I always assumed that the difficulty I was having meant that I wasn’t as interested in the subject matters or that I wasn’t as brilliant as my peers.My classmates always seemed to know how to approach the material. They seemed to understand what was important, how to prepare, and how to succeed. Meanwhile, my ADHD brain was struggling with the executive functioning demands of law school.
So, I felt consistently behind and like I didn’t belong. Looking back, I wish I had understood that struggling in an environment that isn’t structured for the way your brain works does not mean that you are unintelligent or incapable.
3. I wish I knew that ADHD coaches exist!
Finally, I wish I had known about ADHD coaching If I had entered law school with a greater understanding of how my ADHD impacted me, it would have been a better experience. For many people, like me, law school or graduate school may be the first time their existing coping mechanisms stop working. With the assistance of a coach, I would have learned to create coping strategies while I was still in school.
Law school is very different than undergraduate programs. From the first day, the professors expect you to create your own structure, set your own deadlines, manage enormous amounts of information, and figure out how to retain it all. This is overwhelming and intimidating.
If I had known that I had ADHD before law school and used an ADHD coach, I would have entered with much more confidence. Coaching would have helped me create my own systems of accountability.
That’s one of the reasons I’m currently training to become an ADHD coach. As a coach-in-training, I’m specifically focusing on working with law students right now because I understand how overwhelming law school can feel when you’re navigating an ADHD unfriendly environment. If you’re a law student struggling with structure, accountability, prioritization, or confidence, and you’re looking for someone who understands what you’re going through, check out my availability and schedule a session with me by clicking the button below!
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You don’t have to figure out how to create all of that structure by yourself.
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