School Supplies for Law School

*** UPDATE***

For any of you checking out this post in 2019, I actually have written a new, updated post on must-have supplies for law school! I stand by everything in this post, but if you want to know my perspective as someone a little older and wiser who has graduated from law school, check out my new post here! In order to keep this post the most up-to-date, you will find that some of the information in this post has been updated to match that post, but this post has some good extra information as well. Okay, enjoy the rest of the post!

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Well, it might be hard to believe it - but summer is already half gone! Now that I'm in the home stretch toward 2L year, it's time to start preparing for the upcoming school year. Ever since I was a kid, my favorite part of starting a new school year was buying new school supplies. Who doesn't love brand new pens to write with in empty notebooks that live in a clean, new backpack? It's one of the best feelings in the world. Although anyone who's going to law school has been to college before, you may be wondering what type of school supplies you need for law school. Luckily, it's pretty much the same stuff. But here are my recommendations for the best school supplies for law school!

LAPTOP (*UPDATED*)

I know very few people that got by without a laptop in law school - it's must for taking notes in class, doing research, writing papers, and even taking exams. You don't need anything fancy, but I would recommend something reliable that will get you through school without worrying that it will crash in the middle of writing a research paper or even worse, your final exams.

I went to law school in 2016-2019, so the exact models of computers I used aren't current, however, this HP Envy is basically an updated version of the laptop I had for all of college, 1L, and 2L years.

For 3L year and the bar exam I purchased a Microsoft Surface Laptop, which has lasted me all the way until 2024.

Between the two laptops, there is a decent span of price points. However, if you need something cheaper, I'd recommend something like this HP - I've typically had good luck with those.

BACKPACK

These days I see so many school supplies blog posts talking about their backpacks, and I always laugh. They show off cute, fashionable backpacks. Which, I'm sure look amazing walking through the hallway. But law school textbooks are big. And heavy. So you need a large, sturdy backpack that won't kill your shoulders or rip under the weight of your law school textbooks. I recently bought this new backpack and I am so excited to use it during my 2L year. It's meant to be used as a travel backpack, which means it has a lot of room to carry law school books, lots of pockets to easily throw in my phone, pens, notebooks, textbooks, etc. It also has a padded laptop pouch, which is essential for law students.

An update from 2024 me is that I updated the link to the most current version of the backpack, and overall this recommendation stands. This backpack has now lasted me for three years of law school, the first five years of my career, and tons of travel!

PENS 

I've mentioned before that I handwrite my notes in class, so pens that I love are absolutely essential to my school supplies list. I want pens that write smoothly and easily, don't bleed, and don't smear. Ever since I started college, I have been in love with the Pilot G2 Retractable Gel Pens, and I refuse to use any other kind of pen. Seriously - I bought a giant pack to keep in my office this summer because I am so picky about my pens. 

Another common favorite I see are the Staedtler fine-point pens. Every blogger raves about them, so I had to try them out. I do love these pens - and all of the fun colors they come in. But I don't necessarily like them for everyday writing, because they don't flow as easily. I do like them for filling out planners or making flashcards, so I still keep a set around.

HIGHLIGHTERS (*UPDATED*)

You will do a TON of highlighting in law school. Like way more than you actually think. I literally went through a highlighter a week in law school - no exaggeration. I have a couple of different product recommendations here.

• For standard, yellow highlighters - my most used tool - I prefer Sharpie, thin, chisel-tip fluorescent yellow highlighters. I bought this 36-pack, because it made it so I wasn't running to the store for more every month. These are bright and thin, making it easy to highlight exactly what you want and the color is happy and stands out.
• For colored highlighters, I recommend Sharpie Clear-View highlighters. (I really love the Sharpie brand, y'all.) I love the clear view because you can see what you are highlighting through the little window. 
• For gel highlighters, I actually recommend my only non-Sharpie favorite, Bible highlighters! These are a great price and are nice to use on books with thinner pages that ink highlighters bleed through. Sharpie and other brands have gel highlighters, but I've found that the bible ones are thinner and more accurate. 

STICKY NOTES AND TABS 

You never know when you're going to need an assortment of post-its. I literally could not survive without these Post-It Flags. I use them from everything including tabbing books, marking important things in my notes, to organizing things like important files or flagging favorite quotes in some of the classic books I love to read. I love these so much that my friends have bought them for me for birthdays and Christmas - it's amazing. And of course, you can never go wrong having classic sticky notes around for when you need to write yourself a note, make a quick bookmark, or organize a stack of papers.

NOTEBOOKS

You guys know that I take reading notes on my computer and then my in-class notes by hand. So obviously I need notebooks to take notes with! I used to be so excited to get cool notebooks, but then I realized - that is totally unnecessary. My best advice is to get a bunch of basic, sturdy, college-ruled notebooks that aren't anything special. I usually get one notebook per class, all with the same color of cover, and label them for each class. This makes everything simple, easy, and totally functional for class. If you're going to take notes by hand - just get some basic notebooks.