Stanford Law Students Publish Guide for ‘Radical’ 1Ls

Guide tells students how they can reconcile their matriculation with their beliefs

Aaron Sibarium • August 20, 2021 3:20 pm

A student group at Stanford Law School has put together a guide for “incoming progressive/radical students” who are trying to reconcile their matriculation with their “anti-racist, anti-capitalist” beliefs.

The guide, which was produced by the Stanford National Lawyers Guild, went out to all first-year students via a listserv on Aug. 19. It warns members of the incoming class that “you may find yourself feeling outraged at the blatant racism/homophobia/xenophobia, etc. perpetuated by the law,” and offers tips for working through that outrage. Those tips include skipping readings when they interfere with “self-care,” joining activist groups working to abolish the police, and “learning how not to give a fuck.”

The guide emphasizes that there are silver linings to attending an elite law school like Stanford, even as it upholds “the patriarchal racial colonial capitalism that crushes people and planet.” Although there aren’t many “legal jobs that will pay you to undermine capitalism,” the guide concedes, “there are a few, and [Stanford Law School] grads have disproportionate access to them.”

The Stanford National Lawyers Guild did not respond to a request for comment.