CRASHING INTO FIRST CLASS: LAW SCHOOL EDITION – PART 3

MAXIMISING THE EXTERNSHIP PERIOD

The externship period is one of the most nerve-wracking and gruelling stretches of the Nigerian Law School (NLS) experience. For roughly eleven to twelve weeks, you must navigate your court and chambers placements while mastering everything you have been taught (and often feeling pressure to go beyond it), all with the knowledge that, once externship ends, the bar finals are only about two months away.

It is also the part of NLS that catches many students off guard. The work itself is rarely the problem; the challenge is that it happens away from the academic environment, away from your usual study rhythm, and right before the highest-stakes exams of your legal education: the bar finals.

Where you are posted can make all the difference. You might be one of the lucky few assigned to chambers and courts that expect only the barest minimum from you. You might instead land in chambers that treat you as an unpaid employee, or in a court that expects you to sit through every single proceeding. Or, like me, you might end up somewhere in the middle, envying friends whose principals rarely gave them tasks or whose courts rose by 12 noon, while thanking God that my court and chambers had not completely swallowed up my reading time.

Your living situation matters just as much. You might return to a home where everyone understands the pressure you are under and makes room for you to study. You might return to the same chores you handled during the holidays. Worse still, you might stay with a relative or a stranger who treats housework as the price of your stay. If you are fortunate enough to rent a place of your own, you will have the freedom to use your time however you wish.

Then there is travel. Your trip home could be a one-hour flight, or it could mean more than twelve hours on the road: a journey that consumes an entire day and often demands another day to recover.

The truth is that there is no level playing field during externship, yet everyone is expected to deliver the same results. And if your results disappoint, no one will accept the excuse that your externship was rough and you had no time to read. That is the harsh reality.

With this in mind, it’s quite astonishing how many NLS students venture into the externship period without a plan and come out without much to show for it. Knowing how delicate a period of time this is, it is essential that you have a clear plan and idea on how to navigate it, and I will be sharing my thoughts on this. I’m not here to talk about how to deal with your courtroom or your chambers, NLS organises a workshop for that just before externship begins. I am here to show you how to keep studying for the bar finals sustainably, even when you spend all day in court or chambers.

 

THE NLS EXTERNSHIP STRUCTURE

The Nigerian Law School’s academic calendar is built around three terms, and externship makes up the second. It typically begins with a pre-externship vacation, followed by about five weeks of court externship, a short break, another five weeks of chambers externship and a post-externship vacation. The third term then opens with portfolio assessment. By the time externship begins, you will usually have covered ten to twelve weeks’ worth of course content, with the remainder taught after externship and portfolio assessment.

That is the typical arrangement, but my set’s experience in 2025 was slightly different. The externship was split in two. We had about seven weeks of lectures, went on court externship, returned for the remaining eight weeks of lectures and then left for chambers externship. When we returned from chambers, we had only about a month for portfolio assessment, revision and the examinations. Still, despite the split, our experience mirrored that of most students in many ways.

 

WHY A PLAN IS IMPORTANT FOR THE EXTERNSHIP PERIOD

As you can tell from the academic calendar, the revision window between the end of the externship and the exams is very short, and much of it is consumed by portfolio assessment and the remaining lectures.

Therefore, if you don't use the externship weeks to keep your reading alive, you arrive at that final stretch with months of accumulated academic rust on top of new material. And that is a terrifying position to be in. Many students who find themselves there are gripped by fear and resort to drastic, even dangerous measures just to catch up.

That is why it is more than advisable to enter externship with a plan, knowing that this is a season for aggressive reading and ready to take it by storm.

 

STUDYING DURING THE EXTERNSHIP PERIOD

I spent the first few days of my court externship drawing up a dangerously ambitious timetable that, surprise, surprise, I could not stick to. It was a plan that only became feasible during chambers externship, by which point I had read certain topics several times and could cover two, three or even four in a day.

However, because I had spent the lecture period making notes, my first reading during the court externship felt like I was encountering those topics for the first time and hence, reading a single topic could take an entire day and for courses like Corporate Law Practice, a single topic could take a day and a half.

So I adjusted my timetable. Instead of measuring my first reading by how many topics I covered each day, I focused on giving every course equal attention, keeping pace across all of them, prioritising drafts and setting aside time for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and past questions.

On weekdays, I read topics and completed the drafts for each topic as soon as I finished it. If I had read to my satisfaction by the end of the day, I would answer a few MCQs. The nightly Red Scroll meetings also gave me the chance to revise past questions almost every night. At weekends, especially on Sundays, I answered past questions and MCQs and filled my logbook for the week.

I also squeezed reading into every spare moment. My court usually sat until 5 p.m., so once I had noted enough cases for my logbook, I spent the rest of the time reading. I read everywhere: on the bus to court, in the court library, in the car to church. When I was bathing or doing anything else that kept me from reading, I listened to recordings or podcasts generated with NotebookLM. I kept a strict schedule, waking up by 4 a.m. or earlier most days so that I could read for at least five hours before court and at least four more after. Even though I could not read as fast as I wanted at first, and even though that was discouraging, I stayed consistent, stayed on schedule and kept pushing.

I kept up this pattern during chambers externship, even though my reading had become much faster. In essence, my plan was to read at every waking moment and leave no course behind. It was rigorous, stressful and difficult, but consistency kept me afloat and ensured I did not drown in work once externship ended.

 

BALANCING STUDIES WITH CERTIFICATIONS

NLS students have access to several certifications, most of them in arbitration or mediation. Often, as in my case, the lectures and examinations for these certifications take place during externship.

I had always been interested in arbitration (I even took it as an elective at university), so registering for the discounted certification offered by the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators was a no-brainer.

I will not lie, though: at one point, I began to wish I had not registered. When I arrived at NLS, I had dropped every engagement that might eat into my time, determined to devote myself to studying. By the time the certification classes started, I had entered externship with a backlog of unfinished notes and a very aggressive reading plan, and I quickly realised that the certification would take far more of my time than I had bargained for.

For a start, there was a three-day series of intensive classes, running from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., during the break just before court externship. They took up most of that break, but having paid ₦150,000 for the certification, I had no choice but to be fully invested. After that came a one-hour award-writing examination, a practical simulation of arbitral proceedings, and a research assignment we had two weeks to complete.

In hindsight, having emerged as the overall best candidate in the examination and the winner of the Professor Fabian Ajogwu Prize for International Arbitration, I may have put in more effort than was strictly necessary. That is probably why balancing the certification with my studies during those two weeks was so hard. Very hard. Even after the classes ended, the assignment meant waking up earlier than usual and giving several of my already scarce hours each day to research and writing. I wish I had prepared myself mentally for how time-consuming it would be. Thankfully, by working on the assignment in the early hours of the morning and devoting the rest of the day to my actual reading, I completed every requirement without my academics suffering.

I would never discourage anyone from pursuing a certification. I would, however, advise you to understand exactly how much time it will demand and to put proper structures in place to accommodate it. I went in blindly and managed to wade through, but you will be far better off knowing in advance what a certification at NLS will take from you. With that knowledge, you can decide whether it is worth your time to take advantage of the discounted rate while at NLS or whether you would rather pursue it later. More importantly, you can build structures that protect your reading, which is the most important thing at NLS, while you work towards it.

 

BALANCING STUDIES WITH JOB APPLICATIONS

Another potentially overwhelming part of externship is applying for jobs while juggling everything else.

Job applications typically open around the middle of the externship period. For my set, however, they began during the two-month interval between court and chambers externship, and the tests followed during chambers externship.

One piece of advice I received at NLS was to remember that acing the exams is a means to an end, and that end is securing a good job at a top-tier law firm. So, tempting as it was to ignore job applications entirely and focus on my goal of a first class, doing so would not have been wise.

Realistically, you could wait until after NLS to apply, or even until your results are out, and if your results are strong enough, firms will want you. But waiting significantly narrows your options, especially among tier-one law firms. Most of them accept CVs and cover letters, begin their recruitment processes and, in some cases, even complete interviews before you sit your exams. For instance, Aluko & Oyebode, the firm I now work with, ran its entire process, from the Jobberman online test to the physical test and interview, while I was still in law school, and released offers shortly after the examinations. Had I waited until after NLS, my chances of joining the firm would have been significantly reduced, if not eliminated.

Other tier-one firms, such as Olaniwun Ajayi and Banwo & Ighodalo, also began their processes while I was in law school, although many concluded theirs after the examinations. Some top firms, however, such as Kenna Partners and G. Elias, waited until results were released before recruiting their trainee associates.

I will be honest: balancing job applications with your studies during externship is very difficult. I outsourced my CV and a template cover letter to a company, but I still had to write individual, firm-specific cover letters for about twelve law firms. That was exhausting, because each letter demanded research and an in-depth understanding of the firm. At one point, I remember breaking down under the stress of it all.

The testing period is even more stressful. Most law firms use computer-based assessments such as the CCAT, GMAT- or LSAT-style tests, or Jobberman tests. Preparing for them is completely different from preparing for your exams: you must consistently carve out time to study the English, mathematics and abstract reasoning sections. You also need plenty of practice to build speed, because these tests require you to answer many questions in very little time, sometimes 50 questions in 15 minutes.

To make things easier, download the CCAT app or turn to YouTube to learn how to approach these tests as early as possible. Leaving it until the testing period can be overwhelming and may force you to abandon your academics entirely to focus on the tests. I downloaded the app early, and although I was not consistent, I had built up significant practice before testing began. Even so, I often had to set aside my academics for a full day or more to prepare for an upcoming test.

In all, I wrote four tests during chambers externship: two for Olaniwun Ajayi and two for Aluko & Oyebode. Each time, I made the painful decision to prioritise the test, at some cost to my academics, until it was over. My approach was to spend the day before and the day of each test preparing for it, and then to work aggressively afterwards to make up the reading time I had lost.

So expect that you may need to send applications, write tests and possibly even attend interviews during externship. I would advise you to prioritise your job search, since a job is most likely your end goal, but keep a balance; as the last thing you want is for your academics to slip because you are job hunting.

 

BALANCING STUDIES WITH PREPARATIONS FOR PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

Portfolio assessment may seem like a formality, but many people forget that if you fail it, you will not be called to the Bar with your peers, even if you graduate with a first class.

Failing is rare. What is far more common is being caught out a few days before the assessment with empty or half-filled logbooks, unfinished essays and ethical dilemmas, and unprepared PowerPoint presentations. Students in this position end up flailing around, tossing their books aside as they scramble to finish work they should have dealt with during externship.

I will not pretend I was the perfect student during externship. I did not fill my logbook every day. Some days in court, I did not even capture enough cases to record, largely because my judge spoke softly and did not use a microphone. However, I had a strategy for tackling the logbook issue.

First, I kept a jotter for both placements, recording cases in court and the day’s tasks in chambers. That way, however long it took me to transfer everything into my logbook, I never had to worry about forgetting what had happened that day. Second, I set aside time on most Sunday mornings to record the entire week in my logbook.

For assignments, I made sure I had at least four signed off by my chambers. As for the other essays, although I wrote most of them after I returned, I had already gathered materials from others to guide me.

I also made a genuine effort to work in chambers and pay attention in court. As a result, during my portfolio assessment, I could speak confidently about my experience and show my supervisors that I had taken externship seriously. The assessment itself was smooth and brief, but I had prepared thoroughly for every question I could anticipate.

So do not neglect the externship itself simply because you want to use the time to read. Read diligently, but remember that externship is an essential requirement for qualifying as a legal practitioner in Nigeria. Give proper attention to everything you need to do to ensure your portfolio assessment goes smoothly.

 

YOUR MENTAL HEALTH DURING THE EXTERNSHIP PERIOD

When people offer advice about maximising externship, or NLS in general, they often overlook mental health. In my experience, many students struggle with it during externship, and I was one of them. Although I arrived with a beautiful plan, once I discovered it was too ambitious to sustain and my name began appearing less often on the Law School Paddi leaderboard, I experienced severe stress, anxiety and even despondency. I compared myself constantly with my peers and, despite spending hours reading every day, I spent just as much time judging myself and talking myself down for not being diligent enough, fast enough or simply good enough to earn the first class I was aiming for.

My reasoning was simple. Every first-class student I had listened to or watched on YouTube talked about reading three topics a day, yet during my court externship, as I mentioned earlier, there were days when I could not finish even one. Many times, I panicked and cried bitterly out of frustration, stress and sheer exhaustion from the constant, monotonous reading.

My mental health suffered most when I returned to a topic I had spent hours on, only to discover that I had forgotten a huge chunk of it. In those moments, I felt like the biggest fool alive. I battled imposter syndrome throughout law school, and at times like these, I questioned how on earth I had graduated with a first class as the best graduating student in my class. Then the panic would set in: with my forgetfulness, how could I possibly replicate that success at the Nigerian Law School?

I also was involved in a tricycle accident one day on my way to court so coupled with all the stress and every other thing that I went through at NLS, for two weeks, I experienced muscle pains and neck stiffness which made it even more difficult to read. In fact, for the first two days after the accident, I was mandated to lie down and rest to heal, but it was very difficult to do so because all that was in my mind was all the things that I had not yet covered and how my mates were reading while I was in bed recovering from being flung out of a tricycle as it basically somersaulted in the air from a failed brake. And that was not great for my mental and bodily health.

All in all, I cried a lot at NLS, probably more than I did during my entire five years at university, and the stress caused me to break down several times. Thankfully, God sustained me and gave me peace and comfort whenever the pressure to keep up and the fear of underperforming threatened to drown me.

Feelings like these are, dare I say, normal, but they should never be taken lightly. Some students at the Nigerian Law School have harmed themselves, and some have even taken their own lives, because of the intense academic stress and anxiety they experienced. If the pressure and frustration ever lead you to consider harming yourself, please seek help immediately. It is okay to cry and to feel everything you feel, but remember that the outcome of NLS does not determine your entire life. As long as you eventually pass, even if not on your first attempt, you will become a lawyer. Five years down the line, few people will care what grade you graduated with. It may be a nice conversation starter and look good on your LinkedIn profile, but that is about it.

So, however intense the pressure and however desperately you want to prove yourself, remember that this is just one season of your life. Speak up if you need help. Talk to God, a mentor, a friend or a pastor. Do not bottle up your feelings or sink into depression and despondency. At law school, you need someone to lean on, and you need God. I pray that God gives you a sound mind and the mental strength to persevere through law school without breaking down.

 

CONCLUSION

At your externship workshop, you will be told that externship is about learning how courts and law chambers function. That is true, but given the academic structure, the deeper truth is that externship is your only lecture-free window to lock in and master everything you need to conquer the bar finals with confidence. So go into it with a plan, fully aware that it will be grueling and stressful. Approach it strategically, and when the bar finals arrive, you will walk into the exam hall confident that you have put in the work to earn the best possible result.

Good luck!