Law school requires less equipment than the shopping lists imply, and the lists imply a lot, because incoming 1Ls are anxious and anxiety shops. The honest inventory has one significant purchase, a short tier of genuinely useful gear, a long tier of skippable merchandise, and a buy later list whose timing saves real money. Here it is, tiered by honesty.

The one purchase that matters

A laptop that meets your school's exam software specifications, checked against the actual published requirements rather than assumed, with a reliable battery and a second charger. This is the machine you will type every exam on, and exam software compatibility, operating system versions included, is the entire spec that matters; beyond it, any competent mid range machine is identical for law school purposes.

If your current laptop passes the spec, the one purchase is zero dollars. Verification belongs on the 0L checklist a month out, not exam week.

Books, bought correctly

Wait for the syllabus. Professors specify exact editions, and buying early guesses wrong often enough to erase the savings. Casebooks run expensive new, and used copies, rentals, and earlier editions where the professor permits are the standard economies; the law library's course reserve is the free tier for supplements, per the supplements guide.

The exception that must be current: assigned statutory supplements, the rules pamphlets and code excerpts, which change annually and are usually mandatory in the assigned edition. The Bluebook belongs on the wait list too, your legal writing course will name the required edition and format, and supplements as a category belong on the buy in response to confusion plan, not the August haul.

The genuinely useful tier

A backpack that carries bricks comfortably, because casebooks are bricks. An external monitor for wherever you do most of your work, since the two document workflow, notes beside brief, outline beside practice exam, is the daily reality and a second screen is the cheapest productivity purchase in this list. A laptop stand and external keyboard, which is posture insurance across a 55 hour week.

Noise canceling headphones or foam earplugs, per your library's acoustics. Sticky tabs and page flags, the raw material of the open book tab system in open vs closed book exams. Legal pads or a notebook you like, a book stand if you read long at a desk, and a decision about printing, campus access usually suffices, a cheap laser printer if you prefer owning it, because legal writing still moves paper.

The skippable tier

A tablet and stylus purchased for law school, fine to use if owned, unnecessary to acquire, and never a substitute for the exam capable laptop. The leather padfolio and business cards, which are interview season props, not classroom equipment. Commercial outlines and supplement sets bought preemptively, covered elsewhere and skipped here.

Premium note taking software subscriptions, when the methods in how to take notes run on anything. And the aspirational stationery ecosystem generally, which is procrastination sold in matte finishes.

The buy later list

Interview clothing waits until autumn, though not for the reason people repeat: the 1L job search is not gated on December 1, a NALP guideline rescinded in 2018, and many employers open in early November. One interview appropriate outfit acquired in October, unhurried and on sale, still beats an August suit bought before you know the season's actual needs. Bar prep anything waits years, whatever the booth at orientation implies.

And upgrades generally wait for demonstrated need, the principle that governs this whole page: buy the laptop, wait for the syllabus, add gear when a real friction names it, and let the anxiety pass through the wallet untouched.

FAQ

What does the first semester actually cost in supplies?

Books dominate, several hundred dollars per semester new and a fraction of that used or rented, plus whatever the laptop situation requires. Nearly everything else on the useful tier is under a hundred dollars combined if bought plainly.

Mac or PC for law school?

Whichever your school's exam software supports, which today is usually both, verified against the current published specs. Beyond compatibility, the choice is personal and irrelevant to outcomes.

Do I need a printer at home?

You need reliable print access, which campus almost always provides; ownership is a convenience call. If you buy, a basic laser printer beats inkjet economics for the document volume law school produces.

Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.

Book a call