Some days, Janet Battey gets a chance to relax. Other days, the work just won’t stop.

Finding the right balance, she said, is the key to her law school success.

“You just kind of figure out what time you have and then divide it up,” she said. “Sometimes you have more work than other times and end up staying up late, but it’s definitely not impossible.”

In her second year, Battey is president of the Public Interst Law Project, vice president of the Family Law Society and also involved with the Probate Law Journal.

Taking part in so many clubs and activities takes up a lot of time, but it’s time well spent, she said.

“It helps you get to know more people around the school,” she said. “You end up getting a taste of what different areas of law are like, too, so it’s good in helping you figure out what you want to do.”

What little free time she has is spent working as a manager at a local restaurant.

“Having a ‘real’ job is kind of nice because it’s a change of pace. It’s completely different. It’s still work, but at least it’s not the same reading out of a law book,” she said. “It takes my mind off my homework. If I did homework all the time, I’d go crazy.”

Battey’s advice to first-year students is not to spread themselves too thin.

“Coming in you don’t want to take on too much,” she said. “Everyone finds out after the first year how much they can do and how much they can’t do. Take a while to get into your routine.”