Students who miss more than a fifth of classes may fail their course, although faculty members can establish a higher bar, and excused absences are subject to approval from professors. Additionally, if students are unprepared to participate in class more than once per course, they can be barred from taking their final exam. Excluding first-year students from a final would lead to failure in the course, as first-year course grades are almost entirely based on one four-hour exam.

Cost/Benefit

Schools benefit from forced participation and attendance as students are incentivized outside of exams, and it is more efficient and economical only to have one grade. However, there are also costs associated with this technique, such as complaints from students and effort from faculty. One straightforward solution would be for schools to make compulsory participation more apparent during admissions or visits so that students witness it firsthand. Additionally, some faculty do not enjoy partaking, and schools could implement voluntary participation or daily writing assignments graded by teaching assistants as alternatives. Long-term writing assignments could also fix a broken evaluation system. Students benefit from compulsory participation as it prepares them for when a partner or judge might question them. Additionally, students benefit from improved time management and public speaking skills.

Law/Policy

Changes could be made to the language in the handbook relating to "one or more" as it seems too easy to hit and unfair. Also, there are no institutional accommodations for compulsory participation, as such drastic changes would fundamentally alter the pedagogical requirements of law school, which never occurs, and thus does not qualify as reasonable under the ADA. Changes could be made to public speaking qualifications under the ADA or to undergraduate requirements, state law, Section 504, and amendments to educational laws to specify public speaking.

Work

Life changes, such as with health, can occur randomly, altering an individual's daily life. This can drastically affect students owe money who are relying on employment, considering most employees can be terminated without cause.

Many law students pursue law school for the high salaries of law firms and forgo non at-will employment such as government jobs or attend the best law schools for firm work to secure a high-paying job. However, many law firm employees are also at-will.

Cost/Benefit

While pursuing a career at a firm, it is essential to remember that at-will employment will likely stay the same. Students can pursue non-at-will employment, as even a big law job does not guarantee to pay off all debt or survive massive inflation. Students can also pursue LRAP, which allows them to refrain from repaying if they spend a while working in public service or public interest law.

Law/Policy

Pushes for shared income agreements as an alternative to traditional student loans and changes to allow for the discharge of student debt in bankruptcy.