Thanks, Arboles. Interesting outcome with the slander lawsuit. I have decided what practice area I'm going into, but since it's somewhat narrow, I'd rather not get more specific publicly than saying that it's within the realm of litigation. The first year was definitely tough, although I think some people blow it out of proportion with how hard it is. I would say that on average, I spent about 20 hours a week reading and studying, in addition to the 15 hours spent in class. However, during periods leading up to finals or before legal writing papers were due, the 20 hours became more like 40-50.
I do serve on the editing staff of one of the law journals at my school, and actually was fortunate enough to have an article (or a "comment" as they call them when student-written) that I wrote published. It's really not all that glamorous - when you get offered journal or law review membership, most of your time is spent editing, not writing. And even if you do get something published, except in rare cases, hardly anybody will ever read it - it's not like being published in the N.Y. Times or anything!