The “Scarcity of Success”: How Law Schools’ Hyper-Competitive Cultures Fuel Bullying

In a survey of 6,000 attorneys conducted by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism (ISCPP), one in four reported experiencing bullying in the workplace in the past year. These incidents point to a culture that permits bullying—often prioritizing prestige and performance over people. Importantly, as one ISCPP survey participant put it plainly, “[i]t starts with the hyper-competitiveness in law school and continues into the workplace.”

That idea resonated deeply with me as a law student. While I have been fortunate not to experience the worst effects of that environment, I have seen how hyper-competitive culture negatively impacts law students across the country. Many students attend class within a climate that encourages exclusion, hierarchy, and toxic competition. For some, bullying becomes a strategy to get ahead.

To better understand how this dynamic unfolds, I interviewed several students about their experiences with their law school’s culture. Their experiences closely reflected the testimonials and data I read within the ISCCP’s report, “Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change.”

Healthy competition certainly has a place in legal education and practice—it can drive excellence and growth. Conversely, when competition becomes the dominant cultural force, it can create an environment where exclusion and intimidation are not just tolerated but incentivized. The same hyper-competitive mindset that isolates students in the classroom lays the foundation for the bullying behaviors that persist throughout the profession.

So how does hyper-competitive culture incentivize bullying? “I personally think ‘competitive culture’ IS bullying and wish law schools would completely change their model,” said one ISCPP survey respondent. “The curve teaches us to not even care whether we understand the substantive law as long as we beat our friends.”

It is true that law school is, by design, competitive. One student I interviewed put it this way: “It’s impossible to avoid the internal pressures that comparison creates, especially at such a large law school.” Even before day one, we are comparing ourselves to our classmates with our LSAT scores. Later, we are ranked on the dreaded 1L curve. We compete for the same scholarships, internships, journal spots, positions within organizations, and more—constantly reminded of what feels like the scarcity of success.

That scarcity mindset—the idea that there are only so many spots at the top, and that your success depends on someone else’s failure—does more than create pressure. It fosters bullying behavior aimed at undercutting others to get ahead. That behavior doesn’t always look like ripping pages out of books in the library; more often, it’s subtle, social, and cutting. Many students I spoke with described groups that would mock a student for a poor cold call performance. A few of them even stated that students would share others’ grades and opinions about them after returning from winter break.

It is not just those who are struggling that suffer from the hypercompetitive environment. One student I spoke with recalled an incident where a professor used an anonymized exam answer as a sample in his feedback memo. Even though the author’s identity was not revealed, classmates still felt the need to “talk negatively” about it. Instead of engaging in a conversation about what made the answer effective—or how to improve it—their instinct was to tear it down.

This culture can be especially harmful for students from underrepresented backgrounds. One student recalled hearing a dismissive, offhand comment about a classmate who earned a 1L diversity position at a major firm, essentially writing off the major accomplishment as fully reliant on that person’s identity, rather than on merit. Comments like that don’t just reflect bias—they expose how the hypercompetitive culture fosters suspicion around others’ accomplishments. When law students are trained to see success as a scarcity, it becomes easier to downplay the hard work of their peers and explain accomplishments away as unearned.

The effect is clear: when law students are taught to treat success as limited, many begin to put their peers down. It’s time for law schools to actively dismantle the scarcity mindset and remind students that there is room for everyone to succeed.

One student I spoke with reflected on her school’s current approach: “despite what I would describe as half-hearted attempts by the orientation programmers to get in front of competitive/uncomfortable class culture, certain groups instantly gravitated to each other and created negative cultures around themselves.”

This points to a larger issue. Many schools introduce the issue of competition early, but students haven’t yet encountered the realities that make it so pervasive. At orientation, it is easy enough to believe that everyone can support each other. But when finals roll around months later, as students are barricaded in libraries with outlines and the hope that they can earn one of the few available A’s, those early messages are long forgotten. By the time 1L’s get to spring semester and have added in Big Law application pressures to the rest, it’s as if the messages were never given in the first place.

If law schools want to truly shift the culture, they will need to do more than frontload a brief discussion about it. Addressing toxic competition needs to be an ongoing effort—woven into the academic year, reinforced by faculty, and modeled by student leaders. As one student positively noted, “all of our professors go out of their way to encourage collaboration and emphasize that the people you are in school with will be your colleagues in the future.” This is the kind of message students need to hear consistently, especially when the stress has piled up.

By reframing success as something expansive and shared, law schools can encourage students to see collaboration as a strength—and an investment in the professional community they’re about to join.

Hypercompetition may create space for bullying to thrive, but the problem exists beyond that—law schools need to confront bullying directly, in whatever form it takes. The consequences of inaction are well-documented. According to the ISCCP’s report, even when bullying is acknowledged, institutional responses often fall short. More than half of attorneys who reported being bullied said their employers’ reactions were insufficient or entirely unsatisfactory. Most alarming, 96% of the 150 attorneys who admitted to bullying others faced no consequences at all.

Like bullying itself, this lack of accountability begins long before attorneys enter the professional environment. One law student I spoke with described a situation in which several of her classmates participated in a group chat where they exchanged racist, homophobic, sexist, and antisemitic messages about other classmates—messages that could sometimes be read over their shoulders during class. “Nothing formal happened to these men,” she told me, “and their careers will likely be unscathed, barring the social stigma they’ve generated.”

As the ISCCP report states plainly, “[i]f there are no consequences to bad behavior, it will continue.” When bullying is ignored in law school, it will almost certainly reappear in the workplace—perpetuated by individuals who learned early that mistreating others carries little risk.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. As another student shared, “when things have gotten very out of hand, our administration has stepped in and spoken to students.” She recalled a classmate who had made a habit of mocking others after cold calls—until the administration called her in, made clear that her behavior had been noticed, and warned that if it continued, she could face consequences through the school’s honor court process. “After rumor got around that she had been spoken to,” the student added, “everyone else toned down their usual behavior.” This example illustrates what is possible when institutions take action, and points toward the broader role law schools can play in creating a more welcoming profession.

The work of building a healthier legal culture begins in law school. When institutions take bullying seriously and reinforce the consequences, they lay the groundwork for a more respectful and equitable profession. Students internalize the standards they see upheld—and over time, those standards evolve into habits. It’s up to all of us—students, faculty, and institutions alike—to ensure we create habits of leadership, advocacy, and professional integrity. Together, we can build a legal community where hypercompetition fades into the past.

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Rachel Kolb is a second-year law student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law. During her 1L summer, Rachel gained valuable experience externing for Justice Debra Walker. She is excited to embrace new challenges this year as a member of Law Review and Moot Court. Committed to paying forward the support she received throughout her first year, Rachel also looks forward to serving as a Legal Writing & Analysis teaching assistant for incoming 1Ls.