Law of Law School Flashcards
- There is a law of law school
a. Rules, methods, and principles exis that will guide successful students
b. Casebooks (academics) are the tip of the iceberg
i. There are layers of skills, insights, and rules
c. These will help navigate classes, exams, stress, and the immersive experience
i. Exp. Is the process of discovering these laws
1. Requires work, effort, courage, and a good guide
- Discover School’s Legal Culture
a. Law school requires culture to support the students
b. You become part of the culture and shape It when you are in the school
c. Figure out and understand the institutional framework
i. Find out who the dean, staff, etc is; know where student support structures are, find out who the law student leader is, what the governing structure is etc.
ii. Understand how everything and everyone fit together
- Law is Personal
a. Law is human and real
i. Written in abstract but have real human impact, real effects on others
b. It will also affect you, how you interact, how you view nonlawyers, can cause strong negative emotions
c. It will also change how you think, communicate, and how you view the world
i. You will become smarter and sharper
- Flip Your Thinking
a. You do not come to class to LEARN the material but to apply what the lessons you learned yourself through the readings and studying
b. Law students are not passive consumers but active participants
c. Skill to teach yourself is necessary as a lawyer and forms the basis of the learning and will be what you do as a lawyer
d. 1L courses provide examples of foundational concepts but it is up to you to master any legal subject and not just the nuts and bolts
- Thinking Like a Lawyer
a. Thinking like a lawyer thinking about a problem in a particular way – one that involves identifying a precise issue, identifying the rule that goes w/ the issue, analyzing it, evaluating the problem objectively from both sides, and offering a conclusion
i. Then argue the other side and choose the better of the two options. Then, repeat
- Plan for Day One of Law School
i. Words don’t always mean what they say
b. Day one = preparation moment before you affirmatively attack work (could be weeks)
c. Law school is not a passive enterprise you plan, develop, and implement
i. By day one, you must have your books, study aids, computer, plan for the semester, and schedule to attack the first class and first reading
- There is No Day Two
a. No day two, only repetitive day ones
b. Recheck, plan, and be ready to mentally attack studies every day
c. You might not always have time to prepare or plan key to day one is recognizing there will always be challenges and you will not always anticipate them
- Visualize the Full Semester
a. Knowing the ‘pattern’ allows to plan for the full semester and avoid the pitfalls
i. See ahead of the curve to account for unforeseen but inevitable increase of work
b. Pattern:
i. Chaotic beginning with orientation info, then crush of reading and prepping for class, then a false hope of balance w/ easing up, testing begins w/ midterms followed by writing assignments, outlines, practice tests, etc., then crescendo to final exam
- Don’t Forsake Free Help
a. Do not wait to sign up for free online resources
i. Black letter law outlines – well-established understanding of core legal rules
ii. Some have free video lectures of core 1L subjects
iii. Some provide free study aids – books that breakdown. Material in an easily digestible way
- Plan for Exams from the Start
a. Think through plan for exams like prep and source you will use for studying early, even at the beginning of the semester
b. Exams will ask you to demonstrate knowledge and you will need to take bits and pieces of daily learning and apply them
i. So know how you will approach outlining, when you will synthesize outlines, and when you will practice taking exams from the get-go
c. This plan to exams should guide approach to studying, reading, and learning
- Buy the Books
a. Buy the books
b. Do not cut corners w/ older editions b/c info you need will be in the text
c. Casebooks are expensive but valuable
- Read Hornbooks and Treatises
a. Casebook method idea is that inductive reasoning from case to case = distill the important principles
b. Hornbooks – commercial summaries of the law, organized by subject and issue, and helpful for distilling the core principles
c. Treatises involve academic summaries and commentary of the issues and all the cases that touch on the legal issue
i. Might dwarf the casebook because the scope of info covered gets to a national scale
d. Try reading HB and TrTs on 1L subjects provide context to cases and understand why your professor is focused on a particular case
i. Also understand the history, politics, rationale, and even learn where the law makes no sense
ii. Supplementary only, does not replace case reading
- Use Study Aids
a. Study aids books and electronic services that correspond to casebook and can help you master the concepts
i. Commercial outlines, cbar review outlines can shape your outlines
ii. case briefs are shortcut examples
iii. question-and-answer books that help test comprehension
b. since you teach yourself, study aids can help guide that education
c. do not use as crutch or shortcut
- Study the Legal Dictionary
a. Learn old-fashioned legal terms whether in print or online
i. Learn the language by looking up definitions
ii. Teach yourself the words and phrases you don’t understand. (substance)
- Find Time for Outside Critical Reading
a. To understand cases, you might need to have extra context (know US history for example)
b. Reading the legal analysis of experts like books written by lawyers, judges, etc. can provide context , critiques, history, and personal narratives around cases you are reading
c. Read widely and critically
d. Not bound by professor’s reading assignments
e. Law school professors provide minimum, not maximum
- Prepare for Class like an Appellate Argument
a. Reading is not enough, must actively prepare
b. Appellate arguments- formal debates about the particular legal issues raised in an already decided trial court case (appellate lawyers argue before appellate judges *usually panels of 3)
i. Appellate courts decide if decision was correct as a matter of law questions similar to what you are asked as a 1L
c. Think of class as an appellate argument and think about issues ahead of time, preparing your argument
i. Think facts, issue court decided, rule court use to decide, any counterarguments, etc.
ii. Can’t be scared if you’re prepared more than anyone else
- Read Supplements First
a. Casebook is like a DIY manual written in lawyer’s code; supplement is like a traditional textbook trying to teach you the material
b. Read supplement get a sense of the subject first
c. Supplement provides more solid picture of what you will be discussing
d. Focus on law and rules not just results
e. Laws»_space; stories ; rules»_space; facts
* * you are reading to understand a legal principle
- The Secret Structure of Casebooks
a. Study the book itself before getting to cases to understand the logical framework and see how the cases fit together
b. Allows you to put the issues and rules together for analysis
i. Casebooks focus on particular legal issue, extra info edited out
c. Look at this structure (table of content, headings, chapter structure) to put case in context and find connections, how it fits with other cases in those sections
- Studying Means Translating
a. Lawyers = translators
b. Classes are first translation test
c. Key = understand the substance to be able to translate it to others
d. Translation active process of taking concepts and reformulating them to make them make sense to YOU
e. Read a case and imagine explaining it and why It matters to a nonlawyer in your own words (consequences, legal principles, etc.)
f. Make concepts your own (can use outlines, classmates, profs, etc to help)
- Ask Why for Each Case
a. Learn the why of rules (rationale behind them) to truly understand the rules, not just memorize them
b. Learn the why of their existence and you will have a deeper understanding of the outcome
c. Analyze what the judge thought, deduce their thinking off their opinion
i. Can be law, policy, text, history, theory, etc.
- Read!
a. Read deeply and reread
i. Read cases, notes (cannot come to class unprepped)
ii. No skimming, blind highlighting
b. Fundamental lawyering skill: critical reading
c. Need to also have time to think, outline, and process the case in the context of the entire class (not just read)
- Read on Three Levels
a. Read on three levels:
i. Read for the who, what, where, and why
1. Able to tell story in narrative fashion (what are the facts?)
ii. Think about the fit
1. How does it fit within the class, course, and subjects; what is the central reason you are reading this case, how does it fit within other reading assignments, what is the legal issue case explains
iii. What is my takeaway from this case?
1. How will you use the rule, remember it, apply it? What are the rules I can apply to the next case, why does it matter, what proposition does the case stand for?
2. Reading to make external use of the material critical active
- Find the “Takeaway” of Each Case
a. Know “why” the case is in the casebook
b. Find the reason the case was used to explain the law
c. Most cases can be distilled down into on point, rule, or argument that justifies its inclusion
d. Cases included to add one or a few legal principles
- Read the Footnotes, the Concurring Opinion, and the Dissents
a. Footnotes offer enlightenment on the nuances being analyzed in the case
i. Professor will probably ask about these nuances in the final exam
b. Concurring and dissenting opinions provide examples of how rules can be interpreted differently
i. Point out flaws in the majority opinion for dissenting (sometimes applying same rules)
ii. Highlight additional perspectives and rationales for the current holding
iii. Study how judges craft arguments
- Simplify Sentences as You Read
a. Rephrase sentences into your own words to simplify and combat confusion
b. Rewrite ideas in your own words
i. Write don’t highlight
ii. Most rules can be distilled into if-then-unless statements
c. Point is to make it understandable to better memorize and apply rules, but legal terminology still needs to remain
i. Make precise, concise, and complete definitions of rules
- Briefing Means Decoding and Encoding
a. Do the hard work of briefing your own cases
b. Briefing process deconstructs the structure of the case decoding how the law is put together and encoding it as your own
i. Breaking down facts, pulling out issue, rewriting rules, mastering holding
c. Active learning
d. Building muscle memory of legal reasoning which take repetition, thought, and practice
- Train Your Mind – See the IRAC Pattern
a. IRAC –> Issue, rule, analysis, conclusion
i. Secret key to success on exams
b. Task is to identify the rule, apply the facts, and come up with a conclusion
c. Pattern links class work and work you do as a lawyer
i. Many cases follow the pattern
- “Frame Out” Your Cases
a. Identify and mark structure of the text before reading
b. Frame out before you drain out
c. Steps:
i. Identify the beginning and end of the factual statement
ii. Identify the procedural posture
iii. Identify the question for the court to decide
iv. Identify the law (rule) used to decide the case
v. Identify the holding
- Use Briefs as a Self-Test
a. Brief is your take on a test –> use it to self-test knowledge about the issues
b. Write down in your own words what the point of the rule was at the end of every brief
c. Test yourself if you can see if you can operationalize why the case is important and what the takeaway should be
i. See if you were correct after class
- Briefing for Context
a. Look at the law from historical perspective
b. Understand the context year, what court, what judge/justice
c. Internalize4 the law and gain perspective In understanding what the law was meant to do
i. Law reflects social power/norms
ii. Politics, legal philosophy, and history shape law, influences should be included in case summaries
iii. Can see development of the law
- Class is like an Oral Argument
a. Prepare to be prepared
b. At a minimum prepare for questions about facts, issues, the rule, the holding, the procedural posture, and your own evaluation of the strength of the court’s argument (70% of the way prepped for class)
c. Questions regarding application of the rules can be considered ahead of time
d. Process of guessing the next problem, identifying the logical consequences, or seeing the traps of an argument is part of the skill set
- Ban Your Own Laptop
a. Students forced to take handwritten notes have better recall of the material/are more engaged
b. By tuning out distractions, students can focus on the questions in class
c. Force yourself to stop multitasking
i. Train your brain to focus
- Notes Should be a Reflection, Not Transcription
a. Poetry not prose –> goal is to find core rules
b. Actively thinking about engaging in the ideas, not simply writing down the words or copying down the slide of your professor
c. Take notes to be able to apply them in the future
d. Key points about the rules, issues discussed, and any elements of those rules that can be applied in future cases»_space;» transcript
- Engage, Don’t Hide
a. Professors can see you see everything and evaluate accordingly
b. Two types of students
i. Engaged actively listening, making eye contact, writing down important points, and processing the material
ii. Unengaged half-processing, facing a computer, head down, avoiding conversation/learning process
- Appreciate Teaching Style Federalism
a. Strength of federalism in the US –> states can create different laws than the federal gov’t (states can experiment, respond to local issues, be mini-labs for democracy)
i. Same rules apply to teaching styles
b. Reflect that there is no ONE way to organize gov’t no one way to learn the law
c. Same is true with judges
d. Master local laws of law school
- Undergraduate Study Habits Must Die
a. Skills from undergrad will no longer work in law school
i. All-nighters, cramming, winging it
b. Too much to learn at too precise a lvl. of detail
c. Exceed demands of undergrad like a full time job
i. Workload, reading assignment, lvl. of precision, speed, and expectations
- Checklist Each Day
a. To balance responsibilities, each day should be planned out with small achievable accomplishments
i. Every day brings a new checklist of things to do give control
ii. Revolving deadline, obligations, accumulating assignments, community service, summer job applications, two hours of self-study per class hour, etc. have to organize
- Find Solitude to Study
a. Study location must provide solitude
b. Need time alone to input information (away from other students)
c. Every interruption breaks focus loose some of what you understood due to fragmentation of info
d. Study groups work only after you have studied yourself
e. Family, friends, etc. lose valuable time if you try to work in a place where others can reach you (defend your isolation)
- Ignore Social Media
a. Law school was designed in a pre-digital age and hasn’t adapted
b. These traditional, old-fashioned skills (reading books, writing legal briefs, arguing before a judge) are necessary to thrive in the pre-digital world that is the llegal profession
c. Make studying and class a distraction free time
- Prioritize Time Management
a. Time management may be the single biggest reason ppl underperform in law school
i. Students do not leave enough time to study, outline, take practice exams, or take the actual exam
b. Focus on time management from the beginning makes the difference in the end
i. Create calendars and charts of your days, weeks, months, and the time spent doing tasks
ii. Time yourself taking practice exams
iii. Block out more time than you need to rewrite legal writing assignments
iv. Block out study, reading, outlining, etc. time at the beginning of the week
c. Everything will take longer than you need –> plan accordingly
- Get Your Mind Right
a. Deal w/ mental impediments to success before any law school challenges
i. Negative thoughts, fear, self-doubt, etc. must be handled
ii. 1L => is baffling, humbling, and not easy
iii. Having your mind right –> confidence
