the law school scam...isn't.

[this is a cross-post from my blog, but i thought it may be relevant here to law students and especially potential law students, so i'm posting it here in its entirety.]

i'm no longer a lawyer, but i still keep my toe ever-so-slightly dipped into the blawgosphere. i still read above the law religiously. even though it's a world i'm no longer part of, i still find it occasionally entertaining and more-than-occasionally interesting to keep an eye on that world, since i did make the mistake of dabbling in it myself for a little while.

over the last year or two, there has arisen a whole genre of "scamblogs": blogs written by law school graduates that refer to law school as a scheme that convinced people to part with large amounts of money, enticed by promises of high starting salaries and financial security. these blogs are getting quite a bit of media attention now that the Newark Star-Ledger has recently published an article about the writer of one of the older and more well-known scamblogs out there, big debt, small law [which is currently offline; the link goes to a cached version].

it's an interesting, and on some level, tempting argument made by this genre of blogs, but i think it is completely wrong. i think it's completely wrong even though law school has financially ruined me, and was by far the biggest mistake of my life for that reason and several others.

the argument that law school is a scam is rather tempting. a lot of people who go to law school are enticed by the six-figure starting salaries at Douchebag & Douchebag LLP, and sign their lives away gladly, thinking they'll make big money and be able to pay it off in a reasonable amount of time. it's really easy to blame law schools for this. law schools don't come out of this smelling like roses, since the goal of their recruiting is to bring in a full class of students each year who are willing to pay the tuition and fees...and, preferably, bring in a full class of students with higher entrance statistics than the previous year, so as to raise their ranking and justify charging even more money next year. they have no incentive to highlight the fact that not every marginally bright person who goes to law school gets one of those high-paying jobs, or even gets a legal job at all. they have no incentive to bring prospective students' attention to the bimodal distribution of legal starting salaries. they have no incentive to portray the potential drawbacks of going to law school.

but, that's not enough to make it the law school's fault that law school ruined my life, your life, or anyone else's life. the argument that law school is a scam rests on the flawed idea that it's a law school's responsibility to portray both its good side and its bad side to potential students. in short, it's not.

would it be nice if they portrayed law school realistically? sure. but, law school is a product, just like anything else. very few products are required to advertise how using them could blow up in your face; the only things i can think of that have to talk in their promotional materials about potential negative side effects are prescription drugs, alcohol, and tobacco products. ads for subprime mortgages or credit cards always focused on what you can get, not the stress of paying them off. fleabag motels don't actually put pictures of their nasty beds in their advertisements. dicey vacation areas always show pictures of pristine beaches, not shantytowns. how do you find out what's bullshit in the advertising, and what the reality of the product is?

you do your research.

you find out what kind of work a lawyer has to do, and you find out whether you'd enjoy doing that sort of work or not. you find out what the distribution of incomes in the legal field is. you find out whether you'd be able to stand a job in biglaw if you actually managed to get one. you find out whether you'd realistically be able to pay off the exorbitant amount of debt if you can't get a job in biglaw. you assess your interests, capabilities, and life goals, and decide if being an attorney fits in with that. you decide whether making the sacrifice of going to law school is worth it. and, you ask yourself, whether you're willing to take the hit, to live with all that debt and all those years of your life, lost, if you find out that being a lawyer is not all it's cracked up to be.

for some people, it's worth it. for me and many others, it isn't.

i don't blame law school [either the specific one i went to, or the more general institution of law school] for the fact that law school was the biggest mistake of my life. i blame myself. i did some of my homework, but i didn't do all of it. i had insufficient experience in the real-world to realise how crushing all that debt would feel. i didn't take off my rose-coloured glasses and realise that the legal profession was as stodgy as it is, and that i didn't have the energy or desire to fight the good fight for weirdos in the legal profession. i didn't think critically enough about the actual work that lawyers do to realise that i'd find it unsatisfying--until i was actually out of school and faced with the reality of having to do it full-time. in short, i wasn't scammed. i did something really impulsive and stupid, and i have to pay the price for it for the rest of my life. it's my fault.

in short, calling law school a scam is an excuse. it's an attempt to shift responsibility for doing insufficient research and making a stupid decision away from yourself and onto someone else.

notes: typed vs. handwritten

Kelly asks whether she'd be at a disadvantage taking notes by hand as compared to a laptop. it's hard for me to conclusively say...i saw people who did it both ways in class. there didn't seem to be a noticeable correlation between how typists did and how hand-writers did. i always did it on a laptop, because i'm a ridiculously slow hand-writer but a pretty fast typist.

if your biggest worry is about getting distracted with how they're formatted, that's really not a big deal. you'll get the hang of it in the first week or so, and then you won't even think about it anymore. make sure you know how the bullet-point features on your word processor of choice work, and you should be good to go.

one more argument against handwriting them and typing them later, though...are you really going to take the time to recopy all your notes? will that really be the best use of your time? depending on your work ethic and the way you study, the answer to that may be yes. but, think about that. i knew i would never do such a thing on a regular basis...and also, liked having the already-typed notes to condense and edit into an outline come finals week.

a few answers.

alright, we've had a few questions in the last post on here, so i'm going to take a crack at providing some answers. if anyone else has anything better, feel free to comment or write a new post.

Jess asked whether there were any other suggestions to getting law school books for cheaper than the bookstore, other than Amazon or half.com. for one, you can always ask around...sometimes people who took the class last year are willing to sell their books for cheap, or even lend them to you. if the edition hasn't changed (or even if it has...shhhh!), this can be a cheap option. Google Shopping can also be full of win in this regard...be it books or anything else, i love its site-comparison features, and have had good luck finding things cheap through it.

jumi asked about standard software. first and foremost...i got through law school without Microsoft Office on my box. i used OpenOffice...which was perfectly suited for law school even in 2005 when i started, and has only gotten better over the years. that, Firefox, and a .pdf reader got me pretty much everywhere in law school. the only other piece of software that comes to mind was ExamSoft's SofTest, the computerized test-taking software my law school (Washington University in St. Louis) used. when i started law school, it was Windows-only, and i was pretty uncomfortable even attempting to use a virtual machine to take my test at that point. (fast forward to 2010...i've become a linux geek who has forsaken the legal field to work in information technology. go figure.) i kept Windows on my laptop until graduation for the sake of running SofTest. when i was in law school, people either ran it from Windows, or ran it on their Macs using Windows XP on BootCamp. i never tested it from Linux in a Windows VM; ExamSoft says that SofTest is not supported by any VM software. i'm tempted to find a way to test this claim out just to satisfy my own curiosity...but i understand that law school testing is stressful and high-stakes, so can only suggest that you at least make sure to either have a Windows or Mac box, or one you can borrow, come exam week. i also know there are a few other testing software suites out there, but i'm not familiar with them since my law school didn't use them. SofTest is also the most common.

The Jogger asked if you had to memorize things like the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or the UCC verbatim. that wasn't my experience. as unrealistic as the expectations of law school often are, professors are generally not that crazy. when i took civpro my 1L year, we were issued a fresh copy of the FRCP to go with our exam. we were responsible for being familiar with the applications and caselaw interpretations of the Rules, but as for the text of the rules or the rule numbers for each rule, we could look them up. most of my law school exams were either open-book (bring whatever resources you wanted) or modified open-book (bring your course textbook and whatever else the professor speciically said you can bring). but, one caveat here...it is good to have at least a general idea of the layout of the rules, and the course material. you're not going to have enough time to look absolutely everything up, as well as write a satisfactory response to the questions, during the exam time. even in an open-book test, preparatory work pays off--if nothing else, you'll know where to look, instead of flailing around trying to find relevant information.

Open Thread

Ok pre-Ls... one month or so til law school. Any questions?

Law school time savers: Typing

This post was originally posted at i don't wear skinny jeans, a blog written by a current NYU 1L.

Reposted here with permission.

The comments on his post may have more useful shortcuts added since he wrote this text. You should check it out. Also, you should read his blog.

It can be tiring to take lengthy class notes and write briefs on your computer (for those of us that still brief). To make it easier, we use shorthand. I thought it would be useful to compile a list of the keyboard shortcuts and typing shorthand that people find helpful.

Typing Shorthand

• Attorney = atty
• Common Law = c/l OR cLAW
• Consideration = ø or cx
• Constitution = C
• Contract = K
• Court = ct
• Defendant = D or ∆
• Federal = fed
• General Rule = GRULE
• Jurisdiction = jdx or juris
• Majority Rule = majR
• Minority Rule = minR
• Negligence = neg or negc
• Plaintiff = P or π
• Rule Against Perpetuity = rap
• Standard of Review = sor
• State = st
• Statute of Fraud = sof
• Statute of Limitations = sol
• Strict Liability = SL
• Summary Judgment = sj
• Supreme Court of the United States = SCOTUS OR SCt
• Two part words (e.g., affirmative action) = x/y (e.g., a/a)
• About = a/b
• Amendment = ame
• Argument = arg
• Because = b/c
• Between = btw or b/w
• Commercial = comm
• Different = diff
• Discrimination = disc
• Each = ea
• Employee = EE
• Employer = ER
• Employment = emp
• Ending with “-ion” = ^n
• Especially = esp
• For = 4
• From = f/
• Government = gov OR govt
• Not = ! or ≠ or %
• Point = pt
• President = pres
• Probably = prob
• Property = prop
• Reaction = rxn
• Required = req’d
• Review = rev
• Should = sd
• Something = sthg
• Standard = std
• Statement = stmnt
• Within = w/in
• Without = w/out
• With Respect To = w.r.t.
• Would = wd

Keyboard Shortcuts
OneNote

• Ctrl + (Shift + L) OR . = Bullet point
• Ctrl + / = Numbering
• Alt + Shift + (Left Arrow OR Right Arrow) = tab line left or right
• Ctrl + 2 = Star
• Ctrl + 3 = Question Mark
• Ctrl + 4 = Yellow Highlight (of the entire line of text)
• Ctrl + 5 = Green Highlight (of the entire line of text)
• Text + Tab = Creates a table

Microsoft Office (for Macs, Ctrl = Apple button)

• Alt + 0167 (or customize as Ctrl + Shift + S) / Mac: Option + 6 = §
• Alt + 8710 (or customize as Alt + P or Ctrl + Shift + P) / Mac: Option + J= ∆
• Alt + 227 (or customize as Alt + D or Ctrl + Shift + D) / Mac: Option + P = π
• Alt + 0248 / Mac: Option + O = ø
• Ctrl + (B or I or U) = Bold OR Italics OR Underline
• Ctrl + (C or V) = Copy OR Paste
• Ctrl + (Z or Y) = Undo OR Redo

If you have any to add, leave it in the comments and I’ll update this post. I realize I may be a minority in doing stuff like this.

Obsessive and compulsive,
i.don’t.wear.skinny.jeans

A current law student's advice for the Pre-Ls in 2010: in a word, RUN

This post originally appeared at Dennis Jansen.com and is re-posted with permission.

It’s that time of year again. Law school acceptance letters have gone out and the future victims students are trolling the student blogs.

My advice? Run.

If you’re not going to run, then consider these 5 tips:

1. Do not go to law school just because your humanities major did not give you any marketable job skills. That’s like signing up for the military because you won’t condescend to work retail as a B.A. The legal job market collapsed last year. If you were looking for riches and employment, then try Starbucks or business school…or the military. At least they’ll pay for school if you survive.
2. When considering schools outside of the top 10 (or maybe top 20) focus on the schools in the state/market you want to practice in. Your New Mexico JD isn’t as powerful in Maine, even if the New Mexico school is ranked slightly higher than Maine’s Bumble School of Law.
3. If you are choosing between a well-ranked school and a scholarship at a less prestigious school, ask whether the scholarship is contingent on your GPA or class rank. Most students at these schools will lose their scholarships because of the curve. And yes, your competition is as smart and motivated to keep their scholarship as you are.
4. Much of the prep during the summer before law school is a waste of time. Your time is best spent working, because your scholarship or loan money may not come in until classes start. Working out also won’t hurt, because law school is the land of coffee and pizza.
5. If you really want to know what law school is like then read law student blogs. An outline of my 1L fall semester is here, and an outline of 1L spring is here. There more blogs are linked on the left-hand column of dennis-jansen.com.

Again, I recommended that you run, so don’t batter me with nasty messages this fall about how I ruined your life because this blog convinced you that law school is all sunshine and lollipops. It is not. Run.

Pregnant / having kids in law school

A reader asked: I am planning on attending law school as a 1L in the fall but I just found out I am pregnant and would be due in October of my first year. I am now discouraged. When I saw your blog I was encouraged. I was wondering if you had children while in law school and how you managed that?

My reply: I had an 18 month old when I started law school with a husband in Iraq. I can talk to you about it at length, but it is not quite the same.

A number of women bloggers had babies while in law school -- four spring immediately to mind:

http://lagliv.blogspot.com/
http://magiccookie.blogspot.com/
http://ceepalmer.blogspot.com/
http://attyworkproduct.blogspot.com/

Cee and Magic Cookie each took a semester off and graduated a semester late. Lag Liv and Attorney Work Product graduated on time (I think). All were employed upon graduation, all four are married. However, you'd have to read their respective archives to understand how they did it. They each faced very different challenges bringing their babies into the world while law students. They are amazing, inspiring, clever and wonderful women and reading their blog archives would be a great way to spend an afternoon.

But NONE of them did it first semester 1L. They had summer, 2L or 3L babies.

1L is stressful. It is wonderful. I'd do it again. But it is the most important year and you need to be able to commit fully to it.

Advice, since you asked for it: I would defer admission for a year. Seriously. It is much easier to start law school with a 10 month old than to give birth right before 1L first semester finals.

I am going to poll the MILPs and see if they wish to add their insight in the comments -- they might disagree with me.

Also:

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom, Butterflyfish, and Attorney Work Product blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh... MILFs) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.
See the past Round Ups at my other blog here.

(pregnant in law school; baby in law school; pregnant law student; pregnancy law school; infant law school)

Outlining 101

This was originally posted at Thanks, But No Thanks. Nobody, the author, alternates with the Legal Underground and writes the weekly law school roundup. Reposted with permission.

Recently, one of the test prep companies on campus made the (grievous) mistake of inviting me to come in and speak to the 1Ls on "Survival Tips for Your 1L Year."

Hey. Quell your laughing, guys. They were serious, though I sort of suspect I was their backup choice. I love this sort of event, for the same reason I like blogging: giving out unsolicited advice is one of my favorite hobbies.

Anyway, I spoke on a panel of 4 upperclassmen from varying backgrounds and of varying academic interests. We had to answer all the token questions: Do you have any smart survival tips? (Obviously. Some more useful than others.) Is there anything you wished you knew? (Yes. Enough to write a book on it), Do you have any Socratic method horror stories? (I gave them the gory details of my first day of school)

We also got this one: What do I do about outlining?

This is what I said:

1. Just Do What Works for You: Mwhahahahah. Kidding. Sorry. Everyone says this in law school. What "just do what works for you" actually means is "I'm not that confident about my own system, and frankly, I've stumbled through so many that I can't remember how I got here anyway." The Just Do What Works For You approach isn't all that helpful if you have no idea what works for you.
The approach I recommend is the Don't Freak Out If Someone Else Does It Different approach. Someone is going to have a longer, more color-coded, outline than you do. Someone else will have an index. It will all be ok: you are good enough, smart enough, and you've spent enough damn hours on this outline that you're going to have to live with it.

2. Remember, Outlining is About Access: You do not need to know what Justice Storey said on page 49 of that opinion. I promise. Your outline should not contain this material. What your outline should do is provide a roadmap to the class. This means that major themes are featured, recurrent questions are addressed, and materials are synthesized (more on that later) in a way that makes them easy to access in your mid-exam flurry.

3. Class counts: If a topic is highlighted in class, you should have it in your outline. Your book notes will be helpful filler, but in 2.5 years of law school, I have yet to encounter an exam that favored topics exclusively covered in the book over lecture notes. Think about it. Your professor has several hours a week to hear himself talk about whatever he'd like. If he wanted you to ignore what he was saying, he would have made this a paper class.
My rule is this: if it is mentioned more than two days in class, the topic gets its own heading in my outline. Less than 10 minutes, and it doesn't make it in.

4. On the role of the book: One of the biggest mistakes I made 1L year was trying to synthesize the enter textbook into my outline. I ended up with a torts outline that was 109 pages long. This made people look at me like I was a crazy person (accurate) and was pretty much impossible to use during the exam, because it was so long and bulky (see #2).
I think this is a common 1L problem. Laying too heavily into the book not only ties up the time that would be better spent outlining or studying, but it can cause you to neglect the information that was focused on in lecture.

5. Easy there, turbo: Step slowly away from the squib cases. It is hard, when you're outlining, to resist the urge to put everything in there. To avoid this temptation and assuage my neurosis, I bring (a) class notes, (b) reading notes and (c) a copy of the assigned texts into my finals, when it is allowed. Here's the beauty of that approach: you don't have to put everything in your outline. If your professor throws you a curveball question, you will have your class notes, reading notes, and your book (which you've been taking notes in the margins in all along) to help you out. If none of those things help you, take a deep breath: everyone else is screwed too.

6. The Best Outline Prep is Reading: Seriously. Stay up on your reading. You're going to be almost $100k in debt for this- you might as well make your class time worth it by being prepared. That said, if you get behind (and you will)- it is ok to focus on the "big" cases and let the shorter ones slide when you start outlining. If it comes down to really understanding International Shoe or not, you're going to need to damage control. Get the big 'uns, and resist the urge to "catch up" on all of your reading when do you your outline- you do not need to have assiduous notes on every case, so long as you can find a case if you need it.

7. On Timing: I started outlining in mid-October, realized that nothing I'd done was useful, and started over again in November. This was later than I would have preferred, but not the end of the world. On a 4 unit class, I spent approximately 20-30 hours on my outline, over the course of the semester. I suspect this skews to the heavier side, but I could be wrong. I say this to warn you: it is easy to underestimate how long this process takes, especially first semester 1L year. I recommend starting in early to mid-October.
I don't recommend starting earlier- its hard to figure out the big picture of your courses when you're still trying to figure out what the hell is going on. As a 2L, I outlined in the last 2 weeks of the semester. That was about perfect for my purposes.

Here's What Works for Me: Candidly, this is how I outline. No one would give me a straight answer when I was a 1L, so I've done my best to explain my system. If it doesn't make sense, feel free to ask for clarification. There will be 2L and 3L readers that think I am full of crap- they may be on to something, but this is the system I have worked out:

1. First, I grab the professor's syllabus*: He writes the test, so I figure he probably knows whats important. I use the syllabus as the framework for my outline. So, if Section I on the syllabus is "Personal Jurisdiction"- guess what is Section I in my outline?
   
   
2. Then, I grab my book: I take the assigned reading, and I go through section by section, incorporating it into my baby outline. If it is bolded in the book, it goes into the outline. I add each case as well, noting the casebook page for each case.
   
   
3. Then, I grab my class notes: I go through my class notes and fill out the "meat" of my outline. I like doing things in this order because, once I've incorporated my class notes, I can really see where the gaps in my learning are. This is also a great way to check (a) that you have all the class notes, and (b) see graphically what the prof has focused on.
   
   
4. Then, I incorporate my reading notes: My reading notes fill in the gaps where my lecture notes are missing stuff. For cases, I include a bullet point or two summarizing the reasoning or significance of the case, and a quick byline that reminds me what the case is about. When I am feeling particularly anal-retentive, I make sure that each case is labeled with the page number of the reading material it is on (disclaimer: I have never used this feature).
   For example: Hawkins v. McGee (hairy hands case), CB 321
   - Damages should be difference between what was bargained for and what was recieved.
   - Pain and suffering are not compensable here because pain and suffering are part of the deal for surgery.
   - It is way too easy to make a masturbation joke here.
   
   
5. Finally, I "synthesize": Every prof will tell you to do this. I am not entirely clear on what it means, but here's what I do: I go through my outline, and I read it, top to bottom. I go section by section, and I re-write. During this stage, I do a lot of condensing- this is helpful because (a) it helps me to recognize recurrent themes in the course, and (b) it makes my outline less unwieldy. Often, this is where I discover that there are some unanswered questions in my notes- I start to realize what I don't understand, and what I have a good handle on.
   More generally at this point in the game, I try to figure out what each case stands for, and the major themes of each section. Looking at the notes, I ask: what was the point of including this case? (note: this is differnet than "what was the point of this case?") I edit my outlines frequently, and re-read them frequently- outlines are all about the process of outlining, so this is basically review, channeling my OCD tendencies into something productive.
   
   
6. Last but not least, I share: This is not a required step, but it is often very helpful. Once I have a solid outline (or at least a solid outline section), I go through it with someone else. Often, in talking about the material, we each tease out new questions. Two heads are better than one, in many cases, but be careful: just copying someone else's outline is often more confusing than helpful.
   

That's what I do. Tables of contents, color codings, and Advanced Outlining will be covered in Outlining 102: Oh My God How Is It Thanksgiving?! ....But you should do what works for you.

Happy outlining!


*Why does that sound so dirty?

Participation

From my mailbox: A writer described an awkward situation with gunners and people who argue with gunners and tension mounting in a 1L section and ended with a general question about appropriate classroom participation level.

If you have to ask, you may be over-participating.

Keep your "head down" in class for a week or so... only answer if called on. Listen to your peers for that week -- I mean really listen, don't think of counter-arguments or clever retorts. In your head, categorize the comments they make as follows: helpful/responsive; helpful/tangential; unhelpful/tangential. In future, make sure your own comments fall mostly into the first category and occasionally into the second.

I am a fan of class participation; I do not think it makes you a gunner just because you contribute to the class discussion. But make sure you actually contribute something.

Remember, you can't make your reputation in law school by any single comment in class, but you can sure as hell break it. If you really want the rep as the smartest guy in the room, shut the heck up and ace the exams.

Orientation: Open Thread

How long is it?
What did you do?
What did you wear?
What did others wear?
How many times did you hear the words: "You'll find what works for you."

Reality check

This blog has historically tried to be positive -- realistic, but positive -- about law school. When the founders of this blog started it in 2006, the legal market was very different, but even then those of you who dreamed of BigLaw were cautioned that law school rank and grades mattered.

If you are considering law school and think that its the golden ticket in this economy, know that law firms have trimmed their summer associate programs for 2009, delayed start dates, and some are canceling summer programs for 2010. This is in addition to the mass lay offs that often affect even first year associates.

If you're thinking "well this post isn't about me, because I want a [small/ mid-sized/ family/ public interest/ clerkship] position," ask yourself where do you think all those folks with almost-stellar credentials who cannot get work in BigLaw are going to end up?*

I'm not telling you not to go to law school. I just ask you to knock the stars out of your eyes and look very seriously at what you're getting into and make sure you know what you want out of it.



_______________________________
(* See Massachusetts)

(Almost) FREE law school supplements! HERE!

Welcome to the First (and probably only)
Wish I Would Have Known Law School Supplement Give Away
(some restrictions apply)

• Comment below to list the supplements (MAX 3) you would like.

• Then EMAIL ilovebutterflyfish at yahoo.com with shipping information.

• First come, first served. I only have one copy of each. Limit THREE books per address.
  

RESTRICTIONS:

1. These books are not totally free. When I receive your email, I will send a request for PayPal payment to offset the cost of shipping/packaging/handling. I think $5 each book is fair... I'll probably actually lose money at that rate.

2. I want these books to go to a law student who will use them this year. So please don't pick the books you're pretty sure you can turn around on Amazon for the quickest profit, mmmk?

3. Limit THREE to an address.

And now, the books:

Aspen Examples&Explanations

• Civil Procedure (Fifth Ed.) Glannon
• Criminal Law (Third Ed.) Singer & LaFond
• Evidence (Fifth Ed.) Best
• Property (Second Ed.) Burke & Snoe
• Torts (Third Ed.) Glannon
  

Hornbook:

• Introduction to the Law of Real Property (Third Edition) Moynihan & Kurtz

Other:

• Problems and Answers: Estates in Land and Future Interests (Third Edition) Makdisi (Probably the hardest thing to understand in property law, this book was so approachable that I didn't need to relearn this area of the law for the bar exam.)
• Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument (complete with Exam Problems and Answers) By John Delaney (I preferred this for Crim over the E&E!)

Emanuel:

• Civil Procedure (21st Ed.) Steven Emanuel
• Wills, Trusts, and Estates (7th Ed.) Peter Wendel. Keyed to Dukeminier/Johanson/Lindgren/Sitkoff casebook.
• Crunchtime: Corporations (2nd Ed.) Steven Emanuel
  

Case Summaries:

• High Court Case Summaries -- Keyed to Sullivan's Constitutional Law casebook -- 15h Ed.

Examsmanship:

• How to do your best on law school exams (complete with problems and answers) (Third Revised Ed.) John Delaney.
  

Legal Skills

• Synthesis: Legal reading, reasoning, and writing. (Second Ed.) Schmedemann & Kunz

BOOKS WILL BE SHIPPED ON OR ABOUT AUGUST 19.
Books requested on 8/3/09 may go out as early as 8/4/09!
This was wildly successful, huh?

Disclaimer: none of these is the current editions. Editions listed above! They may in fact be two editions out of date. But most of this law has not changed in many years... the companies push out new editions with trivial changes each year to keep prices high. These are used books -- most are gently used, with little highlighting and few margin notes -- but they are used all the same. As is, all warranties expressly disclaimed, and whatever other legal mumbo jumbo you want to throw in here.

Definitions

Originally posted at Jansen / No.634. Reposted with permission.

Huma is right – I remember reading blawgs during the summer before law school and not knowing what the heck certain terms meant. Here’s a quick rundown of things that confused me, most of which are from the “definitions” page of No.634.

• ABA: American Bar Association.
• Appellant: A party to a lawsuit who appeals a losing decision to a higher court in an effort to have it modified or reversed. The person who won is called the Appellee.
• ATL: AboveTheLaw.com, which is the legal world’s equivalent to TMZ.
• Bar Review (Activity): a semi-formal gathering of law students at local pubs. Bar review is held weekly, and is an almost exclusively 1L-event. A few months into the semester, two types of people will still attend bar review: those have a really strong set of law school friends and those who have no friends outside of law school. Individual sections will also have weekly bar gatherings, usually on Fridays.
• Bar Review (Publication): a libelous publication at UMN law school. This is how UMN students find out where the next Bar Review (activity) will be held.
• Biglaw: refers to large, private firms.
• Blawg: A law-related blog. These come in a variety of forms that include the personal blawgs of law students, professor blawgs, attorney blawgs, fictional blawgs, judges, and scandal sheets.
• Briefing: A semi tedious way that first year law students summarize cases. A case brief typically consists of the case title, procedural posture, holding, and a summary of facts. After first semester most students begin book briefing.
• Civil Procedure: A typical first year course that deals with the procedural rules used for civil (as opposed to criminal) cases in Federal Courts.
• Clinic: a law school program providing hands-on-legal experience to law school students and services to various clients. (read on Wiki)
• Discussion: Lecture. Professors, especially those presenting speeches/talks, will often refer to their speech as a “discussion.”
• FPP: Federal Procedure & Practice. A legal treatise on Civil Procedure. It’s brilliant, and available on Westlaw.
• Gunner: The over-eager, inconsiderate person in every law school class that talks over her peers and monopolizes class time. The cliché is: “If after the first semester, you don’t know who the class gunner is, then it’s you.” See video.
• Hornbook: A legal treatise. These are long enough to be unhelpful unless you are utterly lost in the class. Remember, you don’t get any extra points for mentioning things that the professor did not cover in class. The most useful legal treatise is the FPP, which is available on Westlaw.
• Interest Meeting: Free Lunch. For the first semester at UMN law, student organizations hold “interest meetings” or sponsor talks almost every day during the lunch hour. This means free pizza. Towards the end of the semester when people are feeling obese and/or sick of pizza, the student organizations will try to entice you with Quiznos mini-subs and Holy Land food. Sometime during second semester you will realize that a hour in the middle of the school day is more valuable than the free food.
• Justice: an appellate judge, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court, a member of a Federal Court of Appeal, and judges of any of the various state appellate courts.
• Law Review: Typically the most prestigious journal at any law school.
• Law Revue: A theatrical/comedy troupe of law students (the most famous is at NYU). At UMN this is called T.O.R.T.
• LexisNexis: an online research system (like Westlaw) that you get access to as a 1L at UMN. Some law schools do not give Westlaw/Lexis access to first year students. Lexis contains cases, treatises, a legal dictionary, statutes, and more. Do not buy supplemental books that contain statutes or restatements until you check if they are on Westlaw/Lexis first. Lexis offers reward points for research. It is very easy to rack up points and redeem them for Starbucks giftcards, & etc.
• Lunch: priming for CivPro (Stella’s definition) Reading assignments a few hours before class will seem unthinkable until your second month in school.
• Mandatory: Optional, unless you are specifically told what will happen if you don’t do the “mandatory” thing. A way that UMN tries to scare 1Ls into attending events is to “take attendance.” This stops working second semester when the 1Ls realize that nothing happened to the “rebels” from first semester.
• Nutshell: A Spark-Note-like study aid for a given legal subject. These are more useful than hornbooks, but tend to oversimplify the law.
• OCI: On campus interviews. This happens during the beginning of your second year, and is supposedly a “disaster” for those who are not in the top of the class.
• Petitioning: The application process to get onto a legal journal. At UMN, it starts after spring semester finals.
• Procedural posture: what happened to get the case to where it is. Who won below? Who appealed?
• Restatements: Restatements of law are treatises on legal subjects, published by the American Law Institute. Many restatements are eventually codified into law, and your professors (especially in Contracts) will probably assign portions of a restatement.
• SSG: Structured Study Group, a tutorial session at UMN led by an upper-year student.
• Sincerely: boilerplate
• Snark: Legalese for “bitchy“
• Talk: Lecture
• Torts: A typical first year class. This is the blood, guts, and hilarity class. On Wikipedia: Tort law is a body of law that addresses, and provides remedies for, civil wrongs not arising out of contractual obligations. Typical tort cases include assault, battery, slip-and-fall, car accidents, etc.
• T.O.R.T.: Theater of the Relatively Talentless. The UMN equivalent to law revue. See Website.
• Westlaw: an online research system (like Lexis) that you get access to as a 1L at UMN. Some law schools do not give Westlaw/Lexis access to first year students. Westlaw contains cases, treatises, a legal dictionary, statutes, and more. Do not buy supplemental books that contain statutes or restatements until you check if they are on Westlaw/Lexis first.

Open thread

Questions and requests for posts? Post them here.

Law School as seen on Youtube

First up: at the end of first year Constitutional Law, you will find this video to be hilarious. Really. The Con Luv students from the UVA Libel show knocked this out of the park.



Second: my favorite song about law school. I played this at least once per exam period. Yes, of course the song is an exaggeration, but it has enough truth to make it very funny to me.

Round up of pre-L advice

Ok, Pre-Ls: you're getting ready to get started. You might be moving, buying books, looking at that tuition statement, second guessing your decision and freaking out. You're not alone. So to give you something to do this week before orientation, I thought I'd round up what others have said about law school.

Some of these are older posts by those who have since left law school and the world of blogging, but are no less relevant. I've tried to select advice posts that don't directly contradict each other, as well as posts that are funny or painfully true or both.

Advice from this site:

• Commercial Study Aids.
• Casebriefs and Outlines.
• 1L job search.

Ubiquitous Top Tens:

• 10 Tips from Namby
• 10 Tips from Useless Dicta
• 10 Tips from Rambling Without Cause
• 10 Tips from Res Ipsa Blog

Other Advice:

Five tips for your summer before law school. Jansen, No.634.

Advice if you want to start a law school blog. He's absolutely right about the anonymity. You don't have to be eponymous, and googlenonymousness is good in general, but write as if you fully expect your classmates to read it. Because they will. Three Years of Hell.

Some advice from a guy who turned a law blog into a book. Jeremy Blachman

Landing a 747. All Against All

Advice for your first summer job. Nicolle.

Laugh. The Best of Wings and Vodka.

Re: Gunners. This is Gunning. Don't be that guy. Being prepared for class, answering questions correctly when called on, working hard and trying to do your best on exams is NOT Gunning.

Humor...

Ten bad reasons to attend law school. Barely Legal (Actually, just read that whole blog.)

Death of law school naivety. Law Bitches.

What it takes to get hired in BigLaw. Who Owns the Fox.

LSAT:

LSAT blog. Wish this guy was around when I was prepping.

Law review write on competitions

Every year around this time, my blog gets inundated with variations on searches for "law review write on". I wrote on to law review, made E-board, and got published (which is a bigger deal at some schools than at others--our law review only publishes three student Notes a year).

My Advice:

Buy Volokh's book or click this link for tips from Academic Legal Writing.

Read it.

Done.

You're welcome.

Advice to a New Lawyer on their first day

I wrote this to a friend of mine who was about to start her first lawyer job. Looking back, I think that this is the advice I would give anyone about to begin life as a newbie attorney. Or, if nothing else, I wish someone had told me this before I started my first job.

Today’s your first day.

I am venturing a guess that you may be suffering from a touch of anxiety. If you say no, I’m just going to think that you are lying…I’ve been where you are standing.

Knowing the process you’ve gone through to get to where you are about to go, anxiety in any form is totally understandable. You can’t always play it safe, in other words, you have to take a leap without knowing what may be beneath you. Now it’s time to take that first step into this, the unknown fray.

You are walking into a situation where you have an excellent pedigree. Every journey you’ve taken in the past has led to this first foray into the professional world. Put it another way: you’ve been educated, you’ve trained and now, you are ready.

Here is my advice to you, the new attorney, on your first day: Take risks. Ask questions. Do not fear being wrong. Let the fear of failure motivate you to greatness. Be headstrong but do not be stupid. Don’t judge your position with any of your friends or colleagues, only you can determine whether or not you are in the right situation.

As you look at the list of suggestions I have made above, you will likely see what you’ve heard from the countless number of voices that you have sought counsel from. Now, I hope to impart on you something unique.

You are about to be on the bottom of the professional food chain. It’s likely that in this illustrious position, when you make a mistake, you hear about it as if you have just committed a mortal sin. Finding positives in a career choice can be daunting when this is what you are faced with day in and day out. This advice is simple: find something that you do in your job that sets you apart from everyone else and treasure it. Live in this moment when you know you are on the absolute top of your form. Finally, do everything you can to get back to this place as often as possible.

This is what keeps me coming back day in and day out. This is what makes me know I want to be a lawyer.

There are going to be long stressful days ahead. As the new attorney, the one who doesn’t know the ins and outs, you will likely face mountains of adversity. I have complete faith that you will successfully confront whatever comes your way.

You are going to be great.

Summertime blues

MN asks: So what do you do if you can't find anything? If everything has been filled or you can't afford to go 1000 away from where you are now and it's too late for summer school?

For the sake of having a gender for pronoun purposes, I'm making MN a guy. I am guessing he is taking about summer jobs, though he doesn't indicate if its 1L or 2L summer. He posted the question July 1, which is really late. I would respectfully suggest that not everything has been filled. Just everything that might pay him a salary.

If its 1L summer and you don't have anything legal, it is not the worst thing ever. I know many people who didn't do legal work last summer. It made interviews more difficult in the fall, but you know, if you have to wait tables to pay the bills, then that's what you have to do. I still think there is a way to work some legal work if you don't have other demands on your time (like a kid.)

Have you contacted solo or small practitioners and volunteer to do 10 hours of legal research and writing a week in exchange for a reference and the chance to sit in on hearings etc.? Even if its a plaintiff's lawyer and you want to do defense work, you will learn something and have the chance to network. Have you contacted local non-profits to see if they or their counsel need a student volunteer? Similar reason.

Does it suck to work for free? You bet.

But it pays off in experience and something to talk about that will hopefully lead to the job you want.

Any others have advice?

Waiting for grades

... is one of the worst things about law school.

Open thread -- feel free to vent about waiting for grades, rankings, etc.

Reason I love law school #1

Professor Transparent:

"We’re going to read this case even though its mostly no longer good law, because its great. It would be like if the Supreme Court overruled Macbeth. It would still be worth reading."

On a positive note

I don't like that "negative" material is the top post of this blog right now.

Because I enjoy law school.

I love how it has changed the way I approach problem solving.

I love that it is been as intellectually stimulating as I had hoped.

I love writing exams. I do. When I am well prepared, exams are fun.

(Its the being well prepared part that's getting to me now.)

On dashing dreams

I was working an admitted students event this weekend.

Preface: I made the choices I made for law school for my reasons. I don't care (much) about prestige or rankings and it won't matter (much) in the work I want. But let us be blunt. Forgetting the US News and the Rankings debate, we can all agree there are the top schools, the also rans, and the rest. We can quibble over the details on the edges of those categories, but the school I chose is squarely among "the rest."

There were two people there that had such a skewed view of reality that I wanted to smack them upside the head.

One was a man who was about to uproot his family and school-aged children and move halfway across the country to come to my school. He was changing careers because, and I quote, he wanted one of those BigLaw jobs in Not-Very-Nearby Market with the $160k starting salaries.

Another wanted to go into legal academia, but admitted he didn't do well enough on the LSATs to get into the schools that would more likely get him into those doors. Still, he said, he really thinks he can do it because his mind totally works on that theoretical level and he's not interested at all in the practical aspects of practicing law.

To the first I wanted to say this:

What the hell kind of mid-life crisis is this? And if you're seriously going through with this, why would you put your family through this on the 1 in 10,000 chance you will actually land one of those BigLaw jobs coming from a non-prestigious school? I mean, if your scores put you in this tier and you really have no other options, at least go to the similarly ranked school IN YOUR TARGET MARKET. In short, sir, it would be cheaper for your family if you just went ahead and bought the convertible.

To the second I wanted to say this:

Dooode! You're like 19 years old. You don't want to graduate college and go into the work force. Law school seems like a good plan. You really think you'll be #1 in the class and still do keg stands on the weekend. (Note: I am serious. He talked about keg stands.) I get it. If you're sincere about this being your life's ambition though, Dooode, take a year off, study your ass off for the LSATs, and try again. Cuz if you're not willing to do that, Dooode, the legal academics and you won't ever get along.

Instead, I bit my tongue and remembered that these people are grown-ups and free to make whatever decision they think will make them happiest. If you recognize yourself, its not too late.

The $$ Shell Game

Life the Universe and Everything asks: Appropriate question??What percentage of your applicants receive scholarship offers. I'm curious here because at the school I'll be visiting, you have to be in the top 25% to retain your scholarship. Top 26% gets you bupkiss. So if say 50% of applicants walk in with $$$, that tells me they're trying to attract students with higher numbers, and plan on screwing them once they're in the door. Obviously in that scenario, half the folks would lose their scholarships. Is this an appropriate/hot button question to ask? I would also want to know how the sections are allocated. I've heard of school stacking a particular section with scholarship students to make it next to impossible to be in the top percent of the class.


This started as a comment in the last post, but got long. See the comments of that post for Useless Dicta's take.

The first question is absolutely a question you should be asking. You may not get the whole truth on the answer but how they handle it might tell you a lot. My school screwed so many people that was it wasn't even funny. I emerged unscathed with my scholarship in tact, but I was one of the few.

Also, if your numbers are *much* better than the school average and you have other reasons for choosing the school besides scholarship money, I would absolutely negotiate, though not at admitted students weekend of course. Applications are down across the board this year. Leverage that knowledge if you can.

Example, you're offerred full tuition if you maintain top 25%. Ask for that if you maintain top 50% instead, or 3/4 tuition for top 50%. A friend of mine really did that -- she said "thanks, but I can do better at the the cheaper higher ranked state school" and talked her way to a better deal. Took balls and a good back up plan -- she had a good BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement), acceptance at a higher ranked cheaper school that she would be happy enough going to. It was worth it for her. Might work for you if you've got the #'s, a good back up plan, and good reasons why the lower ranked school is otherwise attractive.

I would NOT ask about the section stacking -- they won't own up to that and anything you get from the students will be based on hearsay and conjecture.

I would ask about the curve. Is it a B- median? Or a B- mean? The latter could mean wider distribution and greater chance that if you do land below the curve in one class, it will kill your chance at keeping a scholarship.

Also at my school, 26%-50% still get money, but much much less. Make sure you really get "bupkiss."

But I *would* ask how many people receive scholarships in relation to the rank they have to achieve. And what is the NUMBER of people that you're ranked typically against . . . if there are only 75 full time students, #19 in the class is out of luck.

Good luck.

Admitted students weekend

Life, the universe, and everything asks: I just received my class assignment for my admitted students weekend. I am scheduled to sit in on a constitutional law class. Can anyone enlighten me about this sort of law? The only thing I know of it is Susan Estrich's opinion that it spoils every law student because everyone wants to practice it, but almost no one gets to. What should I expect?

Just so you know, I am only answering this question because the asker quoted Douglas Adams and I look for any excuse to quote Douglas Adams. Even Administrative Law.

More generally, admitted students weekends are like a big happy open house. They trot out all the law students who actually like it there and have them gush about why they chose this law school over all others, why law school is not really as bad as you've heard, and why its exactly as bad as you've heard, but just not so bad at their school. I should know: I am one of the students my law school trots out, because I am generally very positive about it. Though I am honest with the prospectives. Feel free to ask the "hard questions." You might even get some straight answers, but remember the overall purpose of admitted students weekend is to get you to choose that law school over the others at which you were accepted. Sit back and enjoy the sales presentation, and look for indicators that the place really is the right fit for you.

In your case, you know for sure you'll be sitting on a mock class. (I assume that its not an actual Con Law class occurring on a weekend.) You may even get a case or two to read in advance of the class to get a "feel" for the Socratic method. Don't be fooled: the real deal will be a lot more intimidating, for the first few weeks of law school at least. The prof at your admitted students weekend will probably take volunteers, not cold-call on people, and eager almost-1Ls will probably actually volunteer. Again, I don't discourage this as it can be fun. Just don't expect it to reflect the real thing.

As to what the prof will actually cover, I have no idea. At my school during our admitted student weekend, we read a famous English criminal law case that involved men lost at sea in a life boat and cannibalism. (Click here to read it if you like.) So based on my experience, expect something fun and somewhat controversial in order to generate a lively discussion, but not like "hot button" controversial.

As to the Susan Estrich comment: "Con Law" touches nearly everything in the law . . . I'd say everything without the 'nearly,' but law school has made me wary of such definitive statements. What she probably means is people want to practice the sexy areas like free speech, and its true; most people will not get to argue a free speech case before a Circuit court, let alone before the Supremes. That doesn't mean you don't get to do due process, equal protection, and commerce clause arguments. My Family Law and Labor Law classes, for example, have just been Con Law with a focus.

(All right, enough. I have to go read for Admin class, otherwise known as "What Would Scalia Do.")