Judge Easterbrook

Judge Easterbrook came and gave a lecture on oral advocacy in an appeals court setting. It's always nice to hear from someone who is out in the field, as opposed to people who have never tried a case. I think each person in the system has their place (academics may never actually need to try a case), but the variety is nice.

The talk was interesting and, although it lasted a bit over an hour, I was able to listen to all of it. It puts aside some fears having to do with the moot court rounds that start in a week.

A week! Ack!

LSAT Courses

Here's my LSAT course primer:

The LSAT is a learnable skill. As such, most people should take an LSAT class. The few exceptions know who they are. LSAT courses help you focus, force you to study for the LSAT.

There are 4 major LSAT courses out there, and they can be divided into two subsections. There are few differences within the subsections.

Kaplan and Princeton Review
No one I know that has taken these has been overly happy. Compare to the endless praise given by PowerScore and Testmasters folks. They're supposed to do a good job on most everything but the logic games section. Most people I know that took Kaplan or Princeton Review recommended buying the Powerscore Logic Games Bible to supplement.

PowerScore and Testmasters
PowerScore is becoming the most recommeneded LSAT course, in no small part because of its LSAT Bibles it releases. Powerscore is an offshoot of Testmasters. Their methods are similar, if not the same in almost every respect. Each of these companies are praised by everyone I've talked to. A final note, Testmasters is known as ScorePerfect in Texas. Something about copyright infringement?

Bottom Line
Take an LSAT course. It's more important to take the course and do the practice stuff than to take the right course. It's better not to take a course and take practice exams than to take a course and think classroom time is going to save you.

Hope that helps.

0L Literature and Cinema

There's quite the market for 0L books out there.

I am part of the problem. I have quite a few of these on my bookshelf.

Looking at Amazon, some people have made "Books to read before Law School" lists. My view, which of course is the correct one, is that most of these are worthless for all practical purposes, but necessary for social purposes. Parents, friends, and lawyers are all going to ask you which you read. You have to be able to say "1L, of course, but that hasn't really reflected my experience here at [my school]. I also read [some other book] that seemed to get some things right and most things wrong."

If you are going to read something before your 1L year, here's the reading list:
One L by Scott Turow - Every Lawyer and Law Student has read this.
The Paper Chase - The classic law school movie. Not close to accurate, but we've all seen it.

Honorable Mention:
Getting to Maybe - Everyone I know that has read this says it's "OK, but repetitive". A copy is on most students' shelves.

Other books often recommended:
Law School Confidential - This book is more about fear and less about help. I tried to use some of their methods (5 highlighters?), and switched to other methods soon after. Factual issues seem to be correct, however.
Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell - This is one of the only 0L books you can buy that doesn't attempt to scare you. It was useful in relieving some of the 0L stress, and it has some interesting essays by people with law degrees about life after school.
The Complete Law School Companion - I've only skimmed this one, can't say much. It covers more topics than most books, including LSAT and applications.
Planet Law School II - Often seen as taking second place to Law School Confedential in every respect, including amount of fear created. Haven't read it. Yet.

There's a DVD now - "All About Law School" - I'd love to watch this thing; the Youtube ad is a bit over the top.


Summary:
Buy a copy of 1L and read it. Watch The Paper Chase. Pick up a copy of Getting to Maybe an never read it in its entirety. Get at least one of the scary books and skim it, realizing that the more they can scare someone who is skimming the 0L section at Borders, the more copies they sell. If you're scared of law school already, read one of these and see that your imagination is far more active than it ought to be.

Civ Pro

Civil Procedure is a necessary class, sure.

But it should never held early in the morning.

Nor in the afternoon.

Crim Law

What are we supposed to be learning in Criminal Law? It seems like it's a lot of theory, and an occasional statute. Surely the exam isn't going to be straight theory. Are we going to have to know the Kansas murder statute and then compare that to the Model Penal Code?

And no, I refuse to check past exams to answer my question, I prefer to complain and be flustered.

Classes and All That - Take 2

Oops, seems like people are doing the reading. In a school where the grade is a strict curve, this sort of thing may matter. Maybe.

Classes and All That

It seems that no one is doing the reading these days. Everyone seems to be taking a break. I think this is the sort of thing that would get the administration thinking of cutting the brief or something like that. I think the brief is a fine exercise, and probably necessary before the first summer, but something must be done. Class is borderline worthless this week.

Life, Sleep, and Everything

The Bigelow Brief assignment is still throwing off my sleep schedule. Good luck waking me up before noon.

The quarter system is a strange beast. I cannot tell whether I should love it or hate it. Since Christmas, I've taken two big exams spanning a total of four quarters, had two writing large writing assignments, and am looking forward (?) to six quarters worth of exams in about four weeks. Also, oral arguments about the brief. Half of my grades for the year are still in the air.

Friends at other law schools also have half of their grades in the air, but they've only had one round of exams. Exams are a strange experience, where students who don't spend much time studying suddenly do. Most students tend to start studying at the same time - it almost feels like Watership Down. Exam rounds are intense and awful and I'd rather have 2 big ones than two not-as-big ones and one big one. Everything is on a curve, so easing people into things tends to even people out as far as math majors vs. philosophy majors go.

I'm currently ambivalent.

Shell of a life

After finishing the brief, I've come to notice that I don't know how to spend free time. I've been asking around, and it seems that I'm not the only one. We've got nothing to do. The administration forced us to abandon our lives. We're trying to go back, and we're finding that our lives disappeared and refuse to be reclaimed, possibly because they feel abandoned.

Sorry, friends and family. I've forgetten some of your names.

Sorry, Lost, American Idol, Grey's Anatomy and Prison Break. I'm too far behind to catch up.

Sorry, jogging in the park, reading for fun, cooking, and coloring books. I've lost all the motor skills you required.

And you, food other than pizza, I'll miss you too. If I could only remember what you are...

Law Shows

One of the upsetting things about law school is watching Boston Legal, Law & Order, and other legal shows. What we notice now are the specious claims (we also use the word specious), the contrived circumstances, and the questionable, if not outright wrong, legal rules. However, they often get things right, especially when the thing isn't driving the plot.

They also say things like "I became a lawyer because of blah blah blah." These people don't really exist.

Long story short, if you love your Law & Order, prepared to be let down.

Professors - Notice for this week

Any professor who calls on a 1L with the expectation that they'll have done the reading needs to do a reality check on how interesting their class readings actually are. Next week, we'll play along again.

Brief

The brief is done. Things left to stress out about:

• Oral arguments. They're all gonna laugh at you.
• Exams. You've been slacking on your reading.
• Summer job. You're either going to not have a job this summer or screw up at the one you got. Either way, you lose.
• Prom. Like this wasn't stressful enough in high school.
  

7th Circuit - Hypocritical?

http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/Rules/type.pdf

The 7th Circuit is notorious for its high standards when it comes to typeface choices.

However, they seem to make some blunders when it comes to web design.

1. Main site's title is "Untitled Document"
2. Ugly blue as the main color. Note that PowerPoint doesn't come with that color blue for templates anymore. That color went out with the .com boom.
   
3. http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/Rules/briefex/BRindex.htm
• Brief examples page is very Web .01 Beta.
• Pay special attention to thier animated gif.
• Check out that floppy disk icon. Computers don't come with those anymore

Necessary Reading

http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/

Take a look at the ads on the right side. There's an ad for Reutter's The Law of Public Education, 6th Edition. Do people who read legal blogs impulse buy $100+ casebooks? I'd love to see the ad revenue charts on those links.

Open Letter to Lexis

Dear Lexis,

I do not need any more Ultimate Reward Points.

Ever.

I do not need whatever training it is you offer. Please save your paper, your e-mails, and my time. Perhaps if you offered a noticably superior service to your competitors I would use you. Perhaps.

Statement of Purpose

This blog was created to give those thinking about coming to law school a candid perspective of how one's priorities change as they go through law school. Before entering law school, I'd have never cared about personal jurisdiction, whether the UCC existed, or Plum Cafe coffee.

Now I hate all of them.

Additionally, this blog was created to serve as the focal point of scandal and rumor mongering.

Assignment taken from University of Alabama

The Bigelow Brief from this year was taken from an assignment at the University of Alabama assigned in 2005. Surprised me, at least.

http://www.law.ua.edu/llmtax/Legalwriting/DistrictCourtOrder.doc
http://milkyanyes.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html

There's more, do a Google search for "Jayme Olive Emerald Legacy".