Today I'm going to be talking to you about a couple of things that I wish I had known
going into law school.
I'm a 1L going into my winter quarter---we're on the quarter system here, but most law schools
will be going into their winter semester.
I wanted to make this video because I was actually super apprehensive and anxious going
into law school and, you know, throughout the whole process because once you accept
your law school and decide where you're going, that's a moment of...you know, real triumph
and excitement, and it feels like a huge decisive step but then after that you have this sort
of blank period of waiting.
And for me personally, I felt like I should spend all of that time prepping, or doing
something to get ready, and I didn't know what that should be.
If you are going to law school, you're probably a type A personality or sort of type A adjacent,
and those of us who have those personalities, we always like to go into a situation as prepared
as possible.
But with law school, it's not always possible to do that, and in fact it's not super helpful
to try and pre-learn the law.
I mean, I remember the sensation of trying to read this book on the history of the Constitution,
which I had never studied before (in depth), and thinking---oh my God, I have to get through
this book, if I can't get through this, how will I get through law school??
And just really stressing myself out over the summer before law school started, and...in
the end none of that mattered at all and had nothing to do with how well I did in school.
I wanted to make this video now because a lot of you probably are getting your acceptances
and starting to make that decision.
I know that sort of anxiety process is beginning in some of you---it was for me.
I also wanted to wait to make this video until I got some of my fall quarter grades, to know...whether
I would be, basically, qualified or not to make this...and, turns out, I am.
So!
Here we go.
First thing to note is that law school is going to test you on two very separate skill
sets.
When you're in the daily grind of classes, it's going to feel quite different from when
you're taking your exam, which for a lot of schools is what determines your entire grade
for the class.
It's not going to be like in undergrad where you had you know, problem sets or shorter
papers plus participation.
For the most part, your beginning classes are going to be determined by a single exam.
For us at Stanford, we basically sat for 3-4 hours in a room all together and typed as
much as we could, as quickly as we could, and that 14-20 page essay that we generated
was what we were graded on.
All of that is very different from what you need to do to prepare for class.
It's important to keep in mind, first of all, that some people are going to seem really
really brilliant in class because they talk all the time.
For one thing, the amount of speaking you do in class, and your understanding of the
material are not exactly always correlated...people have different approaches to speaking out
loud in class, and you shouldn't feel pressured to speak just for the sake of speaking.
Secondly, being prepared for class means knowing the minutiae of cases really well, and understanding
the issues of each particular case, and while you will be tested on issues in the final
exam, it's not always going to be the same sort of stuff.
So for example, in class if you get cold-called (which is something where the professor just
randomly calls your name and you have to answer on the fly), the professor might ask you about
the procedural history of a case---stages of trial the case went through, like did it
get appealed, where was it first heard, what sort of court...all of that will feel extremely
important in the moment of class, where you're speaking in front of your classmates, and
the spotlight's kind of on you...but for the vast majority of cases that we studied, none
of that procedural history really came up on the final exam at all, because it's not
super relevant to the application of these cases to the blackletter law itself.
Blackletter law is basically the actual rule that the case created.
So that's one thing to keep in mind.
your class skills and your exam skills are two separate things, so you do want to be
very prepared for class, but keep in mind that at the end of that road, you're going
to be asked to do something fairly different which is analyze everything that you've learned
in that class sort of, holistically.
They use the metaphor of the forest and the trees a lot, so for the exam you're going
to do a forest-type approach but when you're going from class to class day to day, it feels
very much like you're in the thick of the forest (i.e. among the trees), and it's easy
to lose sight of the final goal, which is to get an overall understanding of the material.
Which brings me to my second point.
In your orientation, you'll most likely learn the basics of briefing a case.
The word 'briefing' is kind of...it was a little bit confusing for me at first, because
it means different things.
Briefing a case in that situation is just reading the case in your casebook and writing
yourself a mini-outline of the important points so that you can later talk about it in class
or study, you know, make your outlines for finals from it.
You'll also be writing briefs which are another thing entirely, so don't get those mixed up...We
learned a sort of standard briefing structure which is, first, facts (what are the facts
of the case?
what literally happened?), the procedural posture which is what court did it start in...how
did it end up in this court...issue (the issue of law that the court's opinion is trying
to determine), the rule (pretty straightforward: what rule is going to be passed down from
this case), the holding (the holding is basically another word for the outcome of the case,
but holdings can be construed broadly or narrowly, so a holding might be something like...in
every case involving a ship of this kind, x will happen or x will apply, that sort of
thing), the reasoning of the court in coming to that holding or conclusion, and then any
dissents that might be interesting or useful to understand the issue.
Dissents will be most important in Supreme Court cases.
That's the basic structure of briefing a case for class.
So again: facts, procedural posture, issue, rule, holding, reasoning, and dissent.
That's how I basically structure them.
Every case that I read, I try (I really try but you know you can't always, sometimes you
run out of time) but I try to write out all of those categories and then put, you know,
little bullets under each one.
Some people have different methods, and it's actually important to note that briefing the
case for class that is just for you, so whatever method helps you understand more fully what
the case is about is the best method.
So for some people, they switch the order of the categories, so maybe the reasoning
goes before the holding or the rule comes after the holding.
That doesn't really matter as long as it makes sense to you.
You might also add different categories, so some people like to split the reasoning into
the plaintiff's argument, defendant's argument, then the court's approach to synthesizing
those arguments or picking one side over the other.
Don't get bogged down by the categories and the need to produce a perfect product in your
case brief.
It's really about making something that is functional and that will help you approach
your classes.
The third point I would emphasize is staying on top of your daily notes.
Of course, going to class is very important and taking good notes is very important because
when you sit down at the end of the quarter or semester to try and pull together your
outline, your notes are going to be the foundation of your review.
Most of us going into law school were strong students, and we feel that we know how to
study, and that's true, but for me, anyway, law school involved a much greater amount
of detail that I wasn't particularly....super interested in.
For each case, there's a lot of minutiae that you need to keep track of, things that also
feel counterintuitive because they have historical roots in law...it's not always clear exactly
how we got to that point.
It's very important to keep track of all that because if you fall behind, it's very difficult
to catch up.
Making sure that you have a well-structured note-taking system that makes sense to you,
and that you keep on top of it every day, every week, it feels very tedious and difficult
but it's going to pay off at the end when you're trying to make that outline.
We have a database called SLATA and we use those outlines.
Former students of a class can upload their outlines and you can use that as a guide for
creating your own.
I did that, but it's not enough to just rely on that because obviously course material
changes from year to year so it's very important to have your own notes to rely on.
It also feels weird to try and go off of someone else's notes because it's like picking someone
else's brain.
Things are organized differently, and things are emphasized differently.
Having your own notes is very important.
The last thing I'll mention is how important it is to try and carve out time for yourself.
I talked to current students here before coming and they did tell me that fall semester was
going to be extremely difficult and honestly, going in I was like, "I was an English graduate
student, I used to sit and read for like, 8 or 10 hours a day...how much harder could
it really be?"
It's harder.
Fall quarter we basically had 4 hours of class a day, and literally almost the entire rest
of the day I would spend reading for the next day's classes, and I would also spend all
of the weekend reading, except for Friday nights and maybe like, one morning or afternoon,
like Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon but most of the weekend was also spent reading
and it was very, very difficult not to burn out.
Luckily, my boyfriend---now fiance!----was living with me and he really helped take care
of me and made sure I wasn't totally just getting this tunnel vision, but beyond that,
you really can't rely too much on other people to take care of you.
You need to look out for yourself, and part of that is making sure that you put your body
and your health as a priority.
Making time to work out, making sure you're eating, and trying to maybe cook for yourself
also...those are all nice things that give you a little bit of room to breathe.
Otherwise it can get very overwhelming very quickly.
It's difficult to find that balance, and it's something that you have to actively cultivate
in yourself before you start school.
So those are my very basic, very general tips, things that I wish I had known going into
fall quarter.
If you guys have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below,
if you haven't subscribed yet, please subscribe, and let me know what else you would like to
know about the law school experience.
I would love to talk to you guys about it!
Thank you, see you next time :)