Law School

So the semester is coming to a close, which means it's the busiest time of year. Here's a breakdown of what my last two months have looked like:

School

As I'm sure I mentioned earlier this semester, I'm very pleased with the classes I am in this semester. I actually enjoy all the readings for each of my classes. As exams approach and my outlines are coming together, the only significant obstacle was getting my notes updated with all of the notes from classes that I missed while interviewing. Fortunately, all of my friends have been kind enough to give me their notes for the days that I've missed. In terms of my impression of each of the classes I've taken this semester, here are my observations and comments

Wills & Trusts (Professor Eisele): In typical Eisele fashion, he shows up to the classroom about 1 to 1.5 hours early to write all of the day's notes on the board. This semester, perhaps due to the H1N1 virus and other factors, he has also recorded his classes and posted them online for people to listen to if they miss class. By providing you with daily notes and a Supplemental packet (which includes his own notes and solutions to problems in the book), it makes it very easy for you to learn the material. Additionally, his memory is quite amazing and he will be able to point you to the exact page in the textbook and in the Supplement whenever you have questions (oh, and he will know your name by the end of the 1st week of class). Although I don't plan on pursuing a career in estate planning, I have truly enjoyed having Professor Eisele for Property and for Wills & Trusts and would strongly recommend taking his class (especially if you're a morning person). Substantively, the class is quite interesting. Since it's applicable to almost everybody, the material becomes very useful to know for future purposes. The various ritual requirements for wills, the types of wills, the language in wills, and the mental capacity & undue influence aspects of wills really made me wonder how many people today have wills that could be contested.

Secured Transactions (Professor Kalsem): Her classes are very organized and she kindly posts the next class' powerpoint slides on TWEN in advance. By reading the assigned textbook pages (which usually aren't very long; usually up to 30 pages) and the slides before each class, preparation for class isn't bad. What I personally enjoy about the class is that by going through problems from the book and seeing how perfection and attachment work in becoming a secured party, it makes going to class worthwhile. Although the problems in the book suggests the reader to look at certain provisions of the UCC Article 9 in answering the questions, they sometimes can be misleading since they don't necessarily provide you with the answer. Additionally, the class covered Bankruptcy for a couple weeks (which I will be taking next semester). The material may be a little more dry for people that like criminal law and torts, but I like the business side and I found it very interesting in determining priorities among creditors. By taking this class in conjunction with corporations and ethics, it really helped me understand the business side of law as a whole.

Corporations (Professor Black): Of all my classes this semester, I know that this will be my most difficult exam. Initially, it seems like a pretty straightforward class. You learn about the different types of characteristics of corporations (LLC, LLP, sole ownership, closely held, etc.), along with the division of power between shareholders and the board of directors. Then there's the piercing of the corporate veil, shareholder litigation, etc. I guess the difficulty I see with the class is simply the length and extent of the explanation required when discussing each of these topics. For example, when discussing the duty of care and duty of loyalty on the board of directors and having to go through the business judgment rule, good faith, corporate opportunity doctrine, self-interested transactions, corporate waste, demand requirements, etc., I guess I'll see how it goes on the exam. The class format is simple: you're expected to read, usually one or two people get called on in each class, pure lecture (with the occasional input from students that are called on to relay the facts of the case), and that's about it. It almost feels like a 1L fall class where you're taking notes without any written notes from the professor (ok, so maybe there was the duty of care part where we had some notes on the board). Overall, the substance is extremely interesting for a business-oriented person. I probably spend more time thinking about legal issues from this class than any other class.

Federal Income Tax (Professor McMahon): This class (along with Secured Transactions) is what I always envisioned law school to be about. Look at the Code, analyze it, find exceptions elsewhere in the code, analyze it, and apply all this to the situation at hand. The math part isn't bad.....but then again, I was a Math major, so I really like the fact that it's back to equations. Calculating basis, gain/ loss realized & recognized, adjusted gross income, etc. I think it's great. Class preparation does take a little longer than most classes. About 10 people get called on each class (but she maintains the same order, so if you know who's before you, you can be prepared to be called on), so you get called on probably close to once a week. It's really a great class that helps you analyze legislation, apply it, practice answering verbally in a professional lawyerly manner, and write emails (as an assigned problem) to see how concise and direct your answers can be. Once again, many people may find it boring, but this material really makes you understand the tax consequences of each thing you do. You realize why people like long term capital gains (such as in land or stock) as opposed to short term capital gains. I guess you also realize that in almost any case where there is doubt (such as whether it should be included in gross income or whether it counts as a deduction), the taxpayer always has the burden of proving its case. On a side note, the professor's humor is quite unique.....meaning she'll usually be the only one that laughs (I don't remember the joke, but there was something with a hypothetical problem including $10,000 payment in cheese under like-kind exchanges........I'm hoping her joke wasn't about dividing the cheese....i.e. cutting the cheese).

Legal Ethics (Professor Spring): The class discussion is essentially going over the assigned problems for that day. Each student is assigned a problem for the semester, and you're responsible for writing up an answer, submitting it, and then discussing your answer when you get to it in class. Everybody gets a clicker to answer the questions each class. Substantively, the class covers conflict of interests, reasonable fees, duty to clients, etc. We use the Ohio Rules of Professional Responsibility and the substance of the class is certainly going to be very important to all of us who are going to be in the legal profession. Professor Spring also likes to throw in examples of situations from his experience at a law firm. Overall, it's not as difficult to understand in comparison to other classes. However, there have been plenty of problems and situations that show up in the readings that I would have thought were fine had I not taken this course.

Other Activities

Aside from school, I've had the whole interviewing process, writing my law review article, and my work obligations at GE. I was fortunate enough to have some options, and I'm glad I finally accepted a position for next summer so I don't have to worry about my future job situation (at least for next summer). My law review article is coming along slowly. It's quite an interesting topic covering pay to play laws (restriction on campaign contributions from state contractors), but I'm never satisfied with what I have already written down and so I continue to make modifications and revisions. Hopefully it'll turn out the way I'm picturing it to be. It's just a relief that I get to spend more time with work and the article and not have to travel for interviews anymore.

Social Life

For the last month, a good friend from college (who currently goes to medical school at UK) stayed at my place while he did 1 month of his rotations in Covington. It was nice to have somebody outside of the law school community to hang out with. I just find it interesting how my conversations with high school friends, college friends, and law school friends are quite different from each other.

One thing that's kept some of us law-schoolers in shape is the intramural flag football team. Although we were pretty mediocre in the regular season, we got through some of the top-seeded teams in the tournament thus far and I believe we're in the quarterfinals. The league keeps scheduling our games at 11pm which means (a) it's way past my usual bed-time, and (b) it's awfully cold out there. Of course, we have Andrew (from Alaska) and Jim (from Michigan) who show up in smiles thinking the weather is just right. Maybe that's why we keep winning: we have a cold-weather team.

The most exciting thing coming up is my trip to Japan in December. I haven't been back there since I worked in Tokyo back in the summer and fall of 2007. It'll be nice to see some of my old grade-school friends and actually have great seafood. I'll be going with my younger brother (currently a sophomore at Ohio State) so it should be a blast. I've already got a list of things I need to buy, places I need to eat, and people I need to see. Although I don't miss working there, I really do miss being able to get to anywhere in the country by train.

I enjoy all my classes (Wills & Trusts, Corporations, Secured Transactions, Federal Income Tax, and Ethics). Other than Wednesday, I finish by noon and it gives me plenty of time to balance my time between writing my Law Review article, preparing my brief for Moot Court, and continuing my work at GE (which I now have Remote Access to so I don't have to always go to the office).

Although all of this certainly keeps me busy, I've probably spent an equal amount of time looking for a job for next summer. Since staying in Cincinnati is not a requirement for me, I was able to apply to many jobs in big cities in the Midwest and in the East Coast. I have had a large number of interviews, but of course, the call-back interviews are the ones that really count. I have a few call-backs with large firms coming up, so I hope they go well. In these rough times, I just feel fortunate that there are employers interested in bringing me in for call-backs. The most important thing to me is that I find a place where I love the people. I was fortunate to have a summer working with great people, so I hope I have a similar experience next summer. The only negative side to these call-backs is that I have to miss a whole day of class going to them. Hopefully it will all be done soon and I can get back to concentrating solely on my school work. It's a good thing I'm enjoying the material for these classes, or else I would probably be hating my life right now. One advice I can give to the 1Ls about interviews is to just relax. Easy for me to say, but I remember being really tense for my first interviews for legal positions. Perhaps I was fortunate in having interviews back during my undergraduate years, and having some mock interviews my 1L fall with the CPD office and with attorneys in the area. I just know that the best interviews so far have been when I was relaxed, confident, and really sociable. Just remember that while they're looking for qualified people, you're looking for a good environment to work in, so ask questions.

On a separate note, students seem divided between those that wish they were working and those that want to stay in school. Fortunately, I get to split my time between work and school. I'm going to enjoy my final 2 years (less than that, actually) of school, simply because there probably won't be any school after that. I will have decades of work years ahead of me, which I'm sure I will enjoy, but I can already count the days of school I have left before graduation. Although a lot of work is required in law school, I've still had fun going out with friends, playing billiards (since I am the UC Billiards Team VP), ping pong, soccer, tennis, etc. I don't know if everyone has enjoyed law school like I have, but I think people can make it a more pleasant experience if they choose to do so.

I've completed one week of school, and I can already tell that this semester will be quite physically and mentally draining. The OCI process and the job fairs have taken up a substantial portion of my time thus far. I only have classes in the mornings (except for Wednesday, where I have Legal Ethics late in the afternoon), but I work on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons. Despite the long days, I enjoy my classes and I typically enjoy being busy. I always have something to do. I loved Eisele for Property, so I have him again for Wills. I've enjoyed Corporations, Secured Transactions, and surprisingly, Federal Income Tax. I don't think I want to be a tax lawyer, but then again, I haven't had any interesting tax projects thus far (searching through the PLRs from the IRS is not a fun task).

The one unusual feeling I had upon my return to school was seeing the 1Ls. First of all, you know they're 1Ls just from the way they talk and also how they walk around carrying their Legal Research and Writing book. It remains a weird feeling that now there are students that are seeking my help and advice. Although I haven't had extensive interaction with them so far, that will soon change as I begin speaking to them on behalf of SLEC, TIP, and as a Section Advisor.

Since I am now on Law Review, trying out for Moot Court, and working part-time at GE, the month of September is looking realllllllllly interesting. However, as I mentioned earlier, I love being busy and having my days fly by. My mind is so worn out by the end of the day that I pass out once my head hits the pillow at night. It's truly a wonderful feeling to not be in bed for 2 hours thinking about different things before falling asleep.

My one wish at this point is that I can complete the job hunt soon, so I can concentrate on the school work and other activities. We'll see how it turns out.

The transition from the law firm setting to the in-house setting at GE was quite interesting. Instead of writing memos for the attorneys, they were to be short, concise answers that simply answered their question. I also had to spend the entire first week reading over the FAR and DFARS texts (most people will probably never read it and many will never hear it mentioned in their lives). The atmosphere was extremely different as well. Instead of being around attorneys all the time, I was mostly conversing with members of the Government Contracts team. Attorneys were now in the minority. The most exciting aspect of the experience was that the attorneys I worked for were from all over the country. 2 were from DLA Piper, 1 from DoD/firm/in-house background, 1 from Lovells, 1 from Frost Brown Todd, and so on. Not only did I get a chance to work on interesting projects, but I also had a great opportunity to listen to each of their backgrounds and prior work experience.

Many of the research projects were similar to what I experience at MRJ. I still used LexisNexis to research very particular areas of law pertaining not only to government contracts, but also to government relations. Although I could discuss some of the contents of what I researched, I'll limit it to two unique projects I worked on during the summer. One of them was to read the Federal Register updates to see if any new (proposed rule, interim rule, or final rule) regulation was in place that may affect GE-Aviation in some manner. The other project (I apologize, but I can't discuss the contents since it's still an ongoing project and I haven't received permission to discuss the material) required prior Excel skills that I had learned from Toyota and Tetra Pak to create a chart that members of the legal, sales, and contracts groups could use. I bring up these two experiences just to illustrate that the in-house experience requires you to understand the legal language, but relay it to others in business terms so that members outside the legal department can understand.

Aside from the actual work, GE had many events (receptions, panel discussions, lunches, etc.) that enabled us to meet various attorneys from the large firms in the area, and also added an element of fun to the summer. Some examples of these events are: Friday at Coney Island volunteering for young kids, panel discussions at Dinsmore, Frost, and Thompson Hine, Negotiation Seminar + Reds Game hosted by Frost, Thursday lunches with other GE summer law clerks, Luncheon hosted by P&G, etc.

Outside of work, I tried to use my weekends to get in touch with friends and family, watch movies I missed out on during the school year, and began reading for the school year. I made trips out to Denver (CO), Chicago (IL), Indianapolis (IN), Lexington (KY), Memphis (TN), Nashville (TN), Athens (AL), and Columbus (OH). Unfortunately, I was unable to make a trip out to Japan, but I'm hoping to do that this winter. I know I've been pretty terrible at keeping in touch with friends, so I hope that I can do slightly better during my second year.

Overall, the GE experience was very beneficial. They offered to keep me on board during the school year and work part-time for a different Division: the Commercial Operations Team. I have accepted the new role and have already begun projects for that group. I'm hoping that the different experiences this summer will help me down the line to adapt to whatever environment I end up working in next summer.

I guess I should make a few comments on second semester before I discuss my summer experience thus far.

SECOND SEMESTER
Second semester of my first year went by very quickly.....perhaps too quickly. I really don't know what happened to it. It felt like 2 weeks. I know I enjoyed my classes first semester a lot more (perhaps because of contracts and torts), but the professors were great. The classes were property, criminal law, civ pro II, con law II, and advocacy. I can remember a lot of what I learned during the course of the semester, but the whole semester seems like a blur. There really isn't too much of a difference from first semester, except for new professors and you get more comfortable with the law school format. The one thing I should mention with regards to differences between the first and second semester: job search.
The job search process really starts at the latter part of your first semester. The earlier you turn in your resume and material, the earlier employers hear about you. However, people will have interviews beginning in January, all the way through May. The job search will take over a huge part of your second semester, if you decide to do so. I applied to many MANY places. I started interviewing in January and had interviews through April. Interviews ranged from law firms to corporations to public interest work. My best advice would be to continue staying in touch with the CPD office, keep talking to any contacts you may have and start your search early. It took me a long time to land a job, but I finally got exactly what I wanted. I got a split summer with a law firm downtown (Montgomery Rennie & Jonson) and with a corporation (General Electric). While I certainly worked hard and went through mock interviews and several unsuccessful interviews, it all paid off in the end and I was able to land these two jobs, both actually in April. I know people started landing their jobs as early as February, but just be aware that most people probably get their jobs in April. I don't know that for a fact, but that would be my guess.

SUMMER EXPERIENCE (so far)
I've now been working at Montgomery Rennie & Jonson for over 4 weeks now and I thought I'd share what the experience is like thus far. I love it. I've worked in the business world before by interning for Tetra Pak (leading global company in food processing and packaging solutions) and interning for Toyota. However, I was extremely worried about the law firm experience. Those worries quickly evaporated as I started working. My first two memos I wrote....just awful. I looked at them on my 3rd week and I thought to myself "What was I thinking?" Be sure to look back at your memos you wrote first semester, or bring in your books from first semester so you remember how to write a memo. Also know that each attorney has their own preference, so don't feel bad when they mark it up and it's all red. Despite the struggle at first, I quickly adjusted and got involved in a lot of cool projects. Examples of what I've done so far: memos on choice of law, bankruptcy, legal malpractice, personal jurisdiction, substantial cause, etc.; attend depositions; draft an affidavit for a client; draft responses to motions; write summaries (by topic) of depositions; find facts, within journals that cover 2 years, that will help our position and limit our liability. There's plenty of different topics and issues that I've had the chance to research and the attorneys and partners have been great. I don't know if all law firms are like this one, but the people here really have helped me understand anything I want to know about. They're really social and outgoing, and they love to talk about details in their case. I also haven't spent much time downtown before, so I've made it a point to go to a different restaurant every day of work so I have a nice list by the time I leave. Overall, I've loved my experience thus far and I hope that my experience at GE in a couple weeks will be just as good.

If you have any questions, please post and I'll be sure to respond.

In the meantime, I've listed my personal answer to questions that I commonly receive from incoming students

Q: Why did you decide to go to law school?
A: I had the opportunity to translate a contract document while I worked for a company in Japan and decided that the phrasing and reasons behind certain phrases were extremely interesting. I came back to the US and decided to take the LSAT soon thereafter.

Q: Why did you decided to attend UC Law?
A: First of all, my parents both live in the area. Secondly, I have connections in the area. Thirdly, I enjoyed my visit to UC Law School the most out of all the law schools that I visited (13 of them to be exact). Fourthly, nobody beats the small class sizes. Finally, calculation of future debt always comes into play.

Q: Do you enjoy law school?
A: Haha. Many of my classmates perhaps dislike law school significantly, but I do enjoy it. You learn something new every day. In fact, you learn many new things every day. In the process of acquiring this new information, you're also learning to analyze legally in a more professional manner as well. What's not to enjoy? (Many would respond to this by saying the time taken away from their social life. Others mention that the material is boring or not that exciting. So perhaps I'm lucky, but at least I know I'll be heading into a profession that I will enjoy every day)

Q: Is orientation useful?
A: Yes. While it is true that a lot of the information you receive seems immaterial, there are certain things that you will find useful. Namely, you'll find out who to go to when you have specific questions.

Q: How did people get jobs?
A: Although I don't have all the stats (talk to the Center for Professional Development for details), I know that between OIP (Ohio Innocence Project), OCI (On Campus Interviews), Public Interest Career Fair, and Simplicity Job Postings (you'll find out in the fall what this is), I would probably say that over 2/3 of us received our job in this manner. Some other examples were: their own connections and network, talking to CPD members for further advice, and independent research of firms, courts, and other businesses.

Q: How do you do well in law school?
A: I think you could ask that to all 120 people in a class and you would get 120 different responses. My advice is this. I think that the key to success is a mixture of the following items: dedication, passion, time, and intelligence. This is obviously mere speculation but I think that if you have two of the 4 items, you'll do fine. By dedication I mean taking notes in class and diligently preparing each day. I define passion as your liking of the topic. By time, I mean the number of hours you spend outside of class and mere preparation for class that you spend studying, outlining, or reading study aids. Finally, by intelligence I mean the speed in which you learn the material. I really don't think that LSAT or GPA from your undergraduate institution play as big a factor as some people may think.

Q: What's the first thing you learned in law school?
A: Finding out that there's people just as weird, if not weirder, than you.

Q: What was your favorite subject?
A: Contracts, but then again, that's why I came to law school.

Q: Who has been your favorite professor so far?
A: Very tough call. I really think each professor has their own special characteristic that makes them each enjoyable and exciting in their own way.

Q: What professor should I be afraid of?
A: Professor Christo Lassiter for Criminal Law......but just for the first 2 weeks. He will enjoy ripping you apart and making you feel like you know nothing and perhaps take it to the extent that you are the dumbest being on the planet. However, you will soon realize that he will spend more time into making sure that every single student understands the material fully (you can listen to him in class, take notes in class, he'll give you his notes for each topic, he'll give you the option to do weekly practice problems, and will even hold an examsmanship session so you can find out what to expect from him). If you aren't learning anything in that class, then you aren't trying.

Q: Did you have time to do activities outside of law school?
A: Yes. I played on the law school flag football team, I played tennis on some weekends, played soccer about twice a week, played ping pong in the law school, and I of course attended several of the social outings.

Q: What's the best piece of advice you can give to incoming students?
A: Remember there's always two sides to the same issue.

Once again, if you have any further questions, please feel free to post your questions and I'll respond to them as soon as I can.

The First Week

The first week of law school as a first year is essentially getting a whole pile of information about law school that you don't really know what to do with. We attended various meetings that discussed topics ranging from success in law school to registration for the bar prep courses. Everybody will of course be motivated to do well and start off strong. Just imagine motivated young adults attending high school again. You get your lockers and people begin forming their little groups. There are of course many students that you won't know the names of even at the end of your first year. You will take an introduction to law class and get an idea of what you're getting into for the rest of your 3 years. You will attend social events and gatherings and perhaps make a few people that you find yourself to get along with rather well. Towards the end of the week, you will be assigned to one of six sections. Before you know it, the week is over and the next Monday, law school officially begins.

I was placed in section 3. Every law student at UC will take Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Lawyering, and Torts in their first semester. Every section has their Lawyering class in their individual section. Although 3 of the 4 other classes will be held in conjunction with other sections, your section does get to have 1 of the 4 individually. Fortunately for me, it was Contracts that we had with Professor Cogan (I essentially came to law school to study contracts, and for those that never take a class with Professor Cogan is certainly missing out).

The Socratic Method

Like most incoming law students, I was aware of this concept of the 'Socratic Method'. However, I didn't realize the extent to which it would differ from class to class. Professor Bryant in Constitutional Law certainly used it in the manner that most resembles what we initially think it means. He will call on a student and continue to stay on the student and ask questions and yes, many of us looked like fools. However, I personally enjoyed every minute of it. While you certainly become quite nervous the first time you speak up in class, you will quickly realize that even if you get the answer wrong (which all of us eventually do), it doesn't matter. I remember the day I was finally called on. It was about 3 weeks into the semester and it was finally my turn to go. Professor Bryant would always start off with an easy question, then he would pose another, and another. You eventually get it wrong, but of course, that's the point. The one nice thing about Professor Bryant was that he would always try to help you get to the right answer. At the end of the day, if you were prepared and you answer in the best way that you can, that's all that is asked of you and you get your participation points.
I was surprised to find that no other class used the Socratic Method. All of the other classes certainly had random calling on students to speak up and present the facts and ruling of the case, there would never be a continuous onslaught of questions and hypothetical situations posed afterward. I guess what I'm trying to say is that whether or not you do well in answering questions in class does nothing, I repeat: NOTHING, in determining your final grade. Your final grade is determined solely on how you perform on the final exam and you will get your class participation points as long as you attend class and answer as best as you can when you are called upon.

Section 3

I must honestly say that I am truly glad that I was placed in a section with so many different types of people and so many different interests. The age ranged from 22 to 56. We had majors ranging from Math, Journalism, Engineering, Business, Spanish, Marketing, and many more. We had many socially outgoing types, and yet we had one student who many of us didn't know the name of until half way through the semester. The one thing that I love more than anything else is that we all got along and the attendance by section 3 at social outings was always the greatest amongst all the other sections. Although many of the other sections, from what I heard, seemed to form their own mini-groups, we all quickly bonded. Our Contracts professor probably helped a lot by taking us out for pizza less than a month into school. I hope that everybody else enjoyed their section as much as I did, because we all got along extremely well and talked to each other all the time. Although school certainly kept us busy to a certain extent, we certainly had a significant tie to one another and I would give credit mostly to Professor Cogan and the way he conducted his Contracts class. I hope all of you get the same experience with your section because it can certainly alleviate some stress for you.

Studying

A question that many incoming students ask is how do I study and how much I study. My advice would simply be: why change the way you've studied and attempt to study like somebody else is? I believe that by this point in your life, you know what has worked for you in the past so shouldn't you be sticking to it? While I say this, I know that close friends and family are laughing at me, because I really did change the way I studied and approached law school. I can admit that in college, I never worked in advance and would go out and have fun and procrastinate until the last minute. If I didn't get the reading done for class, so be it because I knew I could get the work done. But once I started law school, I was very intimidated by the fact that so many other people seemed to know so much more about the law than I did. I adopted a schedule that I assume few others would take. While I stayed on a normal schedule for weekends by staying up late and sleeping a lot, I significantly changed my schedule for the weekdays. I decided to get to school between 4am and 6am so that I could sufficiently allocate enough time to read, take down notes, and look at the study aids I had to make sure I fully understood the material. I would generally be in the school until around 4 or 5pm each day. I certainly do not urge anybody else to adopt this schedule, but I figured I should let any readers know that there are weird people in law school, and I'm certainly no exception.
The thing that you definitely need to do is allocate enough time to fully understand the material. The length of time obviously changes from person to person. With some material, it may only take you an hour or less to learn. Other material may take longer. I just had my extremely early morning schedule so that I ensured I had enough time to understand everything and learn it without any distractions.
How did I study? It was very easy for me to study Contracts and Torts, simply because I enjoyed them so much. I would read extra material and hypothetical cases posted in the notes (by actually looking up all the cases online) and get a better grasp of the material. The difficulty for me was Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law. Although I truly enjoyed Constitutional Law, I never fully understood it. I used 3 different study aids along with the casebook. The 3 study aids was definitely overkill, and I definitely only needed one good one. So Constitutional Law is ok. So what to do with Civil Procedure? I had Professor Solimine and this was going to be that class that I would struggle with. I knew from day 1 that this was that one class that I would have to figure out how to do well in. If you like the material, then all you need is to put in the time to actually learn it. If you don't like the material, which was the case for me in Civ. Pro., you need to figure out some other solution. The outlines provided by SBA and SLEC certainly helped, and consulting with the Professor helped as well. I also talked to upperclassmen in order to find out what I should be prepared for on the exam. I found many practice exams in the library, and practiced those as well. I think you just have to do whatever it takes to do well and as long as you have the motivation to take every step necessary, you will do fine.

The Memos

While the 4 main 'content'-based courses are going on, you have the Lawyering class as well, where you learn to write a basic memo with one issue in your first memo, and a multi-issue memo as your final. I felt that I was an extremely weak writer going into the class, since I had never done any legal writing before. However, to all those non-English majors, you're not a weak writer. You just need to learn the legal terminology and pay attention to either the reading material or the lectures in class. It's really not that bad. The reason why you will see many of your colleagues get stressed out about the memo is that they will leave it for the last night. I think almost everybody will be working on it on the final night before the due date. The difference being that some will be making minor changes and correcting errors they made while others are still typing up their main body. The only thing I can suggest is to make sure you do the research and understand all the different arguments that can be made. I think the thinking step is far more indicative of your grade on the memo than the timing in which you decide to begin writing it.

The Final Exams

So the finals approach and I remember lots of people getting nervous and tense. Emotions will start coming out, but it's clear that everybody is simply worried about what this exam is going to look like and what the professors want to see you write. All of the professors tell you the general layout of the exam and give you tips on studying, but you feel like you're not receiving enough advice. Here's all I have to say: practice and get a study group. I don't think a study group is helpful during the course of the semester, but I realized the benefit in having one at the end. People miss key points, people think differently, and people will certainly answer problems differently. I asked 3 people from my section whether they wanted to try this out. None of us were the type to study with others. I personally found the idea ridiculous at first, but how would I know what it's like until we actually held one? Since there were 2 full days in between each exam, we set up a schedule where we would get together 2 days before the exam and study as a group. That way we had the day before the final to study on our own. After studying for Contracts together (our first exam), we all quickly realized how beneficial this was. We took turns answering different hypothetical problems, and we all learned that we were missing key points. Fortunately, we all were able to adopt the thinking styles of each other and I feel we all were well prepared for the exam.

The finals I took were 4.5 hours, 4 hours, 3.5 hours, and 3 hours long (I think that's right) for the 4 classes. When they offered the ear-plugs, I quickly grabbed two sets (in case something happened to the first set) and plugged them in and realized that they really do shut off almost all the sounds around you. It was definitely helpful in that I didn't have to hear 80 sets of keyboards clicking away while I was trying to concentrate on my own exam.

First Semester Overall

The following items are things I feel most people learned in their first semester:
How to brief a case
How often you need to brief a case
Becoming comfortable in public speaking
You need a study aid
How to write a memo
How to research in the library
That researching online is SO much easier
The different categories of people around you
What the Erie Doctrine is.... sort of
Statute of Frauds
The professor you have DOES matter
How to outline
And finally: On exam day, you realize you see people handing in their exams that you swear you've NEVER seen before