Free Advice for Law Students
Writing Your Law School Exam
Good grades in law school are essential to landing a job.
If you are not in the top of your class, you may find yourself unemployed
after you graduate. Mastery of the subject matter is not enough.
It is equally or even more important to focus on writing technique when
preparing for your exams since effective legal writing is critical to
successful exam taking. Here are
some helpful tips--
Think about the question.
Most people are inclined to start answering right away.
Avoid the temptation. Don’t start writing until you take the time to fully read the instructions and all of
the facts. If you don’t completely understand the question, it doesn’t matter how well you write your
answer.
Organize.
After you understand the question, think about how you are going to organize your thoughts.
Depending on the question, you might organize by the parties involved,
the legal issues or perhaps by date if it involves a series of
transactions.
Be concise.
Answer the question but avoid adding extraneous points or analysis. Simpler is better. Don’t over-analyze the question, or try to add tangential or irrelevant legal analysis.
Write what you know.
Be sure that your conclusions are based on sound legal principals. Avoid guessing at an answer and focus on your strengths.
Study hard and follow these tips and you will put yourself on a path towards success.
Good grades in law school are essential to landing a job.
If you are not in the top of your class, you may find yourself unemployed
after you graduate. Mastery of the subject matter is not enough.
It is equally or even more important to focus on writing technique when
preparing for your exams since effective legal writing is critical to
successful exam taking. Here are
some helpful tips--
Think about the question.
Most people are inclined to start answering right away.
Avoid the temptation. Don’t start writing until you take the time to fully read the instructions and all of
the facts. If you don’t completely understand the question, it doesn’t matter how well you write your
answer.
Organize.
After you understand the question, think about how you are going to organize your thoughts.
Depending on the question, you might organize by the parties involved,
the legal issues or perhaps by date if it involves a series of
transactions.
Be concise.
Answer the question but avoid adding extraneous points or analysis. Simpler is better. Don’t over-analyze the question, or try to add tangential or irrelevant legal analysis.
Write what you know.
Be sure that your conclusions are based on sound legal principals. Avoid guessing at an answer and focus on your strengths.
Study hard and follow these tips and you will put yourself on a path towards success.
Top Ten Tips For Effective Legal Writing
Legal writing is essential to being a successful lawyer. Apply the following tips to your writing and put yourself on the right track to legal writing mastery!
1. Proofread. Typographical and grammatical errors are unacceptable in legal writing. Nonetheless, all too often, proofreading is a legal writer’s lowest priority. I recommend the following guides to legal writing style -- Enquist & Gates, Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation and Style for the Legal Writer; Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English; Goldstein and Lieberman, The Lawyer’s Guide to Writing Well; Wydick, Plain English for Lawyers.
2. Simpler is better. Many people think that the more complicated the legal writing, the more effective and persuasive they are. The opposite is true. The best legal writers are able to distill complex legal ideas into their basic elements, an essential legal writing skill.
3. Keep it short. Be economical with your writing. The longer an article, brief, memo, etc., the more likely you will loose the focus and attention of your audience. While content should not be sacrificed, err on the side of concise where appropriate. It can take years to perfect this seemingly simple skill.
4. Check Citations. An obvious, but important tip. Review the authorities cited in your writing and confirm that they support what you are saying. Also, make sure all citations conform to the Blue Book or ALWD Citation Manual, and Shepardize your cases. There is nothing worse than relying on a case that has been overturned.
5. Learn from your mistakes. No one, not even the class valedictorian, is perfect out of the gate. If you are sharply criticized, don’t take it personally. Listen and focus on correcting what you did wrong.
6. Have another lawyer review and edit your work. This may not always be an option, but if it is, a fresh set of eyes can be invaluable. Consistent with number 6 above, check your ego at the door and learn from any constructive criticism you receive.
7. Organize your thoughts before you begin writing. It is tempting to jump right in and start writing. However, the wiser course is to put together an outline or a list of points to cover before you get into the trenches. This will make you a more efficient and focused writer.
8. Avoid writing in the passive voice. Active voice is generally preferable because it directs the reader's attention to the “actor” and usually requires fewer words to say the same thing. Constant use of passive voice can weigh down your text, making for less effective writing. Here is an example of the same sentence in passive and active voice:
•Although a convincing argument was made by the prosecutor, the state’s case was dismissed by the judge (passive).
•Although the prosecutor made a convincing argument, the judge dismissed the state’s case (active).
9. Avoid overstating your case. The use of exclamation points or exaggerative adjectives should be used sparingly, if at all. If you are a good writer, your words will speak for themselves and will not require any window dressing.
10. Keep footnotes to a minimum. Footnotes have their place, but too many are a sign of weak writing skills. If an important idea or argument is in a footnote, chances are it will be overlooked.
1. Proofread. Typographical and grammatical errors are unacceptable in legal writing. Nonetheless, all too often, proofreading is a legal writer’s lowest priority. I recommend the following guides to legal writing style -- Enquist & Gates, Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation and Style for the Legal Writer; Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English; Goldstein and Lieberman, The Lawyer’s Guide to Writing Well; Wydick, Plain English for Lawyers.
2. Simpler is better. Many people think that the more complicated the legal writing, the more effective and persuasive they are. The opposite is true. The best legal writers are able to distill complex legal ideas into their basic elements, an essential legal writing skill.
3. Keep it short. Be economical with your writing. The longer an article, brief, memo, etc., the more likely you will loose the focus and attention of your audience. While content should not be sacrificed, err on the side of concise where appropriate. It can take years to perfect this seemingly simple skill.
4. Check Citations. An obvious, but important tip. Review the authorities cited in your writing and confirm that they support what you are saying. Also, make sure all citations conform to the Blue Book or ALWD Citation Manual, and Shepardize your cases. There is nothing worse than relying on a case that has been overturned.
5. Learn from your mistakes. No one, not even the class valedictorian, is perfect out of the gate. If you are sharply criticized, don’t take it personally. Listen and focus on correcting what you did wrong.
6. Have another lawyer review and edit your work. This may not always be an option, but if it is, a fresh set of eyes can be invaluable. Consistent with number 6 above, check your ego at the door and learn from any constructive criticism you receive.
7. Organize your thoughts before you begin writing. It is tempting to jump right in and start writing. However, the wiser course is to put together an outline or a list of points to cover before you get into the trenches. This will make you a more efficient and focused writer.
8. Avoid writing in the passive voice. Active voice is generally preferable because it directs the reader's attention to the “actor” and usually requires fewer words to say the same thing. Constant use of passive voice can weigh down your text, making for less effective writing. Here is an example of the same sentence in passive and active voice:
•Although a convincing argument was made by the prosecutor, the state’s case was dismissed by the judge (passive).
•Although the prosecutor made a convincing argument, the judge dismissed the state’s case (active).
9. Avoid overstating your case. The use of exclamation points or exaggerative adjectives should be used sparingly, if at all. If you are a good writer, your words will speak for themselves and will not require any window dressing.
10. Keep footnotes to a minimum. Footnotes have their place, but too many are a sign of weak writing skills. If an important idea or argument is in a footnote, chances are it will be overlooked.
Law School Exams: The elements of excellence
1. Actively read the entire question first. Many law students are so anxious when they read law exam questions that they passively scan questions initially. In doing so, they waste valuable time. Invariably, they realize that they must reread the question carefully while making notes, highlighting key issues, and underlining critical facts.
2. Devote time and thought to ensuring that your introductions to each essay question, but particularly the first question, are outstanding. Having graded thousands of papers in our careers, we can tell you with certainty that it is nearly impossible to avoid formulating thoughts about the strength of the students after reading the opening paragraph. Professors are faced with the following task: grade anywhere from 25 to 200 law school exams with in a very condensed time frame. Most professors are fairly experienced with grading. As such, they trust their instincts when evaluating essays. After reading the introduction, most professors cannot help but make a pulmonary judgment about whether the paper is in A, B or C. We have had numerous students complained to us about their exam grades because they genuinely felt that they had been graded unfairly. In the cases where we agreed, poor introductions were almost always the culprit. Specifically, the student had written an excellent overall answer to the question but their introduction was average.
3. Outline your answer before you begin. Most professors are comfortable with the issue – rule – analysis – conclusion model for answering questions. Your outline should very quickly, in shorthand, spot each issue, cite the relevant rules, and note the most salient points for analysis.
4. Make sure that you follow your professor's specific instructions. Many professors are quite rigid regarding how they want questions answered. One certain way to needlessly rotate your professors is to ignore their directions.
5. Do whatever you can to reference what your professors said during class. In doing so, you are demonstrating that you take what your professor says seriously and that you had been an active member in class. Further, your professors' egos are usually quite large! Quoting them is one way to leverage that point.
6. Directly answer the question as soon as possible. Many law students provide expansive, and often irrelevant, theoretical opening paragraphs. You are not writing the opening to a textbook or scholarly article. You are answering a factual question.
7. Write conclusions that are simple and flow logically from your analysis. Many first-year law students write overly sweeping conclusions. They think that the conclusion should provide some Supreme Court like law of the land declaration. This is simply not the case. Your conclusion should relate only to the hypothetical at hand. Further, do not leave out logical steps to your conclusion. Many students have the logic in their head but fail to provide in their answer. Non sequiturs lead to poor grades.
By following these tips, you will be on your way to writing law school exam and essays that will earn you top marks.
2. Devote time and thought to ensuring that your introductions to each essay question, but particularly the first question, are outstanding. Having graded thousands of papers in our careers, we can tell you with certainty that it is nearly impossible to avoid formulating thoughts about the strength of the students after reading the opening paragraph. Professors are faced with the following task: grade anywhere from 25 to 200 law school exams with in a very condensed time frame. Most professors are fairly experienced with grading. As such, they trust their instincts when evaluating essays. After reading the introduction, most professors cannot help but make a pulmonary judgment about whether the paper is in A, B or C. We have had numerous students complained to us about their exam grades because they genuinely felt that they had been graded unfairly. In the cases where we agreed, poor introductions were almost always the culprit. Specifically, the student had written an excellent overall answer to the question but their introduction was average.
3. Outline your answer before you begin. Most professors are comfortable with the issue – rule – analysis – conclusion model for answering questions. Your outline should very quickly, in shorthand, spot each issue, cite the relevant rules, and note the most salient points for analysis.
4. Make sure that you follow your professor's specific instructions. Many professors are quite rigid regarding how they want questions answered. One certain way to needlessly rotate your professors is to ignore their directions.
5. Do whatever you can to reference what your professors said during class. In doing so, you are demonstrating that you take what your professor says seriously and that you had been an active member in class. Further, your professors' egos are usually quite large! Quoting them is one way to leverage that point.
6. Directly answer the question as soon as possible. Many law students provide expansive, and often irrelevant, theoretical opening paragraphs. You are not writing the opening to a textbook or scholarly article. You are answering a factual question.
7. Write conclusions that are simple and flow logically from your analysis. Many first-year law students write overly sweeping conclusions. They think that the conclusion should provide some Supreme Court like law of the land declaration. This is simply not the case. Your conclusion should relate only to the hypothetical at hand. Further, do not leave out logical steps to your conclusion. Many students have the logic in their head but fail to provide in their answer. Non sequiturs lead to poor grades.
By following these tips, you will be on your way to writing law school exam and essays that will earn you top marks.
Helpful Articles for Law Students
Can You Improve your Legal Writing Skills?
Writing well, a god given gift? In this interesting article, the author asks the difference between well-written general writing, and well-written legal writing. Using Stephen King's opinions as a starting point, the author concludes that legal writing and general writing follow the same rule: with exception to truly great writers, all writers (including legal writers) can move from bad to serviceable, serviceable to competent, and competent to good.
http://lawyerist.com/is-good-legal-writing-inherited-or-developed/
Legal Writing and Expectations
Most law schools teach you law and not how to write well. In fact, as the below article outlines, law schools typically do not have professors skilled in teaching legal writing and research, and furthermore do not offer legal writing courses for credit. The author also outlines what is expected out of law student writers.
http://www.slaw.ca/2011/09/14/legal-research-and-writing-skills-in-law-school/
The State of Law School
Recession, a surplus of law graduates, low demand, or low quality graduates, whatever the case may be, only 55 percent of 2011 law graduates found legal work that required passing the bar. This New York Times article delves deeper, concluding that it may take law schools years before curriculum and teaching changes produce employable lawyers. The takeaway being, if you want to be part of the 55 percent, you may have to find opportunities to learn outside the classroom.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/an-existential-crisis-for-law-schools.html?_r=1&
Career Associate Positions
As law firms change their business models, budding law graduates should understand the effects on their job prospects. With tightening budgets, some law firms are offering “career associate” positions that pay half the salary of a junior associate position. Further, these positions do not offer partner opportunities in the future. Although not meant to scare you, law graduates should easily understand that job opportunities depend on law school grades, and can sometimes make the difference between a junior associate offering and a career associate offering.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/business/24lawyers.html
The Legal Job Market
The National Association of Legal Professionals offers some startling information. Compared to 2010, 2011 graduates saw their average salary decrease by 5 percent. Worse yet, only 49.5 percent of 2011 law graduates found work at a private practice. While the numbers are sobering, clear and open information is helpful in assessing where you are and where you may be headed. Assessing the market now, and your unique place in the market, allows you to make performance changes while you still can.
http://www.nalp.org/classof2011_salpressrel
Grades and Law School
Since recent law school graduates have little or no real legal experience, hiring decisions are primarily based on grade point average. There is no better way to secure your future than to ensure that you get the best grades possible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/education/edlife/do-grades-matter.html
What Law Firms Look at When Hiring
Although, grades take on less importance the higher you ascend the legal ladder. The article below outlines what law firms look for as you attempt this occupational climb. An important note from the article, law firms expect excellence from the start of the first year. Another important note, depending on your grades, law firms can gauge how serious you take the practice of law.
http://www.bcgsearch.com/article/60605/Law-School-grades-and-your-career/
Grades More Important than Law School Name?
What’s redeeming about all this information on grades? As reported in the study below, in terms of pay, grades may be more important to future success than the pedigree of law school you went to. Your future is still in your hands. Your performance in law school will have a tremendous impact on your future. Read more below.
http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/article/law_school_grades_more_important_to_paycheck_than_elite_school_researchers_
ByTips for Success in Law
School
Success in law school is the best way to ensure a great
start to your legal career. Here
are some tips to get the most out of law school:
Prepare for law school before you
are in law school.
Unlike your freshman year in college, where you could afford to “cut your
teeth” and make mistakes, your first year in law school is your most important.
Firms hiring summer associates
only have first year grades to base their decision on.
If you perform poorly in your first year, chances are you won’t get a
summer job, which will make getting a job upon graduation even more
difficult. Also, many schools
include first year grades as part of the selection criteria for getting onto Law
Review, the crown jewel of law school.
With this much importance placed on your first year, you cannot afford
not to begin preparing for law school before you even step foot on campus. Make this a
priority!
Get on Law Review.
Law Review is your ticket to a great job. Learn
about the selection process and use all resources at your disposal to make
yourself a winning candidate. Make
no mistake. Getting on Law Review
is as important as being in the top of your class, so make sure you focus on it
from the start.
Don’t procrastinate.
There is no room in law school for “cramming”.
Keep up with your reading assignments and be prepared for every class so
you can get the most out of your classroom instruction.
This will help you on your exams.
It will also foster a good relationship with your professors, who you
will need for references.
Outlines, outlines, outlines. When preparing
for law school exams, prepare your own outlines rather than relying on
commercially prepared outlines or sharing outlines with other students. The importance of outlines is not in the
outline itself but in the process of creating the outline, which is an
invaluable learning process that helps you learn the material for the
exam.
Take sample exams and ask for help. Every great athlete prepares for
competition by listening to coaches, watching game film, and practicing. It follows that every law student
should prepare for taking law school exams by talking to someone with experience
with law school exams such as a professor or a tutor, taking practice exams, and
getting as much feedback as possible.
Success on law school exams is based not only on your mastery of the
subject, but also on your ability to take the school
exam.
: Ryan Hansen
* * *
Call: Daryl Capuano (860) 510-0410 or
e-mail dcapuano@learningconsultantsgroup.com
If you are a law student in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island or Massachusetts, then we may be able to meet with you in person. If you are a law student in any other part of the country, then we can meet virtually through phone, e-mail, or Skype.
Writing well, a god given gift? In this interesting article, the author asks the difference between well-written general writing, and well-written legal writing. Using Stephen King's opinions as a starting point, the author concludes that legal writing and general writing follow the same rule: with exception to truly great writers, all writers (including legal writers) can move from bad to serviceable, serviceable to competent, and competent to good.
http://lawyerist.com/is-good-legal-writing-inherited-or-developed/
Legal Writing and Expectations
Most law schools teach you law and not how to write well. In fact, as the below article outlines, law schools typically do not have professors skilled in teaching legal writing and research, and furthermore do not offer legal writing courses for credit. The author also outlines what is expected out of law student writers.
http://www.slaw.ca/2011/09/14/legal-research-and-writing-skills-in-law-school/
The State of Law School
Recession, a surplus of law graduates, low demand, or low quality graduates, whatever the case may be, only 55 percent of 2011 law graduates found legal work that required passing the bar. This New York Times article delves deeper, concluding that it may take law schools years before curriculum and teaching changes produce employable lawyers. The takeaway being, if you want to be part of the 55 percent, you may have to find opportunities to learn outside the classroom.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/an-existential-crisis-for-law-schools.html?_r=1&
Career Associate Positions
As law firms change their business models, budding law graduates should understand the effects on their job prospects. With tightening budgets, some law firms are offering “career associate” positions that pay half the salary of a junior associate position. Further, these positions do not offer partner opportunities in the future. Although not meant to scare you, law graduates should easily understand that job opportunities depend on law school grades, and can sometimes make the difference between a junior associate offering and a career associate offering.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/business/24lawyers.html
The Legal Job Market
The National Association of Legal Professionals offers some startling information. Compared to 2010, 2011 graduates saw their average salary decrease by 5 percent. Worse yet, only 49.5 percent of 2011 law graduates found work at a private practice. While the numbers are sobering, clear and open information is helpful in assessing where you are and where you may be headed. Assessing the market now, and your unique place in the market, allows you to make performance changes while you still can.
http://www.nalp.org/classof2011_salpressrel
Grades and Law School
Since recent law school graduates have little or no real legal experience, hiring decisions are primarily based on grade point average. There is no better way to secure your future than to ensure that you get the best grades possible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/education/edlife/do-grades-matter.html
What Law Firms Look at When Hiring
Although, grades take on less importance the higher you ascend the legal ladder. The article below outlines what law firms look for as you attempt this occupational climb. An important note from the article, law firms expect excellence from the start of the first year. Another important note, depending on your grades, law firms can gauge how serious you take the practice of law.
http://www.bcgsearch.com/article/60605/Law-School-grades-and-your-career/
Grades More Important than Law School Name?
What’s redeeming about all this information on grades? As reported in the study below, in terms of pay, grades may be more important to future success than the pedigree of law school you went to. Your future is still in your hands. Your performance in law school will have a tremendous impact on your future. Read more below.
http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/article/law_school_grades_more_important_to_paycheck_than_elite_school_researchers_
ByTips for Success in Law
School
Success in law school is the best way to ensure a great
start to your legal career. Here
are some tips to get the most out of law school:
Prepare for law school before you
are in law school.
Unlike your freshman year in college, where you could afford to “cut your
teeth” and make mistakes, your first year in law school is your most important.
Firms hiring summer associates
only have first year grades to base their decision on.
If you perform poorly in your first year, chances are you won’t get a
summer job, which will make getting a job upon graduation even more
difficult. Also, many schools
include first year grades as part of the selection criteria for getting onto Law
Review, the crown jewel of law school.
With this much importance placed on your first year, you cannot afford
not to begin preparing for law school before you even step foot on campus. Make this a
priority!
Get on Law Review.
Law Review is your ticket to a great job. Learn
about the selection process and use all resources at your disposal to make
yourself a winning candidate. Make
no mistake. Getting on Law Review
is as important as being in the top of your class, so make sure you focus on it
from the start.
Don’t procrastinate.
There is no room in law school for “cramming”.
Keep up with your reading assignments and be prepared for every class so
you can get the most out of your classroom instruction.
This will help you on your exams.
It will also foster a good relationship with your professors, who you
will need for references.
Outlines, outlines, outlines. When preparing
for law school exams, prepare your own outlines rather than relying on
commercially prepared outlines or sharing outlines with other students. The importance of outlines is not in the
outline itself but in the process of creating the outline, which is an
invaluable learning process that helps you learn the material for the
exam.
Take sample exams and ask for help. Every great athlete prepares for
competition by listening to coaches, watching game film, and practicing. It follows that every law student
should prepare for taking law school exams by talking to someone with experience
with law school exams such as a professor or a tutor, taking practice exams, and
getting as much feedback as possible.
Success on law school exams is based not only on your mastery of the
subject, but also on your ability to take the school
exam.
: Ryan Hansen
* * *
Call: Daryl Capuano (860) 510-0410 or
e-mail dcapuano@learningconsultantsgroup.com
If you are a law student in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island or Massachusetts, then we may be able to meet with you in person. If you are a law student in any other part of the country, then we can meet virtually through phone, e-mail, or Skype.