Law School In Plain English

By N.A. Capozzi

The premise of the book is simple: to teach law students how to be law students.

So much time is lost in law school with students trying to learn how to be a law student. So many students spend too much time learning how to take notes, prepare for class, case brief, outline, prepare for finals and so much more. No one will teach them these things yet mastery of these things is pivotal to the student's success in law school. This causes the student stress, leads to being unproductive, and it can create an unbalanced lifestyle.

Law School in Plain English is the solution to these problems. With its uncompromising plainness and easy to read style, the book covers all aspects of what it means to be a law student, how to succeed, and how to improve quality of life while in law school.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Jan 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781631738111

Book preview

978-1-63173-811-1

To my wife for her continual support in all of life’s adventures.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

―ABRAHAM LINCOLN

CHAPTER ONE

Thinking

Introduction

If you are to succeed as a law student, and eventually as a lawyer, you must change the way you think. For the most part, this change comes automatically as a natural reaction to studying the law. This change does not happen overnight. The process is not a sprint; it is not quite a marathon. There is no start and finish line. The goal is to learn how to critically think — to think like a lawyer.

Gradually, you will no longer see black and white. No clear right, no clear wrong. Opinions once solidified deep within your persona will change. Grey becomes your new color and you wear it proudly. You will no longer be able to watch a political debate, at least not in the same way you once did, because all you will see and hear is, well, nothing. No argument made to you will be free from your counter-argument. Suddenly you react more quickly. You can now think of a point to make in the future while making a current point. There is always a hole, always a fallacy, always a chink in the armor of another’s argument.

You must be careful with this new mind of yours. Its power can have serious repercussions. You must pledge not to use this weaponry on loved ones or helpless souls. For if you do, conflict is sure to erupt. At its most grandiose misuse, terrible social injustices can and will occur. Perhaps this is why the general public regards lawyers so negatively. But the goodness derived from critical thinking skills far outweigh the negatives. Just look to our nation’s history, and it is filled with highly capable and well-intentioned lawyers. You need look no further than Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and many others.

How does law school prepare you to think like a lawyer?

Law school, above all, is a forum for language. A new language, one specifically created and honed for lawyers. Language surrounds your studies, the classroom, and testing environments. Internalizing this language and mastering it is the direct path to learning to think like a lawyer. Law school utilizes two techniques to aid this pursuit: the Case Method and Socratic Method.

The Case Method

The Case Method is the first and most important method by which professors teach the law. First promoted by professors at Harvard Law School, this method breaks from most of the world’s legal education systems and focuses on actual judicial opinions to learn the law. Most other countries use strictly a rule-based approach whereby the student only memorizes legal rules and their application. Rules are very important at American law schools; however, the rules are learned, usually, indirectly through the study of judicial opinions.

In line with this method, professors usually assign casebooks to their students. Casebooks look like normal textbooks yet are filled almost entirely of primary source material — the cases, the law. Usually the casebooks contain the most important cases found on the topic to be studied. Often, for each topic or sub-topic, a casebook will contain one landmark case which sets forth pivotal jurisprudence followed by similar cases that fine tune the landmark case.

Professors can assign all the cases, only some, or only bits and pieces of each. Some like to go line by line in discussing a case, and others prefer a broader, more theoretical approach. Whatever the approach, you must catch on early to how each of your professors utilizes casebooks.

Do professors expect you to read everything in the book?

Yes, but this depends. The answer is never an absolute yes or no; instead, you need to understand your professor and his or her style of teaching. Catching on early will save countless hours of misdirected studying. The solution is simple and obvious: just ask the professor or a former student.

The Socratic Method

The Case Method goes hand-in-hand with the Socratic Method. Named after the famous Greek philosopher Socrates, this method is premised on the idea that asking and answering questions stimulates critical thinking. The concept is one of opposition and conflict in which the positions of the participants are pitted against each other.

In law school, this means the professor can be the mediator or the inquisitor. Usually, the professor will begin class with a question based on that day’s reading. A student will get called on and try to give their best answer. Even if the answer appears to be right, the professor will probably continue to ask that student more questions. Or the professor may call upon another student with a new question or may ask the second student to respond to the first student’s answer. You see, nothing is ever really taught in law school. The flow of knowledge is circular and is largely based on how prepared the class is to respond to questioning. A well-prepared class will

Reviews for Law School In Plain English

[Victor Bruzos · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice little book for someone who is about to start law school. Read it and learned quite a bit about the basics behind what law school will look like, and some methods to getting by / succeeding. Recommended it to a friend, would do so again. - Victor Bruzos

[Sunny Shiner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Glad I read the summer for Law School.
Quick read, very digestable.