Comments on: Welcome to Law School, Part I

By: Letters of Marque

Letters of Marque — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:23:17 +0000

Someone else’s advice, and then my not-advice
Via Blawg Wisdom, I find that Professor Michael Madison also gives advice — no quotation marks needed! — for law school. I think it sounds great, some more great than others. Like, get exercise and write. If you’re not sure…

By: Blawg Wisdom

Blawg Wisdom — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 17:30:45 +0000

Pre-law advice from a law prof
Prof. Michael Madison of madisonian theory has a series of posts for the pre-law students among us. The most current post is Welcome to Law School, Part VII, covering grades. The first six are absolutely worth reading, too: Part I:…

By: Mike Madison

Mike Madison — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 13:57:56 +0000

How hard you work over the summer depends partly on what you were doing last year, and “do nothing” and “study like hell” are two ends of a continuum. How’s your comfort level with heavy analytic reading? If you were in school last year, and if you were reading and writing a lot, then your comfort level may be high. If you were working full-time last year, or if you weren’t reading or writing a lot, then your comfort level may be lower. Do some heavy reading over the next couple of weeks, to get used to it. Once law school begins, you may be doing up to four to five hours of reading per day/night, in addition to case briefing and attending class. How familiar are you with the legal system generally? Have you taken courses in college or graduate school that relied on judicial opinions? Do you remember your basic civics? If so, great; I don’t recommend mastering slack-dom over the next few weeks, but I don’t recommend reading the Restatement of Contracts or practicing your case briefing skills, either. Enjoy some free time. If not, then find a book of classic Supreme Court cases and skim through it, and learn a little bit about the structure of the American political and legal system.

By: Atamu Tuahiva

Atamu Tuahiva — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 03:09:02 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of research online about what to expect in 1L, study tips and the like, but some of these are pretty contradictory. While some suggest doing a lot of pre-law reading before late August, others say to relax and enjoy yourself while you still can. Is it better to just go in as the “kick back” ignorant “expect the unexpected” type student or is there anything I should be doing now? I have looked up websites/law school tutorials on how to do case briefing. Should I attemt some on my own now? How much, or how little should I study and will it be worth it–or will I just end up being bored at the orientation where they end up telling you the things you really need to know?
As for your “get fit now” advice…I will be starting this week so at least I can be in shape by August.
thanks