Good articles for our 1Ls

This will save you two weeks of confusion.


http://www.orinkerr.com/2006/08/04/how-to-read-a-judicial-opinion-a-guide-for-new-law-students/

http://instapundit.com/
some of my biggest gripes about people are mentioned in that article

8/4/2006 1:49:57 PM

My friend/former roommate had applied to a ton of law schools and didn't get in anywhere. And his girlfriend dumped him this summer. And he was about to move in with his parents. So he is totally depressed.

me: so yeah
me: don't kill yourself
him: OH shit
him: i just got into law school

He got a call from the admissions office and is now going to a second tier law school. He's pretty happy and I'm happy for him. Life changes rather quickly sometimes.

[Edited on August 8, 2006 at 3:39 PM. Reason : .]

8/8/2006 3:39:17 PM

^^ i found that first article very informative. thanks!!

8/8/2006 10:39:32 PM

anyone here at wake, going to wake, or have been to wake?

8/8/2006 11:31:56 PM

1st Day of Orientation today.

It was long, but encouraging. Imma start my homework now.

8/16/2006 8:11:02 PM

my first day of orientation is monday

8/18/2006 9:18:28 AM

^^^3L at Wake

8/18/2006 5:13:39 PM

A question for all you 2L's and 3L's: Did you delete any Facebook or Myspace accounts you had after starting law school? We had an academic advisor tell us it would be in our best interest to go ahead and do so because recruiters are aware of these sites and will check them in regards to potential employees. Although I am only a 1L and probably won't have to worry about this problem immediately, I was curious to hear how some of you have addressed it.

8/20/2006 3:52:14 PM

Well, I still have my accounts, but I most likely will work for the firm I worked at this summer.

My accounts are boring and tame, nothing too personal. i will axe them when I start to practice to keep the clients from looking it up. The bulk of my "friends" on the sites are from law school.

I would recommend being careful with what you put on your profile. Your classmates will look a lot more than you think they will. Another solution is to make both accounts private.

I did have a friend at a top firm have to take down his blog. He could restart it only if there was no way to trace it back.

[Edited on August 20, 2006 at 8:14 PM. Reason : l]

8/20/2006 8:11:46 PM

Well I don't post anything bad on mine, in fact I only really use it to keep in touch with people I don't see much anymore. I think one of the concerns they were trying to raise was that they also look at the posts your friends put on your site as well as pictures that may not be appropriate. They may even check out some of your friends pages to see if there are pics of you doing things that aren't "professional." I don't know how often that happens though, I was just wondering if any of you had heard of this now that you are looking for jobs.

8/20/2006 8:30:51 PM

Firms do look at Facebook and MySpace. In fact, there was an article recently in the New York Magazine about the practice.

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/15075/index.html

8/21/2006 11:29:29 AM

Just keep your sites clean. I am sure firms take a peak but they are not going to look at every friend and every friend of a friend, or every picture. Our culture is changing and most businesses will adapt in some form or another. How fast or slow that adaptation is is a different story.


Anyway congrats to all the 3Ls, work hard and play hard.

8/21/2006 3:52:09 PM

i've never felt so dumb

8/27/2006 11:14:53 PM

ditto. but then every 1L feels dumb. it's just whether or not they want to man up and say it. right?

8/27/2006 11:22:29 PM

i sure hope so. i just shrug it off and tell myself i'll eventually "get it."


thanks for the article above, jennmc... it cleared up alot of the stuff i've been stressin over the past few days.


... i gotta get back to reading and briefing... 3 cases to go, only 8 hours til my first class of the semester...

8/27/2006 11:54:51 PM

yeah, it gets better... i noticed within the first week that i'm starting to pick up stuff a lot faster. but i've also seen how nice it is to book brief and i gotta keep telling myself to brief it for real. axl, where you at?

8/28/2006 12:02:39 AM

Regent University... small private school in Virginia Beach

8/28/2006 12:06:54 AM

something would be wrong with you if you did not feel dumb.

DO NOT THINK ABOUT EXAMS RIGHT NOW (other than making outlines). You will end up having a nervous breakdown.

Enjoy it and meet your school mates, it will pay off in the end.

Dyson, I never brief my cases per se, but I would do a quick outline of the reading. It was a lot easier for me and the format was quicker to put it in. I would just mark it in the book and flip back though and put it on paper. I could also make comments on the sheet and judge how well I "got" the material and what I needed to work on. I fared pretty well with this method when i was called on.

[Edited on August 28, 2006 at 1:41 PM. Reason : time for ethics. exciting.]

8/28/2006 1:38:06 PM

westlaw is your friend, although you probably dont get passwords this early in school

8/28/2006 8:25:36 PM

^ yeah, we're already set up for westlaw and lexis. haven't used lexis much yet though

8/28/2006 9:23:55 PM

personally i find westlaw to be more user friendly

8/28/2006 10:59:42 PM

I never learned to use Westlaw. The Rep came four times last year and was no help with the programs. I did learn how to do a criminal background check on West law. Thats a few hours of fun.

Our lexis rep is fabulous. I was a points whore last year and racked up.

Bar Scores were released yesterday. Campbell was first with 97%.

8/29/2006 7:59:00 AM

I interchange from Westlaw to Lexis....sometime comparing one to the other...


III

8/29/2006 9:04:33 AM

you can do criminal background checks on westlaw?!?! how?

8/29/2006 2:09:54 PM

Go to Westlaw and click the "research on westlaw button" on the left side of the page

Go to the search database and enter CRIM-ALL and search. It will at least pull up individual states.

Just put in the name and have fun.

8/29/2006 3:30:45 PM

wow... that's all i can say about being a 1L.

10/5/2006 3:13:19 PM

i'm dealin with it well

i only contemplate suicide about twice a week.


i'm kidding thing's are going well.

10/5/2006 7:36:46 PM

Wait a few more weeks, people will get crazy and freak out.

2L year is not unbearable, but I would prefer to have my teeth pulled then go to my wills class.

10/7/2006 1:08:41 PM

i think things are more stressful right now because we have mid-terms next week. i've just been spending most of my time reviewing, doing practice exams and writing essays. i'm still a little stressed, but i'm feeling more confident in my writing now.

10/7/2006 1:46:26 PM

^mid-terms? where you do go to law school?

[Edited on October 7, 2006 at 2:22 PM. Reason : ]

10/7/2006 2:22:37 PM

NC Central. they only have midterms for 1L's, which i actually like. many law schools don't do that, but it gives you an idea of how well you are grasping the concepts.

10/7/2006 11:04:16 PM

^yea thats cool. Mid-terms would have taken away much of the anxiety I had before I took my first law school final exams.

10/8/2006 7:31:09 PM

MEMOS BLOW MONKEY CHUNKS!!!!!!!!!!!

10/10/2006 12:53:38 AM

Quote :

" 2L year is not unbearable, but I would prefer to have my teeth pulled then go to my wills class."

I love my Wills class at NC Central. This is some pretty simple laid out shit...2L year has been heavy but no way on the same cumbersome level at 1L year. 1L year at NCCU equivalent to walking through HELL...

WIth Gasoline Draws on....but I made it...


III

10/13/2006 7:35:18 PM

what are the usual grades for 1L's on their first writing assignments? So far i'm crushing everything in my path, but the only graded assignments are in LWR... what are usually expected grades after a first semester?

hah, i'm just asking someone to tell me "you'll do fine," without actually coming out and saying it

10/13/2006 11:26:17 PM

Axl, you need to find out what the median grades are for your school and hope you get in that range or better. At campbell, Required Courses are a 77-79 range and electives are in the 81-83 range. Campbell and Central are very strict on grading standards. Just put the paper in CREAC format and start a new paragraph when you discuss a case. They honestly do not care what you say, just that you use the legal writing format and have strong sentences to support your argument.

I just hate wills. I do not know why. I can read the material, but I cannot stand going to the class. Its sad because the professor is one of my favorites too. Its also at 11 am.

I cannot believe that the bar exam is at the RBC center.

10/14/2006 1:54:04 PM

Anyone here doing IP law? Anyone have info on the patent bar? I saw the passing rate was 37%. True? Anyways, I'm thinking about trying to find an IP job for my 1L summer. Any tips would be appreciated.

10/20/2006 10:43:27 PM

I had two classmates take the Pat bar over the summer and pass.

10/22/2006 9:43:45 PM

i'm strugglin just to wake up in the mornings

10/22/2006 9:56:47 PM

I just read in the National Law Journal (Aug 7 edition) that the ABA deferred its decision on whether to grant provisional accreditation to the Charleston School of Law. For those who don't know, students who graduate from an unaccredited law school are not eligible to sit for the Bar Exam in South Carolina (and in most other states including, I believe, NC). Eligibility to sit for the exam is based on the school's status at graduation and cannot be modified retroactively.

Just an FYI for those applying to schools this fall. If you are looking at a new school (or any school for that matter), ask about a the school's accreditation status.

10/24/2006 5:03:41 PM

Now why the hell would you go to an unaccredited law school?

10/24/2006 5:24:50 PM

^ because you can get in

10/24/2006 5:35:56 PM

^^Certain people on this message board have applied to Charleston, Charlotte and Elon, so it's important for them to know what the potential repercussions are of choosing to attend such a school.

[Edited on October 24, 2006 at 5:38 PM. Reason : ]

10/24/2006 5:37:53 PM

there are enough 4th Tier schools out there that almost anyone with enough drive and ability to write a good letter can get into law school somewhere, even if it's only provisionally accredited.

I wouldn't go to a non-accredited school unless i was on 100% full ride.

10/24/2006 6:22:28 PM

So you're saying that I could go to Campbell then? They are a Tier 4 school.
I also didn't know that WVU was a Tier 4, that's interesting.

What would you guys do if you had a 2.4 OV and a 3.3 in Major, would you take the LSAT and apply? If so, where?

10/24/2006 7:05:00 PM

i would apply, go for it

here are some of the schools i would apply to:

Campbell
NC-Central
Appalachian School of Law
Regent University (especially if you're Christian)
Barry University
Dayton
Michigan State
Tulsa
Texas Southern (especially if you're a minority, but watch the attrition rate, its above 50%)


Those are decent tier 4 schools. The only law schools i've really heard bad things about are Cooley, Jefferson (i think), and People's College (which is only accredited in the state of CA)

good luck, and be ready. it's not impossible, but realize that it is a bit of work.

10/24/2006 7:53:14 PM

I would apply but be ready to turn down an acceptance if you aren't given significant scholarship money (yes it is possible with a high enough LSAT score). It is not worth paying full tuition to go to a tier 4 school. You'll be laden with debt and will be unlikely to make anymore money as a lawyer than you would going straight into the workforce as a college graduate.

[Edited on October 24, 2006 at 8:03 PM. Reason : ]

10/24/2006 8:03:28 PM

thats the rumor, but i know alot of tier 4 grads and none of them are starving.

bottom line is if it's what you want to do, and you're sure of it, don't let the rank of the school stop you. get it any way you can.

the money will come.

10/24/2006 8:13:13 PM

Quote :

"thats the rumor, but i know alot of tier 4 grads and none of them are starving."

Who said anything about starving? I said you'd make equivalent money coming out of undergrad, without giving up three years of salary and racking up six-figures of debt.

Plus I think its hard to know at age 22 whether this is what you want to do. Practice generally bears little resemblance to any preconcieved notions people have of what its like to be a lawyer.

10/24/2006 10:02:45 PM

*shrug*

I dunno, I'm beginning to think you're right. I'm at a tier 4 right now. I'm beginning to think it's a mistake.

10/24/2006 10:07:45 PM