Burkhart Ann - Law School Success in a Nutshell

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Earle K. Shawe Professor of Law,
University of Virginia School of Law

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Robert A. Sullivan Professor of Law Emeritus,
University of Michigan

Law School Success

In a nutshell

A Guide to Studying Law and Taking Law School Exams

Third Edition

Ann M. Burkhart

Curtis Bradbury Kellar Professor of Law
Distinguished University Teaching Professor
University of Minnesota Law School

Robert A. Stein

Everett Fraser Professor of Law
Distinguished Global Professor
University of Minnesota Law School

The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.

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2008 Thomson/West

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ISBN: 978-1-68328-185-6

To the memory of Ruth Vendley Neumann, whose love of life and love of writing have been an inspiration

AMB

To Robert Martin Routh, Sarah Elizabeth Routh, Amanda Stein Conrad, Christopher Stein Conrad, Matthew James OBoyle, and Erin Sandra OBoyle, who give me great confidence in the future.

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Preface

This book has two purposes. The first is to answer the many questions you have about law school as you begin your studies. Both authors have taught thousands of law students and know the kinds of questions they have. What is a hornbook? What is a tort? Should I join a study group? Should I work during the first year of law school? These and many other mysteries will be explained. The books second purpose is to help you maximize your law school experience. The book offers concrete and practical advice on preparing for law school before the academic year begins and for your first-year classes and exams. Because exams are so important, the book includes questions that were given in actual first-year law school classes and model answers prepared by professors. In many law schools, the professors do not make their answers available to students, so this book gives you a valuable insight into exam grading, as well as an opportunity to practice your exam-taking skills. The book also acquaints you with the law library and with all the other aspects of your first year in law school. With this information, you can get off to a strong start.

Many people have made important contributions to this book. We are grateful to our colleagues, Professors Barry C. Feld, Richard S. Frase, Philip P. Frickey, John H. Matheson, C. Robert Morris, and Eileen A. Scallen, for generously permitting us to publish their examination questions and answers. We are also grateful to three outstanding reference librarians at the University of Minnesota Law Library, George R. Jackson, Suzanne Thorpe, and Julia Wentz, for reviewing drafts and for researching innumerable questions. Special thanks are due to Suzanne for her suggestions for the reading list in Chapter We have been very ably assisted in the preparation of the book by three research assistants, Nancy L. Moersch, William J. Otteson, and Brian J. Schoenborn. Our secretaries, Beverly Curd, Amy Eggert, and Andrea Sheets, have suffered through draft after draft with unflagging patience and professionalism. Finally, the Partners in Excellence Fund at the University of Minnesota Law School generously provided summer research grants to Professor Burkhart, which greatly facilitated work on the book.

In 1971, Professor Stanley V. Kinyon of the University of Minnesota Law School published a book on law study and law examinations, which has helped a generation of law students in their studies. We hope this book will provide the same help to the next generation of law students.

In our second edition of this book, the chapters have all been updated to ensure they reflect the current law school experience. In particular, we have significantly expanded the sections on online research sources and use of computers in the study of law to reflect the increasing use of new technology in law schools today. The examination questions and model answers have also been reviewed and updated.

We wish to acknowledge and thank our colleagues noted in the preface to the first edition for their review and revision of their examination questions and model answers to ensure they reflect developments in their respective areas of the law. We are grateful to an additional colleague, Professor Dale Carpenter, for his valuable suggestions for updating the question and answer section of the book. We wish to again thank the librarians at the University of Minnesota Law Library for their contributions, especially Professors Joan Howland and Suzanne Thorpe. We have been ably assisted in preparing the second edition of the book by three talented research assistants at the University of Minnesota Law School, Paul G. Johnson and Joseph A. Kosmalski of the Class of 2007 and Karen P. Seifert of the Class of 2008. Our secretary, Laurie Newbauer, brought her extraordinary skills to the task of preparing a cameraready copy for the publication.

We have been gratified by the comments we received from students who expressed appreciation for the help they received from the first edition of the book to achieve their success in the study of law. We hope the second edition will continue to provide valuable assistance to future classes of law students.

In the third edition of this book, the chapters have all been updated to ensure that they reflect the current law school experience. In particular, Chapter 7 on the law library and legal research has been substantially revised to discuss the greatly increased legal resources that are available online and current use of electronic legal research. The discussion of computers in Chapter 2 has been updated to describe the increased use of technology in law schools today. Also, the suggested reading list in Chapter 2 has been greatly expanded to include the many excellent new books about law, lawyers, and courts that have been published in the years since the second edition of this book. The exam questions and model answers have all been reviewed and updated to ensure they reflect current law.