Herbert N. Ramy - Succeeding in Law School, Second Edition

S UCCEEDING IN L AW S CHOOL

S UCCEEDING IN L AW S CHOOL

Second Edition

Herbert N. Ramy

P ROFESSOR OF A CADEMIC S UPPORT ,
S UFFOLK U NIVERSITY L AW S CHOOL

Copyright 2006, 2010
Herbert N. Ramy
All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ramy, Herbert N.

Succeeding in law school / Herbert N. Ramy. -- 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-59460-740-0 (alk. paper)

1. Law--Study and teaching--United States. 2. Law students--United States--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

KF283.R36 2010
340.071'173--dc22

Carolina Academic Press
700 Kent Street
Durham, NC 27701
Telephone (919) 489-7486
Fax (919) 493-5668
www.cap-press.com

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to my wife
Stephanie Chisslermy best friend and my favorite teacher.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank several people who helped to make this book a reality. Professor Elizabeth Stillman of Suffolk University Law School took the time to read every chapter of the book for content and clarity, and I incorporated much of her advice into the books final version. Professor Kathleen Elliott Vinson and the deans of Suffolk University Law School treated this project like any other scholarly endeavor, giving me both the time and resources necessary to complete the second edition of Succeeding in Law School. Finally, my wife Stephanie supported and encouraged me as she always does.

Introduction

Succeeding in law school is no easy task. Classes are taught using the Socratic method, which means that students must prepare extensively every day because they may be called on to take part in a question and answer dialogue with their professors. In addition, the reading required for a single day rivals what most students are accustomed to completing for a weeks worth of classes. Most importantly, law school examinations and papers emphasize analytical thinking, and most students are not used to explaining their thought process in this fashion. So how does one succeed in law school?

To perform well, students must actively engage the challenges presented by law school. Using a simple example, this means more than reading the assigned cases and knowing how they were resolved. Instead, you must read the assigned cases, carefully review the courts reasoning to assess why they were resolved in a particular fashion, and then project that result out into the future to determine whether similar cases will be resolved in the same way. In essence, you are learning to predict the future.

Law school professors reward your ability to think independently, critically, and actively. While memorization is certainly a part of performing well on law school examinations, thorough legal analysis is the difference between simply passing your courses and ending up on the Deans List. Your professors want you to take the basic rules that you have learned, and actively apply them to factual situations you have never seen before. While the factual scenarios, or fact patterns as they are often called, will have some similarities to the cases you have read, there will also be important differences.

As you might imagine, all of this requires a great deal of hard work. Unfortunately, you can work hard in law school and not succeed unless you receive some guidance, which is why I have written the second edition of Succeeding in Law School. Through this book, you will learn how to best approach your classes on a daily basis. I will walk you through reading your first case, and we will dissect it together in a way that best prepares you for class. This means anticipating how your professor will use the ideas contained in the reading to promote further discussion. You will learn about the best ways to take notes in class, as well as some of the common traps that students can fall into. Then, I will show you how to use the knowledge gained through the reading and classroom dialogue as the jumping off point for developing a thorough and nuanced understanding of any legal idea.

This edition of the book has several new chapters that are geared toward success both in law school and in the job market. A new chapter on legal analysis addresses one of the most common problems professors see on law school examsthe absence of the counterargument. As for the job market, new material on interviewing techniques, creating a writing sample, and writing a rsum are designed to help students market themselves to prospective employers.

Despite the changes, Succeeding in Law School is still intended to give students the feedback they crave while allowing professors to assess student progress throughout the semester. Whether students are seeking advice in the summer months or looking for help once the school year has begun, this book will help them make the most of their abilities.

S UCCEEDING IN L AW S CHOOL

CHAPTER I

The First Days

While the entire law school experience can be intimidating, the first few days will seem particularly overwhelming. Law school will be a new experience for you, and like most new experiences, it takes a little while to get comfortable. To make matters worse, law schools do not always do a great job of letting their students know exactly what to expect. Unless you are one of the lucky ones with a helpful friend or relative who has been through law school, you can expend a great deal of energy just trying to figure out where you should be and what you should be doing. Through this chapter, I hope to place everyone on equal footing when they step into law school for the first day of classes.

Even with the benefit of my advice, you will have to engage in a bit of trial and error in order to figure out what works best for you. We are all individuals, and it should not be surprising that what works extremely well for one person may not work at all for another. Be open to the advice contained throughout this book, and try to follow the spirit of my suggestions. By doing so, you will be taking the first steps to becoming your own best teacher.

Herbs Hints

Once you receive your class schedule, take a test ride to your law school before classes begin to figure out traffic patterns and parking possibilities.

The Law School Curriculum

A good place to start our discussion is with a quick review of the typical first-year law school curriculum. Students are not allowed to choose their classes during the first year in most schools. Further, the curriculum is remarkably similar from school to school, and some of your courses will last for the entire year. The first-year curriculum is designed to give you a broad base of legal knowledge, and to help you begin thinking critically and analytically .

Contracts In essence, this is the law that governs agreements between parties. Whether you realize it or not, you have likely been a party to several contracts. If you have ever rented an apartment, the lease you signed was a contract. Even if you did not sign a lease, the agreement between you and the landlord was an oral contract. The credit card agreement between you and your bank is a contract, as is the ticket you bought the last time you went to a sporting event or concert.

Property Property law is the law of ownership. Most property classes are divided into three sections: real property (land ownership); intellectual property (idea ownership); and personal property (ownership of everything else). Most commonly, first year property courses focus on real property and personal property concepts, and intellectual property is often covered in upper level electives.