What is Law School like?

Terminology How long is law school? Tricks for success What are classes like? Degree programs in law school Which years are more important? How large are classes? Cirriculum in law school Extra-cirricular activities and honors Testing and Grading What are specializations? Terminology 1L, 2L, 3L:  Students in law school are not called freshman, sophomores, juniors, or seniors.  They are called first-year, second-year, and third-year students (note: law school generally lasts three years- see below).  The slang term replaces “year” with the letter ‘L’ (e.g, first-year student is also a ‘1L’). Top What are law school classes like? Almost all of the 187 accredited law schools in the U.S. follow the teaching method developed by Dean Langdell at Harvard Law School over 130 years ago.   Often called the ‘Socratic Case Method’ (hereinafter ‘SCM’), it has two main characteristics.  First, instead of reading textbooks, the students are assigned ‘case books’.   Case books consist largely of excerpted versions of opinions written by judges in cases (usually U.S. and state supreme court cases).  Typically, students will read 2-4 cases for each class.  Unlike a normal textbook, the excerpted cases are clearly not written with the interests of the law student in mind.  Judicial opinions are written for attorneys and judges.  As such, they assume that the reader has, among other things, a certain vocabulary, often called “legalese.”  Moreover, while textbooks are structured to maximize the ease in which the reader absorbs the material, this is rarely the case with respect to judicial opinions.  For these reasons, the case books are often confusing, particularly to first year students. The ‘Socratic’ part of the ‘Socratic Case Method’ deals with the format of the actual class meetings.  Most undergraduate classes are typically lectures (where, ideally, the professor gives an organized summary of the class materials to the student), discussions (the professor and the students maintain an open dialogue discussing the class materials), or a combination of the two.  The Socratic method is a teaching tool developed by the Greek philosopher Socrates.  Essentially, the professor never directly conveys any substantive information to the students (like a lecture).  Instead, the professor asks a series of probing questions (often to one student for an entire 50 minute class period!) that force the student to analyze the assigned cases. Clearly, the SCM is not the optimal method for conveying substantive information to students.  That is not the main goal, however.  Instead of trying to pass on information to the student, the goal is to teach the student a skill: how to think like a lawyer, often called “legal reasoning.”  In a sense, this is similar to quote by the Chinese Taoist philosopher, Lao Tzu : “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”  In the context of the legal profession, you could try to teach the student all of the substantive legal provisions (e.g., case law, statutes, administrative regulations, treaties, constitutions).   Arguably, that would be a waste of energy because most students could not hold that much information in long term memory.  Moreover, laws are dynamic.  They can change at any time.  So why memorize something that could change tomorrow?  Instead, Langdell felt it was more important to teach the student what they need to actually do to the law: the process of legal reasoning. How does the SCM affect law students?  It tends to confuse most first year students, who are used to textbooks and lectures.  The good news is that most law students eventually develop the legal reasoning skills and they learn how to learn from the SCM.  Of course, this begs a question: is there anyway that a prospective law student can prepare for the SCM?  While many law professors argue that they are more confusing than they are helpful, many present and former law students contend that undergraduate law classes, particularly classes in Constitutional Law, ease the prospective law student’s transition from lectures and texts to the SCM.  If the class is taught using a case book, and the professor teaches in whole or in part using the Socratic method, the class can be particularly useful.  Of course, as law professors are want to argue, the student must not assume that the knowledge she has gathered from her undergraduate class will enable her to ‘ace’ her law school Constitutional Law classes without studying! Top How large are the class sizes in law school? While there is a little variation, most first-year classes contain approximately 200 students.  While this seems to be the standard, some law schools, like Harvard and Georgetown , often matriculate more than 500 students in each first-year class.  The normal incoming class of approximately 200 students is usually subdivided into 3 or 4 evenly divided sections of students.  The sections are often named things like “A”, “B” & “C”, or “X”, “Y”, & “Z”.  The entire section of students will often have the same exact schedule for the first year.  In the second and third year, there are no sections. Top Testing and Grading in Law School The Socratic Case Method is not the only universal feature of law school education.  Most law schools test and grade their students in a standard manner.  Generally, the student’s grade for a single class is based on one 3-4 hour examination at the end of the semester.  There are no quizzes or graded homework, and there are almost never midterms or term papers.  Moreover, the final examinations in most law school classes in most schools share the same format.  Generally, the test includes a long hypothetical factual scenario, followed by a question.  The hypothetical scenario usually contains multiple legal issues, and the question usually asks the student to first identify all of the issues, and then apply the case law discussed in the book and in class using the tools of legal reasoning to determine what the ‘answer’ is too each legal issue.  These hypothetical fact patterns can be long and convoluted.  Often, the exam is structured such that it is impossible to finish the exam. The tests are usually graded on a statistical curve.  The mean, or average grade, in the class is usually standard across all 1st year classes.  Often the mean will range from a C- to a C+, depending upon the school.  There are, of course, exceptions.  Yale University , for example, does not assign letter grades to students.  Students may will receive comments, like ‘honors’, ‘pass’, ‘low pass’, and ‘fail’.  Keep in mind, however, that this is by far the exception.  Moreover, Yale is perhaps the most selective law school in the U.S. What are the implications of the testing and grading system that is so utilized in so many law schools?  It tends to breed anxiety and competition.  Since many students will not have an evaluation of their performance until after the class is finished, 1Ls are often plagued with anxiety.  They have no way of knowing whether their preparation for the exam is adequate.  Moreover, the curve system helps foster a certain degree of competition.  Since a law student’s grade depends as much on the classes’ performance as it does on his or her own performance, the system creates competitive incentives.  Stories of missing books and articles that are essential to the completion of writing assignments are by no means uncommon! Top How long is law school? Law school is usually a three-year program.  However, some schools, like the UMKC School of Law, offer part-time programs.  The UMKC Flex Program allows students to take 8 or 9 credits per semester (compared to an average full-time class load of 14-16 credit hours).  They must complete the required 91 hours within 5 years.  Part-time programs are rare, and are usually only offered by urban law schools. Top Degree Programs in law school The standard law degree is the Juris Doctor, or JD.  Generally, most JD programs last 3 years, with some exceptions (some schools, like UMKC, offer part-time programs; other schools offer accelerated programs, which allow the students to potentially graduate after 2 ½ years).  Many law schools also offer dual-degree programs, which provide the law student with the opportunity to receive a JD and a second graduate degree (usually, but not always, a Masters degree) in a shortened time period.  Some traditional joint degree programs include: JD/Masters in Business Administration (MBA); JD/Master’s in Public Administration (MPA); JD/MA (typical masters programs include Political Science, History, and International Studies).  While the normal JD program is three years, and the normal masters program is 2 years, the joint degree programs usually last only 4 years (saving the student one year!). Finally, many law schools offer LLM degrees, which are advanced law degrees.  Generally, you must have a JD to be admitted into an LLM program.  Most LLM programs last 1 year, and they are usually specialized.  Typical LLM specializations include International Law and Tax Law. Top Curriculum in Law School Like so many other aspects of law school, the curriculum tends to follow a similar pattern in almost every law school in the U.S.   Generally, the first year is very structured, while the remaining two years are unstructured.  In most law schools, all of the first-year students take the same classes.  Indeed, students usually cannot even choose which sections and/or professors they would like to take.  Instead, each student is randomly assigned to a section (see above), and they take all of their classes with the students in that section.  Moreover, most schools offer the same set of 6-8 classes in the first year.  The typical 1L curriculum includes some or all of the following classes, which can be either semester or year-long classes: ·         Torts ·         Property ·         Contracts ·         Criminal Law ·         Civil Procedure ·         Constitutional Law ·         Legal Research & Writing After the first year of law school, most of the classes are electives.  Often, only a few classes like Legal Ethics (which may surprise most non-lawyers!) tend to be required after the first year.  Many students will try to take all of the classes that cover topics offered on the bar examination (e.g., bankruptcy, secured transactions, corporations, taxation).  Law schools also are increasingly offering internships and/or clinics where the student can work on developing skills like trial litigation and negotiating.  Many law schools also offer specializations (see immediately below). Top What are specializations? Unlike undergraduate programs, a law student does not have to specialize, or “major” in a particular field or area of law.  Traditionally, most lawyers were general practitioners, meaning they worked in many different areas of the law during the course of their career.  Law schools, recognizing this, were structured such that students did not have to specialize in any one area.  Indeed, most schools traditionally did not even offer official programs for those students who wanted to specialize.  However, in the last half-century or so, the legal profession has become increasingly specialized.  Unfortunately, most law schools were slow to recognize and adapt to the changing environment.  Recently, however, law schools have started to offer various programs to allow students to specialize in certain areas.  Schools typically offer less than a half-dozen specializations, often called certificate programs.  Akin to an undergraduate minor, or a minor field in graduate school, the student typically takes approximately 6 classes in a particular area of the law.  Popular specializations include environmental law, intellectual property, employment law, taxation law, international law, communications law, and health care law.  Most law schools only offer a few specializations, and it is unclear at this point how important the specializations are to potential employers.  Top Tricks to help you succeed in law school Over the years, law students have developed several survival techniques, or tricks to survival.  Some of the standard tools include: case briefs, outlines, study groups, commercial outlines and hornbooks. Case Briefs:  As noted above, the classes are taught using the Socratic Case Method.  You are assigned edited versions of several appellate court decisions as homework for each class.  In class, as well as on the exams, the professor is often interested in several aspects of the case.  Law students over time have developed a relatively efficient method for summarizing this information, called a case brief.  The case brief can summarize several aspects of the case, including the prior legal history, facts, the legal issue, the court’s resolution of the issue (or holding), as well as the reasoning relied upon by the court. Outlines:  As noted above, your performance in a particular class is often measured by one exam.  Also, the information in your case books is not particularly well organized, and the Socratic Method does not lend itself to well-organized in-class note-taking.  In other words, by themselves, the class notes and the book to not tie together the substantive material in an organized fashion.  Taking this into account, many students will synthesize the information in the class notes and the book into an organized outline.    Study Groups:  The work load in law school, particularly for 1Ls, can be intimidating.  For one thing, the assignments are longer and the readings are denser.  Moreover, since the professors rarely explains to the students the actual substantive material, and the students rarely receive any direct feedback from the professor measuring how well they have learned the material, law students tend to rely on study groups.  A small group of students, usually in the same section, will gather one or more times a week to discuss what they have learned.  The group serves several purposes.  For example, it is an opportunity to see how well you understand the material.  Moreover, it is also a labor saving device.  Study groups can divide up case briefs and/or outlines to save time. Commercial Outlines:  Students can and should prepare their own outlines if only because the process of preparing itself is a pedagogical tool.  However, as a 1L, you may find that you don’t have enough time to fully outline your class.  Moreover, as noted above, many 1Ls are confused and unsure of what is important.  Fortunately, private publishers offer many outlines of various classes that have been written by lawyers and/or law professors.  Some of the traditional outlines include “Gilbert’s” Property outline, and “Emmanuel’s” Contracts outline.  Hornbooks:  While outlines provide a brief, organized summary of the law in a class, the hornbooks are essentially textbooks that provide a detailed explanation of the substantive law taught in a particular class.  The hornbooks are often employed as supplements to the case books, providing an explanation of the materials in a form that is more easily understood than a judge’s opinion.  The hornbooks are often written some of the premiere law professors in that field. Top Which years are more important? The first year of law school is by far the most important.  First off, it is almost universally considered to be the most difficult year in large part because of the workload, the Socratic Case Method, and the unfamiliarity with law school-style exams.  However, the first-year grades are the key to many summer associate positions, as well as law review- two of the most important prerequisites to the attainment of high-salaried full-time legal employment. How is the first-year so disproportionately important compared to the other two?  First, membership on law review (see below) is usually based all or in part on your first-year grades.  Many prospective employers, including prestigious law firms, federal judges, state appellate judges, and U.S. governmental agencies often require membership in the law review as a prerequisite to employment. First-year grades are also important because of their affect on first and second summer associate hiring decisions.  Summer associate positions are full-time jobs with law firms during the summers between first and second year, as well as between second and third year.  Hiring decisions for the first summer are often based in whole or in part on first semester grades.  Hiring for the second summer positions, usually done after a round of Fall interviews, are often based on first year grades and membership on law review or other legal journals. The summer associate positions are valuable for several reasons.  First, they are a potentially large source of income that can held defray some of the costs of law school.  Summer associate positions with large firms can pay over $2,000 per week!  In Kansas City , summer associate positions can pay approximately $1,500 at the largest firms.  Of course, the summer salaries are a short-term benefit; there is also a long term benefit.  At the end of the summer, many large firms will offer second summer associates a full-time position with the firm upon graduation and/or passing the bar exam.  This in effect means that you can earn a prestigious job with a law firm based in large part upon your first-year grades! After first-year, the work load tends to decrease.  However, students on the law review, or students who participate in other extracurricular activities (see below) often have busy second, and, in some cases, third years. Top Extra-curricular opportunities and honors in law school Law schools generally offer many extracurricular opportunities and honors, most of which are standard across the overwhelming majority of law schools.  There are student-run academic journals, courtroom competitions, student associations, and a series of honors. Law Review and Other Student-Run Journals The student-run journals are the most prestigious activities, and most schools have between 2-5 journals.  Usually, the law school has one “general” journal, usually called the “law review” (e.g., Harvard Law Review, UMKC Law Review), along with several specialized law journals that focus on one particular area of the law (e.g., Stanford Environmental Law Journal, Washington University Global Studies Law Review, Iowa Journal of Corporation Law).  In almost every case, the law review is the more selective and prestigious journal. The journal membership selection process is usually based on one or a combination of the following criteria: 1) first-year grades; 2) a write-on process.  A minority of schools will use the first-year grades to determine membership.  Most schools use a combination of a write-on and grades.  The write-on process usually starts after the completion of the first-year, and it involves a 15-25 paper (often a legal brief) assignment dealing with a hypothetical case and a set of legal issues.  Students usually write a 15-25 page paper.  The writing assignment may also include a “cite-checking” exercise, where students are provided with several legal citations and then asked to make the proper corrections.  A group of journal editors will then score the writing assignments.  The scores are then combined with the first-year GPA to rank the students.  Usually the most prestigious journals may select first from the list of prospective members.  Finally, a minority of schools select members solely based on the write-on process. What does it mean to be a member of a law journal?  Membership on the law journal entails a fair bit of work, particularly during the fall of the second year.  Members are generally responsible for editing the journal articles submitted by other members, as well as faculty from all over the country.  The editing process includes the infamous “cite-checking”, which is particularly tedious given that it is not uncommon for a single journal article to have several hundred individual citations, and the format for the citations is often extremely complex.  Members also usually write a single paper, called a “note”, which must be submitted to the editorial staff for potential publication in the journal.  Journals often publish 4-8 of their own student-authored notes per year.  The papers often run upwards of 100 pages, including the several hundred citations!  Moreover, before beginning to write the article, you must research the existing literature to make sure that your potential topic is not pre-empted; in other words, that there are no published articles that have already been written on that specific topic.  Most of this work is done in the second year.  Therefore, while the students who are not on a journal tend to have a relatively relaxing second year (compared to the first year), the same can not be said for journal members!  Finally, at the end of the second year, the editorial board for the following year is usually selected, often through a democratic election.  Those students on the editorial board often have substantial editing and/or management responsible that can take up a substantial amount of time during the third year (time that students who are not on the editorial board often spend playing golf!). Why join a journal?  Journal membership is considered prestigious by many prospective employers.  Since excellent writing ability is usually a prerequisite for journal membership, and persuasive writing is such a substantial part of the practicing lawyer’s arsenal, the employers assume that journal membership is a good proxy measure of the student’s writing talent. Legal Competitions (e.g., mock trial, moot court) Most schools also offer student competitions in which the participants perform a trial, an appellate hearing, or a negotiation.  The most common competitions are mock trial and moot court.  In mock trial, students perform as attorneys and witnesses, presenting a case to a judge and a jury.  Most schools offer intramural mock trial competitions.  Moreover, many schools have mock trial teams that compete against teams from schools around the country.  Similarly, schools will also organize intramural moot court competitions, where students present appellate oral arguments before a panel of judges.  Like mock trial, schools often have teams that compete against other schools.  Generally, the selection for both is based on the results of one or more intramural competition.  As for prestige, moot court is often considered more prestigious than mock trial, though the reputation and accomplishments of the team may affect its prestige.  Both activities are often attractive to potential employers looking to hire litigators because they are evidence that the student will be an effective litigator. Associations Law schools usual offer a myriad of student associations.  There is usual at least one comprehensive group open to all students, usually called the “Student Bar Association.”   Law schools tend to have chapter of one or more of the three national law student fraternities- Phi Alpha Delta, Phi Delta Phi, and Delta Theta- that serve as social organizations open to all students.  There are also associations that are based on immutable demographic characteristics, including the Women’s Law Student Association and the Black Law Student’s Association.  Law schools also offer associations for members that share various values, beliefs and/or ideologies.  These include the Federalist Society, the Christian Legal Society, Environmental Law Society, and the American Civil Liberties Union.  The various organizations can provide many benefits, including social interaction and networking. Honors Law schools will often have various honor societies to reward students that perform at a high academic level.  The most common society is the Order of the Coif.  Membership is usually reserved for students that finish near the top of the class.  Some prestigious employers often require membership in Order of the Coif or a similar society as prerequisite for applying for a job. Top