It is often tempting to spout off in the heat of debate.  Be wary lest ye look like a fool.  It is great to have an opinion.  Just remember, everyone has an opinion.  To be truly intelligent and make your case you must have a reason for your opinion and be able to articulate it in a persuasive manner.  This is what good lawyers do, and this is what good law students should be learning to do.

God bless and have a great day.

• The night before the exam do not study.  If you have not learned the material by now you simply will not learn it.  Last minute studying up until the very moment of the exam increases your stress levels.
• The night before the exam spend time with your family.  Watch t.v.  Go to a movie.  Do anything that helps you to relax.  Your brain will function much better when prompted to recall information if it is relaxed and fresh rather than stressed and hurried.
• Eat a healthy dinner the night before the exam and a healthy breakfast the morning of the exam.
• An hour or two before the exam drink a glass of orange juice.  Stay away from sodas and too much coffee.  I say too much coffee because I gots ta have my java. 
• If you don’t exercise regularly, begin walking at least one week before the exam.  Exercise releases stress and makes your body feel better and your mind more responsive.
• Have a positive attitude.  You are in law school.  You are probably working as well and raising a family.  This is a great and difficult accomplishment.  If you have made it this far, you have no reason to doubt yourself now.  If you have prepared and studied like you should, you DO know the material and you WILL do fine on the exam.
• Don’t listen to other students; they are not you.  It is not about other students’ experiences.  It is all about how you have prepared for the exam.  Never let another student make you believe that an exam is impossible to pass simply because he or she did not pass it.  For all you know that student may not have studied like you did.
• Arrive early for the exam, especially if you commute to classes like I do.  Allow for weather and traffic.  The last thing you want is to be stressed out about being late and running out of time.
• A few minutes before the exam begins, forget about everything else in the world.  It is just you and that exam for the next three hours.  Believe me, everything will still be there when you are finished.
• During the exam don’t second guess yourself.  If you have prepared properly and you believe an answer to be correct, it probably is.  I made that mistake last term and changed an MC answer at the last minute.  I’m sure you know what happened there.  Yes, I had the correct answer the first time.  Don’t check you common sense at the door when you sit for your exams.
• Finally, after the exam is over, FORGET ABOUT IT!  You cannot change your answer now.  You are finished so move on.  If need be you can appeal later.  But for now, do not worry about something you can do nothing about.

The term is almost over.  If you have done your job in preparing exams will go fine.  God bless and have a great day.

Part of being a good law student (and a good lawyer) is being able to anticipate what the opposing party is going to do and say.  This can sometimes seem like a conundrum.  On the one hand we are to know our client’s position and case inside and out.  We are to focus on putting our client in the best position possible.  On the other hand, we must also be focusing on the opposing party’s case inside and out.  We must focus on how she will put herself in the best position possible.  Essentially, we must not only know what we want to convey but also how to respond and what to expect from the opposing party.

This can sometimes prove to be a formidible task.  It is very easy to become narrow minded and see things only from our client’s perspective.  We try so diligently to argue our client’s case in the best possible light that we sometimes overlook the fact that the opposing party will be doing the same thing.  It is imperative that for every point we make for our client we anticipate the opposing party’s response to that point.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said in a famous quote:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

This is the hallmark of a good lawyer.  As current law students we should learn the lesson now.  It may take some practice, but we must learn to do it and do it very well.  Most of us become very focused when delving really deep into an issue.  This is a good thing because it helps us to prepare quality work.  Just remember that for that detailed focus to be complete and fomidible it must be balanced.  Although the math may be strange, we must be 100% focused on our case and 100% focused on our opponent’s case as well.  We must do this and still retain the ability to represent our client the very best we can.  When we can learn to do that we will pass the test of a first-rate intelligence.

God bless and have a great day.

• Create a separate “data” folder on your computer specifically for law school.
  • My system looks like this: c:\data\law\…
  • In this directory, create a separate folder for each of your classes.  If you wish, you may also want to further subdivide these folders into more specific elements.
    • c:\data\law\pretrial skills\
      • cases
      • statutes
      • motions
      • interrogatories
      • etc…
  • Not only does this folder help you stay organized, you can easily backup this directory of all your law school materials onto a flash drive for safe keeping.
• Have a 3-ring binder for each of your classes to organize outlines and class handouts.
• Keep a calendar of deadlines for writing classes and other classes that require periodic work to be turned in.
• Track the week you studied certain areas in both your casebooks and your notes.  This provides easy reference when you study for the final exam.  I have found that those small book tabs work very nicely.
• Know how long it takes to prepare for each class and manage your time appropriately.  Some classes just take longer than others to read or write for.
• For non traditional law students that have kids, have a place that is reserved specifically for your law school materials.  Do not keep them in areas where kids are likely to get at them.  I have a special bookshelf and desk that is separate from other bookshelves.
• Keep a list of your professors and their contact information.  Not only will you need this during law school, it may come in handy when you begin your career.

These are just a few of the things that have helped me keep organized in my busy life of family, work, and school.  I hope you too will find them useful and helpful.  God bless and have a great day.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I think this should be the motto of every law student.  The next time you discuss or read a case try exhibiting a “first-rate intelligence.”

If you are in any position of authority I am sure that you have been faced with opposing views on the same issue.  If you are a parent the same is true.  You are put in the position of listening to both arguments and trying to remain neutral while deciding how to handle the situation.  Get used to it.  As a lawyer, this is what you will do.  As a law student, this is what you should be doing now.

We are all human, and we all have our biases.  This is not a bad thing.  But to do really well in law school we must constantly distance ourselves from those biases.  We must think from both the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s perspective.  We must anticipate arguments and counter-arguments.  To really understand a case (and the law) we must be dual-minded.

This is not an easy task.  If you had to argue an issue to a judge that was easily swayed, you would want to argue last.  Make sure your argument was the last one heard and the freshest in the judge’s mind.  But if that judge is truly intelligent the order of argument will not matter.  Both arguments will be retained and given equal weight.

To be a great lawyer someday let’s begin now while we are in law school.  Fight the urge to think on only one side of an argument.  As future lawyers we will be arguing one side, but should still be thinking on both sides.  If you can hold both sides of an argument in your mind at the same time and still remain unbiased and function, then you truly are intelligent.  God bless and have a great day.

The same is true in law school.  You will be told by countless other students “this is the way it is.”  You will be told by professors that “this is the law.”  This very well may be true, but why is it true?  Is it true because your fellow classmates said so?  Is it true because your professor said so?  If you take for truth what someone else says merely because they said it, you may want to choose a profession other than law.

There are of course many people I trust and whose opinions I value.  But I still question those things I have not researched for myself.  Think about it.  When we are lawyers someday, will we tell our clients they have no case because opposing counsel told us what the law was?  NO!  We will do our own research on the issues.  We will decide for ourselves what the law is and how it can best serve the needs of our clients.

Why wait until we are lawyers?  Do your research now while you are in law school.  Question every decision.  Form your own opinions based on what you have learned.  Only then will you be able to be a true advocate.  The law is not static because good lawyers have firm beliefs and argue those beliefs persuasively.  And those same lawyers started out where we are right now, in law school.

Who do you want to be when you get out of law school?  The guy that sat next to you?  Your professor?  I hope not.  You want to be You.  To truly be yourself in law school and as a lawyer, you must do your research or don’t believe it.  At the very least, question it until you are able to form a basis for the belief yourself.  God bless and have a great day.

The cram-and-regurgitate method may get you by for now, but when the bar exam rolls around you may be up the creek.  So when you study, study hard and actually learn what you are studying and not merely memorize it.

So why the title of Law School Limerick?  Well, when I was in the third grade one of my assignments was to come up with a limerick to share with the class.  A limerick is a five-line poem with a very strict form.  For a third-grader it was no easy task.  In other words I had to really work at it.  Here is the limerick I came up with:

There once was a hair on my head.
I saw it and said, Oh, it’s dead.
I saw a big pie,
and started to cry,
just maybe my hair wasn’t fed.

The point?  The point is that I still remember that limerick after 25 years.  I worked and worked on it until I had what I thought was an “A” grade, and it was!

If we as law students really want to be great lawyers some day we must dedicate ourselves to really learning the material rather than merely spitting it back out on an exam.  I realize that most of us non traditional law students do not have a lot of time to spare.  But with some hard work and dedication we can still learn the material.  We just need to be creative and find better and more efficient ways to study.

I hope that this lesson on limericks has been helpful and informative.  God bless and have a great day.

Of course, the word “difficult” is a relative term.  Generally what they mean is that the class will require much more study to master the legal concepts.  For non traditional law students this means more time devoted to study and less time devoted to everything else.  When you have “easy” classes the temptation is there to get a little lax with your studying.  It is sometimes difficult when we fall into this trap to get back in full swing and excersize our legal minds.  On the good side though, by the time you take secured transactions you should have your legal mind pretty well trained.

Remember that more time studying will take its toll on the others in your life that may have become used to your “regular” study routine.  Just be sure to keep your head on straight and inform the others that may be affected by some extra study time that this term may be a little more intense.  I am sure they will understand.  Keep focused and don’t slack off.  By now the end is very near and the light at the end of the tunel is getting brighter.  God bless and have a great day.

If you are studying for the MPRE I wish you the best of luck.  I realize that this is probably our first “real” exam that is required for our professional license.  Just remember that there are other classes that must not be neglected.  Study hard, manage your time, stay focused, and take time to relax.  You will do fine.  Hopefully, so will I.  Good luck on the exams, God bless, and have a great day.