How to Think Like an Attorney

How to Think Like a Lawyer
By eHow Legal Editor
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Thinking like a lawyer will help you write, argue and reason more effectiely! Luckily, anyone can learn to
think like a lawyer, regardless of education leel, test scores or legal e"pertise! #ll it takes is the a$ility to
craft an argument and a reasoned and analytical approach to pro$lem soling! Here are a few tips to help
you think like a lawyer!
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Instructions
Difficulty: *oderately Easy
(tep+
%ractice issue,spotting! -eing a$le to identify the releant issues in a complicated fact setting is a crucial
skill in thinking like a lawyer! %aying close attention to detail and reading and listening with an analytical
mind will help you learn to spot issues effectiely!
(tep.
/uestion eerything! #sk yourself why a certain rule or law is in e"istence! The act of 0uestioning the
reasons $ehind things allows you to focus on considerations of policy as a $asis for the law!
1nderstanding policy is key in making a reasoned analysis of an issue!
(tep2
%lay #ngel3s adocate! #rguing $oth sides of eery issue allows you to see things from all angles! 4t
allows you to identify any weaknesses in your own case and come up with arguments to counter these
weaknesses! 4t also helps you to spot those weaknesses in your opponent3s case and prepare how to
e"ploit them!
(tep5
Remain unemotional! Thinking like a lawyer often inoles putting your own emotions aside to deal with
complicated issues in a rational and focused manner! Remem$er that laws are meant to $e applied
neutrally in response to legal rights and principles and not $ecause of personal feelings and emotions!
http://www.ehow.com/how_2064048_think-like-lawyer.html
Advice To New And ro!pective "aw
#t$dent!
-y *4&H#EL &! 67R'
%edne!day& A$'. 22& 200(
This month, at law schools all across the country, thousands of first-year students are beginning
studies that will, for most of them, culminate in their joining the legal profession a few years
from now. The start of any new venture is always a time of excitement and anxiety, but such
classic works of fiction and memoir as The Paper Chase and One-L have contributed to a
mythology of law school as a kind of extended hazing ritual. As a result, the anxiety can
dominate the excitement.
To try to calm the fears of new and future law students, offer a
few words of advice that wish someone had given to me when
was a !-" fourteen years ago. hope what have to say will also
be of interest to those of you who have finished your legal studies,
or who have no intention of ever beginning them.
The Dreaded Socratic Method
#irst-year law students come to law school after twelve years of
primary and secondary school, four years of college, and in many
cases some additional years in the workforce or in graduate school.
$hy, then, should another three years of school be frightening%
The answer is surely the mystery surrounding the &ocratic method.
'ere is an example of the &ocratic method based on the first day
of my course in constitutional law(
)e( )s. *avlinsky, suppose the +ew *ork state legislature passes
a statute banning ,the making of any statements critical of the +ew *ork government., *ou write
an editorial for the student newspaper in which you state that the members of the legislature who
voted for the statute thereby violated their oath to support the -onstitution. *ou are prosecuted
for violating the statute. .o you have a constitutional defense%
)s. *avlinsky( *es.
)e( $hat is your defense%
)s. *avlinsky( t violates the #irst Amendment.
)e( /ut the #irst Amendment says that ,Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press., s the +ew *ork legislature the same body as -ongress%
)s. *avlinsky( +o.
)e( &o is the prosecution permissible%
)s. *avlinsky( don0t think so%
)e( $hy not%
)s. *avlinsky( think the #irst Amendment has been applied to the states.
)e( 1ery good. ndeed it has. "ater in the semester, we will study a series of cases in which the
&upreme -ourt ruled that when the #ourteenth Amendment prohibits any state from denying a
person ,liberty, without ,due process of law,, it implicitly includes within ,liberty, most of
those rights that are spelled out in the /ill of 2ights. /ut 0m troubled by something else today.
$hy should a +ew *ork court have to pay any attention to what0s in the federal -onstitution%
)s. *avlinsky( /ecause of Article 1.
)e( assume you are referring to the portion of Article 1 that says( ,This -onstitution . . . shall
be the supreme "aw of the "and3 and the 4udges in every &tate shall be bound thereby, any Thing
in the -onstitution or "aws of any state to the -ontrary notwithstanding.,
)s. *avlinsky( *eah, that0s it.
)e( $ell, that seems rather circular doesn0t it% have here in my pocket another document, also
labeled ,the -onstitution of the 5nited &tates., t has the following provisions(
Article ( The form of the government of the 5nited &tates shall be a dictatorship.
Article ( The dictator shall be all-powerful.
Article ( The dictator shall be -olumbia "aw &chool 6rofessor )ichael .orf, unless and until
he appoints a successor.
Article 1( ,This -onstitution shall be the supreme law of the land3 and everybody shall be
bound by it, any thing in the constitution or laws of any state or other body to the contrary
notwithstanding.,
Tell me )s. *avlinsky, why is the -onstitution printed in the front of your casebook more
authoritative than the ,.orf is .ictator, -onstitution%
)s. *avlinsky( /ecause the real -onstitution was ratified by the 6eople.
)e( .id you ratify it%
)s. *avlinsky( +o.
)e( .id any of your ancestors ratify it%
)s. *avlinsky( +o.
)e( $hat were your ancestors doing in !789, when what you call the real -onstitution was
ratified by the 6eople%
)s. *avlinsky( They were serfs in 2ussia.
)e( see. $ell perhaps the so-called real -onstitution is binding because it was democratically
chosen by the people who lived here at the time%
)s. *avlinsky( :kay.
)e( f you had been living in the 5nited &tates in !789, would you, as a woman, have been
permitted to vote for the people who decided whether to ratify the -onstitution%
)s. *avlinsky( +o.
)e( .id enslaved African-Americans vote for ratification%
)s. *avlinsky( +o.
)e( 'ow about +ative Americans%
)s. *avlinsky( +o.
And so it goes. #or every answer it seems there is another ;uestion, until the exasperated
students begin to feel like the point of the &ocratic method is to show how much smarter the
professor is than they are.
The Truth About the Socratic Method
t0s true that the &ocratic method can be used to confuse and humiliate students. t can also be
misused in other ways < for example, when the professor asks the students in effect to try to
read his mind, rejecting perfectly intelligent answers because they are not exactly what was
expected.
$hen used well, however, the &ocratic method teaches law students a vital skill( critical
thinking.
n The Paper Chase, 6rofessor =ingsfield >memorably portrayed by 4ohn 'ouseman in the film
version? tells his students( ,*ou come here with minds full of mush < and leave thinking like a
lawyer., /ut, what exactly does it mean to think like a lawyer%
The answer < the secret to law school success >offered here for free@? < is nothing. There is no
such thing as thinking like a lawyer. There is only clear thinking and confusion.
To be sure, the law often re;uires much greater precision than is needed in other spheres of life.
A person0s ability to avoid going to prison or to keep her fortune can turn on exactly what a word
in a statute or contract means, and accordingly lawyers must learn to pay careful attention to
nuance. /ut there is nothing different in kind about lawyerly precision that distinguishes it from
any other type of clear thinking.
Why the "Thinking Like a Lawyer" Myth Persists
To paraphrase the first 6resident /ush, for at least a generation, most law professors have
practiced a kinder, gentler form of the &ocratic method. These days, one would be hard pressed
to find an example of the archetypal, 'ouseman-like &ocratic law professor who never utters a
declaratory statement and gives the impression that everything any student says is wrong.
+evertheless, the myth of the bullying &ocratic law professor persists as a staple in fiction and in
the fearful imaginations of new and prospective law students. $hy%
n part, the myth persists because it glorifies the legal profession. Those of us who hold law
degrees have an interest in the general public believing that we have some distinctive skill in
virtue of our special, and especially arduous, training. Thus, there is a tendency among current
lawyers to exaggerate how much they suffered when they were law students.
/ut the self-interest of legal professionals is only part of the story. The public also has an interest
in believing that lawyers think differently from everybody else.
n his !9AB book, Law and the Modern Mind, attorney >and later federal appeals court judge?
4erome #rank explained why the lay public had always been hostile to lawyers as a class.
According to #rank, most people believe that the law itself is clear, but that hair-splitting lawyers
introduce uncertainties as a means of manipulating the law to serve their clients0 and their own
interests. "aw school, in the public mind, aims to displace common sense with legalistic
pedantry.
The public0s view, #rank argued, is mistaken. n most instances, the law cannot be certain,
because life is simply too complex for a lawmaker to anticipate all of the circumstances to which
a legal norm might be applied.
To borrow an example that is famous in the academic literature, a city council concerned about
safety and ;uiet enacts an ordinance prohibiting ,vehicles in the park., .oes the prohibition
apply to roller skates% To a statue of a tank% To an ambulance%
Cven the most careful of lawmakers will not think of >or specifically address? some of the
borderline cases, and the diversity of human experience will then re;uire a nuanced judgment by
lawyers.
The Risks of the Socratic Method
Although most lawyers would probably side with #rank and against the myth of legal certainty,
law school does pose a real danger for those students who absorb the wrong lesson < and come
to resemble not &ocrates, but the &ophists.
The point of the &ocratic method is to encourage students to ;uestion assumptions they did not
even realize they were making. That is an essential element of legal training, but it can be taken
too far.
#or example, in the above hypothetical dialogue, was trying to induce )s. *avlinsky and the
other students in the class to ask themselves why the -onstitution is binding law. A clear answer
to that ;uestion will be useful to students in figuring out how the -onstitution should be
interpreted. /y using the &ocratic method to elicit an answer, or a range of answers, rather than
simply telling them what think in a lecture, am helping them sharpen their own analytical
skills.
/ut a student who comes away from the class thinking, as a result of the &ocratic give-and-take,
that the law has no rightful claim to authority and that he can therefore ignore it, has missed the
point of the lesson. Cven if he is right as a matter of political theory, he will not be an effective
lawyer if he treats the law as wholly illegitimate.
)ore generally, in exposing students to the law0s inevitable ambiguities, the &ocratic method
risks inducing cynicism < the view that the law can mean anything or nothing. /ut this view is
no better than its opposite( the naDve view that law always has a single, undebatable meaning.
-ynicism is an unwarranted and unintended conse;uence of the use of the &ocratic method.
$hile there is some uncertainty in some areas of law, that is a far cry from saying there is no
certainty anywhere in the law. The existence of dusk does not call into ;uestion the distinction
between day and night.
)ichael -. .orf is 1ice .ean and 6rofessor of "aw at -olumbia 5niversity.
http://writ.new!.)ndlaw.com/dor*/200(0822.html
How to think like a lawyer without changing
career aths
-8 #*8 %7'T#9
• %rinta$le :ersion
L!#! &icero
Larry 9ramer teaches a session of Thinking Like a Lawyer, a new course designed to offer graduate
students outside the field of law a window into core legal concepts! 9ramer is one of a do;en Law (chool
faculty mem$ers, with areas of e"pertise ranging from torts to intellectual property, who are co,teaching
the course!
Re$ecca <oldman does not want to go to law school or $e a lawyer! -ut as a student in
the 4nterdisciplinary <raduate %rogram in Enironment and Resources who hopes
someday to deelop policies for sustaina$le land use, she would like to know how
lawyers approach land disputes!
'rederick #ntwi is a second,year $usiness student who, when he goes to work for an
inestment firm, wants to $etter understand how securities laws are structured!
This 0uarter, $oth <oldman and #ntwi are getting a chance to e"plore these su$=ects
thanks to Thinking Like a Lawyer>a new Law (chool course designed to offer graduate
students outside the field of law a window into core legal concepts! Taught $y +. Law
(chool faculty with areas of e"pertise ranging from torts to intellectual property, the
course draws graduate students from a wide cross,section of disciplines!
7f the ?2 enrollees and +@ auditors, 52 hail from the <raduate (chool of -usiness, with
the remainder coming from the schools of Earth (ciences, Engineering, Education and
*edicine, as well as from the departments of %hilosophy, %olitical (cience and %hysics!
ALaw is more art than science,A said Law (chool 6ean Larry 9ramer, who helped to
deelop the class! A4t3s like learning music! 4n music, there are a limited num$er of
foundational notes and chords that one learns to com$ine in eer more comple" ways to
create different melodies and different styles of music! (o, too, in law there are a limited
num$er of concepts and forms of argument that law students learn to use and that
make up the underpinnings of different fields of law!A
4t3s a rare opportunity to learn from top legal scholars without haing to take the L(#T!
%eer inside the class and you might find %amela (! 9arlan, who has argued $efore the
1!(! (upreme &ourt, e"amining constitutional issues, or Ro$ert Beis$erg, director of
the (tanford &riminal Custice &enter, walking students through a criminal case! 9ramer,
who holds the Richard E! Lang %rofessorship for the 6ean of (tanford Law (chool, is
teaching two sessions on litigation and dispute resolution!
The idea is to e"plore essential 0uestions in the legal field, said *ark 9elman, the
Cames &! <aither %rofessor of Law and ice dean, who came up with the idea for the
course and oersaw its deelopment!
ABe3re not trying to teach law lite! Be3re teaching law in a reduced and intense way,
focusing on the essence of a particular su$=ect area and addressing key conceptual
issues that come up again and again,A 9elman said!
#nother central goal of Thinking Like a Lawyer is cross,disciplinary understanding!
A*ost people will hae to interact with lawyers during some point in their professional
lies, whether it3s doing a $usiness deal or forming pu$lic policy,A 9ramer said!
Learning outside the box
Thinking Like a Lawyer comes at a time when the Law (chool is seeing an influ" of non,
law students taking law courses>from fewer than .0 per year in the late +DD0s and
early .000s to more than E0 in .00?,0E! #t the same time, there3s $een a +0,fold
increase in law students enturing to other parts of campus for courses! 4n the past
decade, law students registered for 20 classes outside the Law (chool in a typical year!
4n .00?,0E, there were 20@ such registrations!
This increase is, in part, due to lowered administratie $arriers! #s part of the Law
(chool3s push to educate students more $roadly $eyond the traditional legal curriculum,
the school is aligning its academic calendar with that of the uniersity to make it easier
for law students to enroll in courses outside the school>and, likewise, open the school
to non,law students! 4n anticipation, the school has dramatically e"panded its formal
=oint degree program offerings to coer more than .0 possi$le degrees!
A(tudents should take courses and degrees outside the law school in order to deelop
the intellectual capital they need to practice law today,A 9ramer said! A#t the same time,
we3re $roadening our program to include more cross,disciplinary opportunities for non,
law students!A
&hris <olde, associate ice proost for graduate education, thinks the num$ers hint at
larger shifts across campus! ABe3re seeing two trends,A said <olde, who is auditing
Thinking Like a Lawyer! A(tudents taking courses more $roadly and schools teaching
more outward,facing courses aimed at non,specialists in other fields!A
That these changes are happening is not necessarily surprising, gien the uniersity
has made interdisciplinary learning a key priority! Thinking Like a Lawyer represents
one model of cross,school interaction for graduate students that the 7ffice of the :ice
%roost for <raduate Education is working to e"pand, <olde said!
To $e sure, it fits in the outward,facing course category! (o does the -usiness (chool3s
Interpersonal Influence and Leadership (offered winter and spring 0uarters), which
focuses on teaching students from arious disciplines how to $uild more effectie
working relationships!
The idea of ena$ling graduate students to go outside their discipline is not new, of
course! The (chool of Education, for e"ample, re0uires its doctoral students to o$tain a
master3s degree or minor in another department! #nd other schools hae similarly
created programs that integrate arious disciplines, such as the (chool of Earth
(ciences3 4nterdisciplinary <raduate %rogram in Enironment and Resources, which
$lends enironmental science, engineering and policy!
Then there are offerings that encourage interdisciplinary colla$oration>such as
Biodesign Innovation, in which $udding lawyers, engineers, doctors and $usiness
people work together to deelop ideas for medical technology, or the Law (chool3s
Expert Witness class, in which law students work with peers from the natural and social
sciences to prepare for mock trials!
A-eing a$le to $orrow tools and ideas from other fields can lead to $reakthroughs,A said
<olde, whose office is creating an online clearinghouse of interdisciplinary opportunities
for graduate students (http:))pge!stanford!edu)students)id)!
Legal lessons
#s for non,specialists <oldman and #ntwi, they say Thinking Like a Lawyer offers a
uni0ue perspectie on how lawyers frame pro$lems, as well as how law professors
approach teaching!
A&oming from a science $ackground, 43m looking for the answer,A <oldman said! A4n law
it3s a$out making a case>not necessarily a$out right or wrong answers!A
A4t3s much more pedantic than F-usiness (choolG classes! 4 like how they use the
(ocratic method,A said #ntwi, who adds that he finds the idea of $eing a$le to interpret
Alawyerly talkA appealing!
'or <oldman, the class is not only informing her doctoral research>one class session
is deoted to a land use case>it3s preparing her for life after (tanford!
A43m going to $e sitting at a ta$le with lawyers discussing land,use contracts, policy and
other issues,A she said! AThis course gies a $readth of understanding so 4 can
communicate with them and understand the comple"ities that go into their work!A
Amy Poftak is assistant director of communications at tanford Law chool!
http://new!-!ervice.!tan*ord.ed$/new!/200+/octo,er24/lawyer-(0240+.html
Attitude is !ssential"
Anyone, regardless of education or "&AT score, can learn how to be successful in law school. t
doesn0t matter how high your E is or what your grades were as an undergraduate. There is a
simple formula to legal reasoning that can be learned inside of ten minutes and practiced to
perfection for the rest of your life. To help you use this formula, however, it helps to adopt a new
way of looking at the world. n other words, you need to start thinking like a lawyer. 'ere0s how
to do it.
Return to Top Test Yourself!
#our Strategies to Think like a Lawyer
"aw school is not about learning a set of rules. "aw school is designed to teach you how to ,think
like a lawyer., 6rofessors have long ago settled that lawyers can always look the law up in a
book, but designing an argument and analy;ing a legal problem is a matter of reshaping the way a
person thinks. #our key strategies will aid you in thinking like a lawyer.
Four Strategies to Think like a Lawyer
1. Accept abiguity
!. Don"t be eotionally tied to a position
#. Argue both sides
$. %uestion e&erything
Strategy #1: Accept ambiguity.
-onsider the following rule of law(
There is always an exception for every rule of law, except for the rules in which there are no
exceptions.
At first glance this statement seems circular and contradictory. t states a general proposition that
every rule has an exception. Then it goes onto say that there0s an exception to this rule for rules
that have no exceptions. t0s like the childhood riddle, where someone states, ,I am a liar., f that
person is a liar, how do you know that they are telling the truth in the statement that they are a
liar%
The law is full of conundrums and ambiguities like this one. f you can accept the interplay
between those two statements without being distressed at the inherent fuzziness, then you will do
well in studying the law. The law is inherently fuzzy in order to be flexible. Although judges
attempt to interpret laws that are clear, there is almost always a set of circumstances where
applying the rule would be unjust. -onse;uently, some latitude exists in the law in order to reach
a just result.
This can drive you mad as a first year law student. *ou want as clear of an answer as you would
get in mathematics or physics. The law is seldom black and white. Cverything is a shade of gray.
The right answer is almost always couched in terms of probabilities. ,)aybe he0s liable for
damages., ,'e0ll probably go to jail for murder.,
There is no way around this, and the best method is to embrace and accept the inherent
ambiguity of the law as a strength. nstead of thinking of the law as ambiguous, consider it
flexible. *our skill as a lawyer will be in how you can use this flexibility to achieve the correct
result for your client.
Strategy #2: Dont be emotionally tie! to a position.
:ne of the biggest traps that professors use on unwary first year law students is playing on the
emotions. The professor poses a hypothetical situation in which it0s easy to hate one of the parties
and sympathize with the other. The trick is to apply the law neutrally in response to the parties0
legal rights and not your personal feelings.
The classic example is a situation in which a group of +eo-+azis attempts to assert their #irst
Amendment rights for free speech by holding demonstrations in a city largely populated with
4ewish people who are concentration camp survivors.
+aturally, almost everyone feels sympathy for the concentration camp survivors. These people
shouldn0t have to be subjected to a +eo-+azi0s political belief in their own home. 'owever,
professors purposefully set up situations that create internal emotional conflict in order to
illustrate that you should judge a situation according to the law and not let your individual biases
get in the way. The correct legal result here is that the +eo-+azi possesses a free speech right
even in these circumstances so long as they are not inciting a riot.
This does not mean that you have to check your ethics at the door of law school. 6eople
complain that lawyers have no morals but these critics don0t see the higher principles that are at
stake. Those higher principles might be constitutional rights such as free speech or the right to be
represented by counsel. This is the higher ethical ground that you need to take as an attorney
rather than siding with one party or another merely because of your own political beliefs.
#inally, be aware that the professor0s hypothetical situations are not the real world. $hile you
may not like the result of the hypothetical, you need to demonstrate to the professor that you
know how to apply the law. f you really feel that the result is unjust, then state the law with the
correct legal result followed by your reasons on why you don0t think the result is just. 4ust
remember that it0s a hypothetical. .on0t be tied emotionally to things that don0t matter.
Strategy #": Argue both si!es.
n order to avoid being emotionally tied to a position, you should always try to argue both sides
of an issue. "uckily, the same ambiguity of the law that drives you crazy in &trategy F ! allows
you the flexibility to be on either side of a ;uestion in &trategy FA. Adopting this attitude will
better prepare you for the exam and the practice of law. *ou want to be able to take on either a
defendant0s or plaintiff0s position for any given legal issue because you don0t know whether the
facts on the exam will lean towards one side or the other.
:ne of the biggest traps that first year law students fall into is studying only from their own point
of view. #or instance, some people are naturally plaintiff0s attorneys - fighting for the underdog
against the big corporate giant. :thers tend towards representing defendants - protecting
shareholder interests from people out to make a ;uick buck on a fraudulent claim. Cach side is
sometimes right and sometimes wrong. *our immediate goal on the exam is not to figure out
what kind of lawyer you are. *our immediate goal is to do well on the e"am. This means that
need to be able to argue the side that seems to be correct given the facts. This may, in fact, be a
party that you wouldn0t normally side with.
:ne major upside to this sort of training is that it will make you a better lawyer to be able to
argue both sides of a case. :nce you do adopt a plaintiff0s or defendant0s posture in real life, you
will benefit from knowing what arguments the other side will bring forth. f you can understand
the intricacies of another side0s case, then you can better attack that argument.
Strategy ##: $uestion e%erything.
Around the age of two years old, a child often starts asking his or her parents ,$hy%, *ou should
be like a two-year-old. Cvery rule of law, judicial decision, statute and legal construct has a
reason for its existence. t may not be a very good reason, but you will be a better lawyer for
behaving like a two year old and repeatedly asking ,$hy%,
This act of ;uestioning focuses you on policy as a basis for the law. 5nderstanding policy will
carry you far in successfully writing e"ams. Arguing policy is one of the four key methods of
analysis.
Return to Top Test Yourself!
#our Strategies to !$cel as a Student
"aw school is as much a psychological game as it is an intellectual game. &tudents defeat
themselves ahead of time by stressing out on the workload. *ou can put yourself in a better
position as a student by adopting these simple attitudes.
Four Strategies to &'cel as a Stu!ent
1. 'eep your cool
!. (opete only )ith yourself
#. *lay )ith concepts li+e a ne) toy
$. ,tri&e for balance in your life
Strategy #1: (eep your cool.
"aw professors use fear as a tool to motivate students to !? work hard and G? be cautious
lawyers. )any professors feel that a little anxiety is a good thing for students. The very structure
of the case method and (ocratic dialogue used in most classrooms helps foster this fear since
nothing is laid out on the table.
'owever, fear also takes you away from learning. t0s a waste of valuable energy. nstead of
focusing on the learning, you focus on the fear of not ,getting it., To counteract the fear that is
inherent in law school, consider three ideas(
#irst, everyone in your class is in the same state of ignorance. +o one knows what0s coming next.
&econd, if you make a mistake in the classroom, it doesn0t count. The only grade that counts in
most law school classes is the final. 2elax and make mistakes. t will help you in the exam to
know your weak points.
Third, hundreds of thousands of students have sat where you0re sitting now and have survived
and thrived.
&ome people purposefully create stress as a motivator for themselves. They freak out at the
workload and use it as a way to bond with other students. &tay away from the people who are
stressing out. &tress creates stress, and you want to focus your energies on studying, not stressing
out.
Strategy #2: )ompete only with yoursel*.
Although grades are important, it0s also important to put them in perspective. :ne key factor in
getting good grades is to forget about them and concentrate on the learning. #ocusing on the
competition - i.e. your fellow students - takes your eye off the ball, which is to learn the law. f
you are constantly sizing up the competition and comparing yourself then you are taking yourself
away from valuable study time.
-onsider the following truism(
While grades are the only thing that counts% grades also count as only one thing&
The idea here is to recognize the importance of grades in determining certain things, such as law
review, summer jobs and so on. At the same time, you realize that the learning and relationships
are far more important keys to happiness than grades.
The stress of getting good grades often creates competition, which leads to bad feelings between
students. There are true stories of people hiding books in the library or ripping pages out of case
books that are necessary to complete an assignment. This sort of competition can be very
destructive.
The best strategy to deal with the stress of grades is to compete only with yourself and not
others. The people in your class are your future colleagues. /uilding trust and relationships with
these people will take you much further than any marginal increase in grades you might get from
cut-throat competitive tactics for grades. The most successful people in the world are not those
who are most competitive with others. 2ather, the most successful are those who compete with
themselves to learn the most.
Strategy #": +lay with concepts like a new toy.
$henever you learn a new legal concept, play with as if you were a kid and the concept was the
coolest, neatest, newest toy that you own.
)ake the concept your own by restating the principle in your own words. Turn the idea over in
your head as you0re walking to class or taking a shower. $henever you learn a new rule, restate it
a dozen times until you don0t need notes to say it by heart. :nce you really understand that
concept by putting it in your own words, move on to other principles.
Apply the rule to your everyday situations. #or instance, you might begin to apply the principles
you learn in -ontract law to your everyday dealings with grocers and retailers. As you drive
down the highway, consider what you would have to prove to bring a negligence suit in Tort if
there were an accident. f the car crash was caused by a faulty part in a foreign car you were
driving, how could you use -ivil 6rocedure to haul the manufacturer into #ederal -ourt.
-losely related to this concept is the idea of making up hypothetical fact patterns in which the
rule of law will or will not apply. Try this make-believe techni;ue in order to better learn how to
apply the rule. *ou0ll be surprised at how closely you might come to guessing what fact pattern is
on the exam.
A lot of the difficulty in learning comes from fighting it. $e put ourselves into a non-receptive
state by saying, ,This is difficult. don0t understand., $e also make it harder to learn by not
focusing on the learning but by focusing on where we are on the general curve of learning - i.e.
what0s our class rank. /y wasting energy on these areas we don0t focus on the area where the true
energy should flow - the actual learning of the law. 6laying with the concepts like they were toys
will defuse that difficulty.
Strategy ##: Stri%e *or balance in your li*e.
A lot of law students end up studying !G - !H hours a days in order to get through all of the
reading and work of law school. This can easily lead to burn out. 6utting in more hours doesn0t
necessarily lead to more knowledge. The law of diminishing returns suggests that 8B hours a
week may lead to less advancement in the study of law than a focused HB-hour week.
t is essential to have a balance in your life with exercise, eating right and fun time with your
friends and family. *ou will get more out of the classroom if you are alert, well fed and
otherwise on top of your game physically and emotionally than you will if you have read yet
another treatise about the law.
*ou need to give law school a break in order to give it your maximum attention later on. *ou
need time when you0re not thinking like a lawyer in order to better achieve becoming a lawyer. n
the words of the Alan $atts, a professor of Castern religions, ,/y going out of your mind, you
come to your senses.,
Return to Top Test Yourself!
Two Strategies to 'olster Self (onfidence
)any law students suffer academically because they lack self confidence in their ability to
handle the material. /y deciding ahead of time that they don0t have the ability, they fulfill that
prophesy before even trying. n order to succeed academically in law school you have to adopt a
belief in your ability. /elief alone won0t carry you through to your goals. *ou also have to put in
the work. /ut without a belief in your ability, you defeat yourself before you begin.
,eprogramming *or Success
f you0ve gotten as far as being accepted into law school, then you have the native intelligence to
understand legal reasoning. 'undreds of thousands of people have learned to analyze issues like
a lawyer, and you can do it too. f that isn0t proof enough, then consider adopting a few
techni;ues to foster self-confidence in studying the law.
:ne method is through affirmations. Affirmations are a tool you can use to counteract the
negative self-image that is ingrained in the subconscious mind. Through the negative messages
we receive in childhood, the subconscious mind develops limitations as to what we can achieve.
The subconscious tells us that we aren0t an ,A student,, so we never put forth the effort to
counteract that negative message.
Affirmations are a powerful tool to reprogram the subconscious. Affirmations are said in front of
the mirror in the morning immediately when you get up and in the evening right before you go to
sleep. t could be something as simple as(
")% *your na+e,% a+ an intelligent% confident% and articulate student who will beco+e an
outstanding ad-ocate and attorney for +y clients&"
Affirmations generally get a bad rap. t0s easy to dismiss affirmations as hokey, and, in a way,
they are. /ut affirmations are also incredibly empowering. Affirmations illustrate just how
powerful language can be. challenge you to use affirmations for a week and see if they make a
difference in your underlying attitude.
Another method to improve self-confidence is through visualization. 'igh-performance athletes
visualize winning a race before running it. .uring the actual race, they merely put into action
what they have already visualized. *ou can use visualization to be successful in law school
before you crack a book. Take a moment to visualize your first year in law school. -lose your
eyes and imagine a classroom where you and your fellow students engage in a lively debate. &ee
in your mind a situation where you convince your peers to adopt a different viewpoint. magine
taking your first test, having fun with it and knowing that you aced the exam. #ast-forward to
your third year when you graduate. &ee yourself successfully taking the bar exam in your state.
1isualizing doesn0t mean that you don0t have to do the work, but it will foster the belief in your
ability to accomplish the task.
The -yth o* -istakes
#ostering a belief in your ability is difficult when you are constantly faced with making mistakes.
)istakes are a fact of life in law school. The number of mistakes that a law school student makes
is enormous. Cverything about law school is new. The language of lawyering is new. The process
of learning is different than most academic fields. The analytical thought process is a skill that
doesn0t come easily. *ou should expect to make mistakes.
&uccess is determined by what you do with those mistakes. Are mistakes a learning experience or
do those mistakes reinforce a belief that you can0t do the material% f you can look at each
mistake you make in law school as an opportunity to get it right for the exam, guarantee you
that you0ll excel.
*ou0re not alone in making mistakes. .id you realize that the best baseball players in the world
strike out two thirds of the time they are at bat% .o they let that huge failure ratio deter them%
+o. Cach time they step up to the plate, they have an unwavering belief that this is the ball they
are going to hit out of the park. They don0t let their failures get in the way of believing in their
ultimate ability to succeed.
2ecognize to yourself that you are only a beginner. As a beginner, you have to start out with
simple concepts and take small steps in learning the material. &ometimes you won0t succeed, but
that0s part of being a beginner. n fact, you want to make mistakes in order to see where you got
it wrong the first time through. *ou must never let your mistakes fool you into believing that you
are not capable.
&umming up, there is a two-step approach to putting yourself in the right state of mind. Adopt
this phrase as your guiding principle(
Think like a winner by knowing that you will ulti+ately succeed% but act like a beginner by
learning fro+ your +istakes&
Return to Top Test Yourself!
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