"No one will ever use a case book in practice. They are totally useless." I now have a collection of about 20 textbooks that are mostly useless to me almost ten years out of law school. However, they aren't *totally* useless; people who don't know what a case book is will look at a book shelf in my office with all this junk on it and think it looks really impressive.
Okay but, ironically, second-hand casebooks will work perfectly well for that purpose! Hence, the 20 textbooks ten years out of date that are still of some use for you, for their aesthetic purpose.
I'm not a law student and I don't plan on going to law school. I just started watching your videos on tv shows/movies because they're interesting and now I'm here.
I'm really quite interested in witnessing somebody turning into a law school. I think that would be worthy of a documentary if not a blockbuster movie. Please keep me updated on your transformation!
Law literacy is important even for non-lawyers. If you're American, there's a webcomic on the subject I used to enjoy called the Illustrated Guide to Law: lawcomic.net
A testament to how good this guy is: All the people here saying they'll never study law but looking at these videos, including myself. If he's this engaging here, imagine how well he can engage the court
Too true. If he can do that he must have the judge and jury hanging on his every word. It reminds me of how my business law professor really held the attention of the class and got me really interested in the subject. I doubt I will ever practice law but I am still interested in learning more even though it is a couple of years later.
Excellent observation! He found some common ground that most people (especially college students like myself, regardless of field) can relate to, and he delivered his points eloquently.
DeludoSui absolutely, the professor or even the university may have an attendance policy. It’s always best to show up to class, you never know what you might learn or miss
@Trône de Marchandises Unless there are assignments that require team effort, not always. There are some classes, particularly in universities, that can have several hundred students. It can be a room full of total strangers, and even the professor probably wouldn't recognize most of the students inside or outside of class. I can't recall one single person from any of my classes by name, since I didn't roommate with any of them, and did not hang out with them.
When I went to school, making class mandatory usually meant that the Professor didn't really have anything to teach you that you couldn't just read in the text book. Students would stop attending class and thus catch the eye of human resources who would wonder why we are employing this person.
The "do your outlines weekly" advice I 100% agree with. *Everything that you learn, you learn incrementally.* You don't just decide to walk into a gym one day and bench press 300 pounds, because you know you'll just hurt yourself trying. It's the same with learning the law, or math, or a language, or writing a fanfiction - trying to do it all at once will just hurt you.
What I don't get is why he was railing *against* context in that bit. If you do your outline every week, you are using the context of the class! That's the reason you do them now! If you don't, trying to outline stuff from 3+ months ago means you have lost the context of what was discussed!
@@greenyawgmoth The 'context' he called crap was how people argue that if you wait for the end of the semester to do the outline, you'll have the context of the entire class to put in the outline. Yeah, that's crap. You're just going to remember everything? He specifically said to do it every week so that its easier to revise at the end.
I went to five Property Law sessions and got a B. 1L first semester every class every case briefed but subsequently I learned how to study on my own and ditched a lot of class. Graduated and passed the bar so there is no one clear cut way.
I go to law school in Germany and loads of people don't go to our lectures here. I still do but I don't know if it's necessary or if it really helps with our exams.
During orientation they told us to brief every case and read each one 3 TIMES 😂😂 I just graduated in May. I’d still be reading/briefing cases if I followed that advice.
I don't see anything wrong with it. In the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney video's comments there was someone there that practiced law in Japan and I thought it was interesting to hear an explanation about how our legal systems are different. I find law in general interesting though so that may be partially to blame. Even if I never practice law I still intend to keep learning more about it.
4:42 I can’t stress this enough, you want to cash in on the half-blood prince possibility. Maybe the person who had the textbook before you was the Snape of law, you don’t want to miss the chance to get into the brain zone of Alan Rickman.
Agatha Grunt-thruster But that is unlikely. Statistically, isn’t it more likely to buy a textbook from the bottom 50% of the curve than the top 1%? Even if you buy a used textbook from top student in that class who is now TA for that class, he may have different thought process or note taking process. The best thing to do is to look through used textbooks and find one that has no markings with pen or pencil. That way you save some money. But the difference in cost between used and new textbooks is not that great in my opinion.
Superfireben True, but even then, those notes aren’t likely hurting anything. You can ignore them if they aren’t useful, but you can learn from them if they are useful.
This is very different from studying engineering. If you understand a concept, you're done studying and you can know you'll do well on the test. There's little to no memorization. Also, I don't know why I'm watching these. I'm not a law student and never will be...
I'm a bus driver...I have no interest in law, I just enjoy absorbing knowledge, you never know when some tidbit of wisdom will come in handy in day to day life.
Best advice I ever got for reading cases is: Go straight to the Holdings, write them down and then restate them (the Holdings) as questions. Do that first and you will understand the legal aspect of the case (and precedent set) very quickly. You can then move to the rest of the information including shepardizing.
The cases are usually there to give an example of that principle of the law. Many cases date back more than a hundred years ago and the current laws have changed drastically.
Well that's the bad part regarding common law. Anything can change (there are abstract restrictions though) with the new ruling. Civil law (dont confuse with civil law as sub branch of common law) is more rigid and predictable.
That's probably true for practitioners, or doctoral-level researchers. They need to have expensive on-line subscriptions, and to peruse them every day. But for a student in his early years, it's hard enough to just learn the basics from textbooks.
I’m not an attorney but when I was 32, I went back to school for my paralegal degree and certification. I’ve since left the industry but I worked in a civil defense firm. That said, while I was in school, I had the advantage of having been an adult in the workforce for several years leading up to that and I was surrounded by young students who were struggling because they couldn’t grasp the very basic concept that you’ve articulated so very well in this video: don’t overcomplicate things. In the real-world environment of a law office (or any professional environment), the right way to do things is however the job gets done the right way. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to accomplishing your tasks. It’s not just about getting the job done, it’s about developing the skills to efficiently get the job done. The same goes for the approach to academics. Developing shortcuts is just smart. Buying used case law books is just smart. Doing outlines once a week is just smart. Briefing every case... not smart and certainly not an efficient use of your time. Not showing up to class because you think you can skate with just the text... definitely not smart. Whether you’re in law school or junior college, you need to realize that it’s a game and figure out the best way play within the rules and use them to your advantage.
mommymode1985-Your mom’s idea sounds like a great idea. Also, maybe try to get a part-time job at a law firm to confirm that is really what you want to do.
The Real SuperGeeks Do most paralegal positions require a Paralegal Degree? Isn’t the salary too low to justify investing in additional education for the position? A paralegal makes about $50,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most attorneys working for the federal government start out as a GS-11 which is about $68,000 in DC. Within a few years, they become GS-14 which is about $117,000. How many years must a paralegal work to get a raise?
Always go to class unless you have severe stomach flu. Also, where I went to law school, you could only miss a certain amount of classes (generally less than 6 in a semester) without an excuse, or your grade would be at least as low as a C (and for some professors, an F). With the huge costs associated with going to law school, those kind of grades are like flushing money down the toilet. If you do not graduate in the top 25-30 percent of your class, most large firms will not even think about hiring you as an associate. For smaller firms, you generally have to be in the top 50% . You will likely not even get to the top 50% if your GPA falls below a 3.08 (or several tenths higher than that in top tier schools). I finished with a 2.953 (out of 4.000), because I put off outlining beyond the last minute, and tried to study for my exams based primarily on my class notes. Don't do what I did. ;-) Also: internships are vital! I made the mistake of thinking that working as a paralegal at a highly-respected criminal appeals firm was as good as an internship. It was not. Why? Because I did not draft anything "from scratch." Only my supervising attorneys did that. So, even though I was good at proofreading and cite-checking, I had no real legal experience drafting anything. This meant that my "writing samples" had to come from my legal research and writing classes. Not optimal.
Just need a hydraulic hose and industrial vat of gelatin slurry. Cleanliness is next to Godliness after all. And no one can accuse you of being full of crap!
Well the first one is likely applicable in any field... Speaking from experience here, most of my math and comp sci classes were providing a broader perspective through the teacher's tangents and occasional interaction from students (myself included). Yes, some teachers failed to make their matter engaging enough and that timed seemed to just be wasted, but those were not that many, and certainly not worth generalizing. PS Also the last one, reviewing stuff weekly helps with "getting it," makes things a lot easier than postponing all the recaps until the end of the semesters.
I think this apply to just any University students Not just law student New books are overrated Start your project early Try to focus in class If it's repetitive and seems useless it's probably useless
Never ever buy new textbooks. In fact, if you can avoid it, don't buy textbooks at all. Rent, borrow, whatever you need to do to get the information available during the class. If after the class, you have found a need or desire to look at the book more than once a year, it may be worth buying a used copy to keep around, but you won't know which books are worth keeping around until after your class. You can save a ton of money and space by doing this. In the end, if you continue to work in the same field you studied, you will probably have a few favorite books from college you crack open every once in a while, instead of boxes or shelves of books you never care to look at again.
@@alxjones I passed most of my textbooks on to other students. I only kept a few so I could help my younger siblings, nieces, nephews, and a few friends with High School and college classes. I only bought new books when old books were not available (this was pre-internet days).
When I was at university, we were not told to buy our lecturers' books, but we all did, since we expected they would be a guide to what would come up in the exams, even if they weren't the best on the subject. Sometimes they helped clarify the lectures when they appeared to be based on the same outline, and occasionally they had the same anecdotes. On one occasion I was too slow off the mark and one book was sold out. Luckily, I had gone to school in that city years before and knew the public library system (which most university students thought was beneath them) and was able to borrow that very book, and keep taking it out again until it reappeared in the bookshop.
as a general rule yes. though there are a few cases where you can skip. I had a professor in physics that I could barely understand. attendance was not mandatory and there was a lecture script online. in fact pretty much all our professors had lecture scripts and the were available online through the university. depending on how you learn and how the lecture is structure you learn much more from the script than by sitting there not understanding anything. this is often the case in maths where understanding often comes from simple examples. but many lectures start by handling the very broad and abstract definition first. generally the experimental physics part was easy to learn in lectures. theoretical physics was often too abstract to understand anything at all in the lectures. long study at home was required to scratch the surface. what you absolutly must attend even if its not mandatory are the exercises.
but of course the few examples where learning otherwise is more productive than the lectures only apply if you actually use that time to learn otherwise. more often than not people dont do anything. but if there is a professor that you can barely understand for example its perfectly reasonable to use that time to do some exercises with a fellow student. since you are likely in uni at that time anyway its a good moment to study with others.
Agreed, the university I went to, if you missed more than one class per semester, you got a phone call asking why. Plus your missing out on what your tutor/lecturer has to pass on.
DISCLAIMER - I DO NOT ADVISE SKIPPING CLASSES: I would say this is actually something that is a legitimate strategy ONLY if you NEVER plan to work for a firm and plan to start your own business AND if you leverage that time away from class learning ACTUAL skills to run business (management, taxes, accounting, web design, search engine optimization) as well as networking with attorneys to have a good resource network to bounce ideas off of. Grades won't matter at that point because you are your own boss and if you learn even a passable level of these skills, you will probably run a far more profitable firm that many lawyers you compete with because you won't have to outsource this labor. Even then, it is HIGHLY risky because you still have to pass the bar and while law school won't prepare you for the bar exam content, the study skills do become key to successfully navigating the bar exam. If you plan to do this strategy, I would only consider it if your state automatically admits to the bar without the exam like Wisconsin if memory serves). I agree with legal eagle, it is stupid to skip classes wholesale. The only time I have EVER advised it was to skip a few days so you could find a job on campus that waives tuition. For me, this allowed my last two years to be tuition free and paid a $1000/mo stipend that covered living expenses. $50,000 in tuition and stipend benefits for missing 3 days of class...worth it. Skipping class altogether...no...just no... But it is true to some extent that you CAN potentially get D's doing this. My school's anti-trust professor was known for saying on the first day that if you write "Sherman Anti-Trust Act" on the exam, you will get a D at the very least. No one took him up on it but let's just say he was the type of professor who I could never see lying about this offer because law schools bend over backwards to avoid giving F's.
@@garethbaus5471 My university puts chemistry, physics, computer science under the college of liberal arts, and also has International Relations and Political Science under liberal arts, not in their own separate department. It's a weird system and I think they did it so the traditional liberal arts kids don't have second thoughts.
@@jamesyoo4779 my school doesn't really have a proper liberal arts department, and the closest it comes to offering a degree in liberal arts is a degree in business with strong emphasis on engineering.
Even if you never practice law you can still get a lot of benefits from knowing it. I doubt I will ever go to law school but I hope to keep learning more about it.
OBJECTION!! I graduated from a top 40 law school, and have practiced almost 40 years, so I have a little experience in this area. Your first bit of advice: attend all classes STINKS! After doing it your way for the first semester, I pretty much stopped attending class at all for most professors. I found that my grades didn't suffer, but I was happier and more relaxed. Bottom line is that you do not need to attend classes. You do need to study the Emanuels. Then just show for the final exam and you're good. SUSTAINED! Your comment regarding briefing cases is spot on. As a professor told us, on an exam cases are not answers. I don't believe that I ever cited to one case in any law school exam. What is critical is understanding the reasoning, which can then be applied to your particular fact scenario. SUSTAINED! Emanuels Law Outlines are the bomb. 'Nuf said. OBJECTION!! You don't need to purchase textbooks at all. They are expensive, heavy, and quickly out of date. I've never seen one professor refer to a textbook in class (in the few classes that I did attend). Just purchase used Emanuels, and you'll be passing all of your classes with ease. PENDING. I'm torn on outlines. I wrote them for all my classes my first year, and stopped thereafter. I experienced no grade fluctuation. I think that I'll land on the side of creating outlines, because as a practicing criminal trial attorney, my best results occurred when I made a trial notebook. It included my entire cross-examination of all opposing witnesses, case law and arguments for any expected legal issue, and my direct examinations.
I became a plumbers apprentice in Canada. I became one because I like to work with my hands and find fluid under pressure is fascinating but dear god I didn't think I would have to interpret so much government written law, that being building code. I knew there was some but not 4 different law books plus 100 other code publications that are also recommended. Watching the LegalEagle makes me feel less crazy for thinking there's not enough capacity in my brain. You gave good advice for note taking, how not to uselessly take notes on "specific cases" thanks for the advice
This was actually dead on right. I spent alot of time doing my own outlines from class notes and the commercial outlines. By the time it came to finally exams I was already prepared it was just a matter of review. Keeping up and reviewing over the course of a semester rather than cramming everything at the end made it must less stressful. I quit briefing cases about two weeks in. There is about a paragraph in each case that contains everything you need to know for an exam. The rest is your own analytical ability to distinguish between facts and spot issues. Just like everything else everyone makes everything harder than it is and more complex than it needs to be.
Another reason for doing your outline every week, is that spending more time with the subject while it is fresh in your mind will help commit it to long term memory better. Studying a little bit every week is much more effective than cramming for 10 hours the day before the test.
I love the take of "Teachers have points of view, and reading the book alone won't save you from that." I wish someone pointed that out to me earlier in grade school, its just true everywhere.
I have subscribed for about a month or two to listening do this man because he speaks reasonably and understandably and because of that I feel engaged with understanding law
Somehow I've got the feeling that he got and obediently followed all those advises when he used to be in law school himself. Only painful experiences can drive such passion to help preventing others into making the same mistakes.
I’m done with briefing. That is literally the most unnecessary, time consuming technique ever. I stopped after my first semester. I did experience a professor who literally picked any part of the case and tested it on the exams. He asked about roughly 10 cases. 🙄 Commercial outlines should be a no brainer. There is nothing like writing or typing your own. The information is way more easily synthesized. Plus, commercial outlines almost always lack some critical points, especially in Civ Pro. Outlining late is highly stressful. I did that in my first semester and suffered mentally. I knew students who started theirs the month of exams...only one young lady claimed she was perfectly fine with that!
I didn't brief much in 1L, either. I often just take short notes on cases so I'm somewhat ready for class or just highlight in the book. Some profs scare students into thinking they need to use brief form all the time but that's ridiculous.
Kelly Bronner yes! I agree. I notate heavily and highlight occasionally in lieu of briefing. Oftentimes, I literally just put an “F” for facts, “H” for holding, and so on near the relevant text. I was nervous about not briefing my second semester. I hoped that it would not backfire and mess up my GPA. However, by God’s graces and my decision, I did better! I also had more time to dedicate to actual work. As for the one professor who tested the actual cases, I just reread the cases at the close of the semester and did like a 2-3 sentence summary for each case. I am so glad I found this channel. I likely would have continued to brief!
Ginia Maxwell You're my favorite person I've randomly come across on the internet today. A woman rocking law school and hot pink lipstick? Here for it. A+
I love these videos. I’m never going to law school. Hell I’m a Master’s going on Ph.D. Egyptology student. It’s cool to see how people from all over the professional spectrum come to watch Legal Eagle. Keep up the good work!
Good advice. 32 years too late for me as I dropped out of law school in 1998. I followed most of the bad advice like trying to brief all my cases; was afraid to use commercial case briefs; didn't attend classes thinking I could just read the case book; I did it all!
I'm not in the common law system, or even in the same country or continent (I'm a lawyer in Brazil), and I agree that those are great advices. Love your channel and react videos. Learning more about common law, in general, through this channel. Thank you and keep up the great work.
Law school is designed to confuse and overwork. You won't get any real help on studying law unless its from the close friend or relative, and even then there are no guarantees.
@Islayman 1) class outlines change all the time. 2) good luck finding one from a good student. 3) what happens when 1/2 the class get top marks because the subject you apparently are doing wasn't designed to confuse?
Loads of people recommend not going to certain classes, hell I've recommended it myself before. I can't speak for the quality of lecturers and teachers at the top universities in the country, but at a mid-tier university, not every lecturer is competent. I give every class a chance, but after 2 or 3 classes, I feel informed enough to make a judgment call regarding whether it's worth my time to keep attending the classes. I've had a few classes where the lecturer has spent more time recounting anecdotal stories from their life and having conversations with students than discussing anything related to the subject. As interesting as these stories are, I'm not shelling out thousands of dollars for storytime, i'm paying for an education. If staying home, compiling my own notes and listening to the online resources is a more productive use of my time, then I'm going to save myself the trip to uni and do the work from home. When the lecturer is competent however, I fully agree that going to class is important. I just think that people should use their own judgment to determine whether going to class is worth it or not. Usually it's pretty obvious when the lecturer is a dud.
I always tell people to avoid law philosophy. Or as it’s actually called “Jurisprudence” where I studied. It was such a leftist class that the lecturer could never speak because there was always a massive fight going on in class
This is the best comment thread ever. Like half the people here are trying to figure out why they've watched so many of his videos when they have no interest in law school. You know you're killing the TH-cam thing when half your viewers have zero interest in your subject but keep watching because you're so engaging.
doing the study or work weekly is great advice. Studying works best with repetition and constant use of knowledge over time, not crammed into one brief session at the end of a semester. The human brain's ability to recall information is HEAVILY dependent on how often you access it. You lose things you don't use, but if you're undergoing weekly exercises to keep that information fresh, your neurons form bonds all around it and replicate it into other areas, making recall much easier.
The way I studied (at an Aussie uni- where there is no pre law, Law is itself an undergrad, and then we do a short “postgrad” with practical legal training before we can become a solicitor or barrister). The notes!!!! So, I’d start by reading the week’s notes as provided by the lecturer- we’d get the full overview of the week, plus the PowerPoint before the lecture (also, those lectures are out up in the net afterward, so you don’t have to go in to class to “attend a lecture”- very handy). Anyway, I’d read the overview, make a few notes in what was really important, read my cases or required readings, again, make notes, then do the lecture, and make notes from that. Once I had all of my notes for the week, I’d compile them into a word document that grew. So, at the very start would be a contents page, with the relevant page numbers- and I’d have important legal issues as well as any really important cases on that contents page under headings of the general area of law. Then I’d compile my notes- under headings and subheadings (and I’d also colour code- red for cases, blue for issues). Also- I’d reference every page properly according to the Australian legal reference guide- so if I mentioned a case in my notes, I’d just mention the name, then reference properly at the bottom of the page. I know it seems like a lot of work, but 1- I learned it well and got good grades, and 2- all our exams were open book. So I’d have my beautiful typed notes with exactly what page I need for what issue, and it saved me time in the exam. Also, they really were a thing of beauty 😁
This is much more logical and the US should do this. It's ridiculous that law isn't an undergraduate degree so law students in the US will already be saddled with Undergraduate debt before law school debt. Also, law school doesn't prepare future lawyers for actually being lawyers. So often times after passing the bar new lawyers have no idea what to do as they never gained any experience
It's brutal how Americans have to do an undergrad before going to law school, why can't they just get straight into it? It's all well and good having a base education in something else before studying law but it seems like an absolutely crazy waste of time and money to not just incorporate it into a law degree taken out of high school. Item 500 out of the 10000 things Americans do that don't make any sense.
@@QuasiELVIS I'm not so sure that it is dumb or stupid. Just because you can do something faster, doesn't necessarily mean that it is better. Also, I am pretty sure that Canadians most complete a undergraduate before going to law school as well.
The worst advice I ever got about law school was "you should go to law school", followed immediately by "even if you don't study law, your resume will look much better if you finish your degree".
I can’t believe I didn’t find this video till the end of the semester. I briefed every single case we read including shorter cases. I wasted three hours a day briefing cases for one class alone because i felt pressured to by classmates and 2Ls.
I feel like at least half of this advice is useful for all subjects; synthesising lecture notes week by week, for example, is super useful for me as a physics student. It's hard to imagine a subject where that wouldn't be the case, for all of the reasons outlined in this video
I was taught to go directly to the "Findings' of a given case first. I was take the Findings and restate them as questions to know what the core of the case was about. It worked again and again.
Every lawyer I met before I went to law school told me not to go to law school. I thought they were just being jerks, but whatever it was I'm glad they said it. If you can be convinced not to go to law school by cursory remarks, you probably shouldn't be there anyway. Not because you're stupid or afraid, but because if you don't care enough to keep going after that advice you shouldn't waste your time, money, and sanity. It's really hard. If you aren't sure, take some time to figure it out before you commit. Law schools love real world experience anyway.
When anyone asks me if they should study law I say no. It's too competitive. That suits some people, but personally had I known what it was like I would have chosen a different degree. You have to be hungry from day one. Law school also has very little to do with being a good lawyer. If you enjoy law school, you'd probably hate being a lawyer.
It's really pretty interesting finding out how the other disciplines work. It's always a good thing to be curious about something other than what you do/are good at.
You never know when a judge will arrest you for asking a woman to join you for dinner, then be arrested for appealing the gag, and finding out how retarded the judges and lawyers really are. As a nerdy type person, you have always been a second class citizen and the more you succeed in life the more you are building your social prison modeled right after the walnut street penitentiary. As a nerdy type person, you probably already know more about the law than most lawyers and judges, but haven't been introduced to procedures and case law research. You need to be able to look out for #1, especially when your lawyers try to rail road you, or the judges engage in the "trial penalty", or when the gaolers tries to starve you to death. THE LAW is based upon man being created in the wilderness and his rational self interest when dealing with others, but what the practice of law has since become is a great perversion of the law where the government has become a tool of anarchist (governmental officials) to cannibalize anyone they don't like. Which pretty much means you are their prey....Especially when you realize that since a little kid you were being tracked to be a isolated silent little robot and try to escape that first prison. America is just one great big prison especially for nerds. The more you seek your freedom, the deeper into that prison you will end up.
You sound like a deluded, jaded and rambling schizophrenic-potentially narcissistic. You're either a bot, or someone truly believes the system is out to get you. Relax dude, the black helicopters aren't trying to find you while you're stirring your spaghetti sauce.
Sadly Theodore, that is reality in America. A reality that you aren't suppose to know about throw gags and prison walls, where even fathers can get 10 years prison just for wishing their kids happy birthday via US mail as what happened to a John Miller. No more John Lilburnes at the pillory after 10k lashes telling his fellow townsmen how corrupt the judges are. If you engage in speech the courts or the feminists don't like, you'll be forced to disappear for a decade if you don't plead guilty. Some of us can talk, because we because we took a stand for the rule of law and against the resurrected starchamber. Our ability to speech is still de minimus because of the extent of the severe harm rendered, but we can because we won. But we can only save those who want to be saved, we cannot save everyone.
The advice you have given here is really universally useful in my opinion. I´m a third year law student from Germany, where we have a strict code-law-system. You still need to do those outlines and it is much easier to do them ahead of time. Usually you'll even end up doing them a bit more in depth that way, since you don't have the exams coming up in a few weeks. Also do listen to what the professors have to say. Especially if they have something specific, that they are passionate about. You'll be able to understand that aspect of the law on a much deeper level and therefore rock any exams, that only require you to scratch the surface of this particular problem. All in all, excellent advice!
Because people think that cutting corners is alright. Also that advice is usually given by a third year with amnesia. I guess I can understand why some people would say that. After all when we study for the bar exam the only cases we read are in the MPT and listening to a professor is useless. But always found listening to the lectures and taking notes invaluable.
I'd imagine it comes from two places 1) Idiots who don't respect education or 2) People who have been to University like myself and learned through experience that a LOT of classes can easily be cut. The only trouble with that as 'advice' is you need to have the experience of attending lectures to learn what you can avoid.
Here's how good these videos are: I'm not going into Law School or anything of the such. My career is in I.T. Development. But, my gosh, I'll watch all of your videos because they are so well thought out, spoken and delivered. Keep 'em coming, sir!
Anyone talking about law school makes me think of "The Paper Chase". ( '70s movie and TV show). This guy's not as intimidating as Professor Kingsfield.
@mommymode1985 - I saw it during my recent law school experience. It seems a bit antiquated now. And I'm 52! The whole thing about "getting inside the professor's head" by breaking into the special section of the library and reading the professor's old student notes was a bit over the top. And, besides, that was only one of the guy's 1L classes. He didn't do anything like that for his other 3 (or was it 4) classes.
@@MkeKen67 My experience was that some law school professors give the third degree to only the 1L students and ease of in the more advanced classes. They are believers in a trial by fire I guess. But yeah the paper chase was pretty over the top.
Most law professors are really cool honestly. Some of that stuff does exist, the seating chart, the cold calls, but at least at my school I never got the feeling the professors were out to get you.
James, So what are we supposed to do with all the free time that we have from not case briefing? Should we really just go play golf like you did? It’s unsettling feeling like you are not doing enough. Doing practice exam questions early in the semester doesn’t feel right either when one doesn’t have a grasp on the subject.
Thanks for educating everyone. Law can feel very dry and arcane to study to those of us without a direct interest, but laws affect all of us. Im glad to learn from someone who makes things interesting and comprehensible to the layman.
There is also bulimia studying (directly translated from German). Study all night before your test and then basically puke it on the paper. First Thing is that you basically forget everything after your test and second is that you aren't well rested for the test
Several of my law professors gave us the "brief all of your cases" advice. We even had a mandatory workshop specifically about briefing cases where the professor in charge repeatedly told us to do this because "you are essentially writing your outline" as you do it. That is not necessarily untrue, but you will delete a lot of useless chaff if your outline is formed primarily from your briefs. I have not briefed a single case since my first semester as a 1L, and am about to start my semester as a 2L. Briefing cases can be useful practice in the very beginning, but only to help teach you how to read and break apart cases. After that, you just need to be able to pick apart cases for the useful bits (and the parts your professor is likely to cold-call for during class, which is also why it is vital that you do attend class).
Going into my 3L year myself. I didn't do formal "case briefs" for a vast majority of cases during 2L year (I did for some more complicated/important cases), but I did have some notes on more or less every case we read or was mentioned in an assigned textbook reading (in classes like Con Law, this was frequently just the holding relevant to the topic). Getting rid of the "useless chaff" from notes --> outline is part of the synthesizing (i.e. learning) process as well, so it shouldn't be looked at as a waste of time per se. The moral of the story is, put in the time and keep doing what works for you, and you'll continue to do as well as you did in 1L year!
I graduated from law school in 1988. This advice was the same back then. Only difference in my opinion is do outlines as you finish a topic. Also do all the reading before class. Great video!
I love these law classes you are holding. I took a year of Business Law at Providence College and in the first semester Mr Travis our professor gave us an exam and most of the questions came from the footnotes. The whole class failed the exam. The professor said that's what law school does so get use to it. I was a junior in college.
A lot of the advice is transferable even to those not studying the law, including someone like myself who is studying medical sciences. All students can benefit from staying on top of things (class notes, assignments, background reading etc.) and going to as many classes as possible. Biggest thing I can say: DO NOT leave everything until the end of the semester, you will only end up stressed, burnt out and clamouring for time to do any necessary further reading.
I don’t know about law school, but I know used textbooks have actually been more helpful to me as a polisci major than new. Those little notes scribbled in the margins summing up an argument or adding a detail or two can really help make things click, especially when your dealing with jargon heavy writers like Marx and Hegel.
Great advice. I always used the commercial outline to build upon my own outline (combined with class notes). Doing that always resulted in great grades
I mean I know you made fun of Harvey in your suits episode... but man, your voice, your style, your confidence and your look... you can be the better Harvey 2.0 :D
Finally, someone said it!! I started law school a couple months ago and he’s on point. EVERYONE said to brief EVERY SINGLE CASE case like your future depends on it. My quality of life drastically improved when I took my own path and gave up this unnecessary obsession. Just learn the material, however best suits you. If you can do that, and know it well enough to apply it, you’re good to go. The cases are interesting and helpful, but don’t stress about not reading them. Just understand the laws they highlight. This is how you find balance in your life. Don’t learn the way everyone else does, learn the way YOU do. I wanted someone to tell me this. I’m glad he said it.
I agree with all the law school advice in this video, but one thing he said about being a lawyer that is bad advice: real lawyers take all the shortcuts they can get. That is true, but it is a real problem. When you actually read the citations, it is frustratingly common to find they don't say what they claim to say. I have seen the Hawaii State Attorney General's office submit written and spoken testimony at a committee hearing in which all of the sources cited contradicted her points. I read all her sources and was able to provide quotes from the conclusions of those reports, which contradicted what she said. Shortcuts in law school are crucial. As a working lawyer, shortcuts are great for your first draft, but ALWAYS check all the citations in later drafts.
Law school is where you should not take shortcuts. You're learning, the price of failing/getting it wrong is pretty low. In practise it could destroy your reputation and career. Also, lawyers can take shortcuts because they know the fundamentals. If you only know the shortcut, you're up shit creek when the shortcut doesn't work.
Graça Sobre Graça Yes! This is great advice for the entirety of law school. Personally, I did an estate planning concentration during law school. My main professor was AMAZING. But, she taught us state-specific case law, which is great because I’m practicing in this state. Little did I know, however, that our state uses the jurisdiction-neutral MBE, MEE, and (of course) MPT for the bar exam. So, I had to re-learn the general law for subjects I knew cold just for the bar exam, which I wasn’t expecting. Listen to this guy! I’ll add, however, that you’ll find what works for you, so do that. I did my best-in class and on exams-when I book-briefed my casebooks, using a five color highlighting system I devised for myself. Others tried to copy it, but it didn’t work for them like it did me. Others are outliners or notecard-makers. Do whatever it is that helps you succeed in class and during exams because that’s how you’ll get through the bar exam. That’s really the point anyway, right? Good luck to you!
All agreed. One thing undergrads need to know about law school in particular, and grad school generally, is that there are no quizzes or interim exams. You get one opportunity to get any kind of grade. I used the "outline as you go along" approach, along with weekly study groups with subsets of the participants in the classes I attended. One thing you didn't mention is that a moderately deep reading of the 1000 or so pages you're responsible for each day takes a long time, and the Socratic Method means you need to be absolutely ready with an answer or a follow-on question when you're in the hot seat, but no professor will be able to call on every person in the room every session.
I'm not a lawyer, but take it from someone who has three Masters degrees and who is now an educator. I don't care if your going vcr repair school, skipping class is NEVER EVER a good idea. I think the lawyers who want to graduate top of their class are saying that to thin out the herd.
I don't even want to study law, but this guy is so engaging.
Same 😂
That's because he has to be, to be a good lawyer :D
Couldn't agree more... I'm brazilian and I'm not lawyer; but his videos are just amazing
Saaaaame
Same here. I studied art, and law is the antithesis of what my background is. this is just so interesting.
"No one will ever use a case book in practice. They are totally useless."
I now have a collection of about 20 textbooks that are mostly useless to me almost ten years out of law school. However, they aren't *totally* useless; people who don't know what a case book is will look at a book shelf in my office with all this junk on it and think it looks really impressive.
Too real
Okay but, ironically, second-hand casebooks will work perfectly well for that purpose! Hence, the 20 textbooks ten years out of date that are still of some use for you, for their aesthetic purpose.
I’ve bought all my first year casebooks so far mostly for that reason, I have the ability to do so and I want the aesthetic value
@@hi00118 Hey, bro, it's your money, do with it what you want.
Lawyers do tend to have the best looking bookshelves.
I'm not a law student and I don't plan on going to law school. I just started watching your videos on tv shows/movies because they're interesting and now I'm here.
You and 100,000 other people.
Me too/I'm also like that.
Ha ha ha good luck ! Especialy if in your country they go by the Anglo-saxon law system.
I'm really quite interested in witnessing somebody turning into a law school. I think that would be worthy of a documentary if not a blockbuster movie. Please keep me updated on your transformation!
Law literacy is important even for non-lawyers. If you're American, there's a webcomic on the subject I used to enjoy called the Illustrated Guide to Law: lawcomic.net
A testament to how good this guy is:
All the people here saying they'll never study law but looking at these videos, including myself. If he's this engaging here, imagine how well he can engage the court
Too true. If he can do that he must have the judge and jury hanging on his every word. It reminds me of how my business law professor really held the attention of the class and got me really interested in the subject. I doubt I will ever practice law but I am still interested in learning more even though it is a couple of years later.
Excellent observation! He found some common ground that most people (especially college students like myself, regardless of field) can relate to, and he delivered his points eloquently.
Eric Beilmann was that Lee Reid?
Nothing your rights & what not to do to not get screwed is always useful knowledge.
@Captain Caveman who shat in your soup today?
Just a heads up... Some university profs will literally fail you if you do not attend class regularly regardless of test scores.
DeludoSui absolutely, the professor or even the university may have an attendance policy. It’s always best to show up to class, you never know what you might learn or miss
@Trône de Marchandises Unless there are assignments that require team effort, not always. There are some classes, particularly in universities, that can have several hundred students. It can be a room full of total strangers, and even the professor probably wouldn't recognize most of the students inside or outside of class. I can't recall one single person from any of my classes by name, since I didn't roommate with any of them, and did not hang out with them.
When I went to school, making class mandatory usually meant that the Professor didn't really have anything to teach you that you couldn't just read in the text book. Students would stop attending class and thus catch the eye of human resources who would wonder why we are employing this person.
attendance is not as important in law school
Yeah, mine even makes certain amount of tardiness be accountable as an absent.
The "do your outlines weekly" advice I 100% agree with.
*Everything that you learn, you learn incrementally.* You don't just decide to walk into a gym one day and bench press 300 pounds, because you know you'll just hurt yourself trying. It's the same with learning the law, or math, or a language, or writing a fanfiction - trying to do it all at once will just hurt you.
What I don't get is why he was railing *against* context in that bit. If you do your outline every week, you are using the context of the class! That's the reason you do them now! If you don't, trying to outline stuff from 3+ months ago means you have lost the context of what was discussed!
@@greenyawgmoth He said exactly that.
Thats what you should do in any class in general
Was not expecting the fanfiction lol
@@greenyawgmoth The 'context' he called crap was how people argue that if you wait for the end of the semester to do the outline, you'll have the context of the entire class to put in the outline. Yeah, that's crap. You're just going to remember everything? He specifically said to do it every week so that its easier to revise at the end.
Who TF tells you not to go to class xD?!
Bad people, that's who.
I went to five Property Law sessions and got a B. 1L first semester every class every case briefed but subsequently I learned how to study on my own and ditched a lot of class. Graduated and passed the bar so there is no one clear cut way.
John Palomino Bad advice...
I go to law school in Germany and loads of people don't go to our lectures here. I still do but I don't know if it's necessary or if it really helps with our exams.
people have told me not to go....its dumb but there are people like that....there are alsl naive people who believe them unfortunately
During orientation they told us to brief every case and read each one 3 TIMES 😂😂
I just graduated in May. I’d still be reading/briefing cases if I followed that advice.
You’d still be reading and briefing your 1L cases lol
Read it 3 times!?? Who has time to read a case three times? I barely have enough time to read it once 😭
I'm a bulgarian programmer ! Why have I watched 10 vids about studying and practicing American law. I need help :)
He has a wonderful enthralling voice. I find it soothing.
I don't see anything wrong with it. In the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney video's comments there was someone there that practiced law in Japan and I thought it was interesting to hear an explanation about how our legal systems are different. I find law in general interesting though so that may be partially to blame. Even if I never practice law I still intend to keep learning more about it.
Keep watching. Take the bar exam.
a german guy, working in the aerospace industry, has the same problem.. so..
Come to America if you can, plenty of lawsuits here for you to study, lol
4:42 I can’t stress this enough, you want to cash in on the half-blood prince possibility. Maybe the person who had the textbook before you was the Snape of law, you don’t want to miss the chance to get into the brain zone of Alan Rickman.
Agatha Grunt-thruster But that is unlikely. Statistically, isn’t it more likely to buy a textbook from the bottom 50% of the curve than the top 1%? Even if you buy a used textbook from top student in that class who is now TA for that class, he may have different thought process or note taking process. The best thing to do is to look through used textbooks and find one that has no markings with pen or pencil. That way you save some money. But the difference in cost between used and new textbooks is not that great in my opinion.
Mood.
Superfireben True, but even then, those notes aren’t likely hurting anything. You can ignore them if they aren’t useful, but you can learn from them if they are useful.
Agatha Grunt-thruster thank you for this comment
@@Superfireben Much like a dementor sucking the soul out of Agatha's wonderful comment.
This is very different from studying engineering. If you understand a concept, you're done studying and you can know you'll do well on the test. There's little to no memorization.
Also, I don't know why I'm watching these. I'm not a law student and never will be...
same I'll never study law yet here I am... learning about law school
I'm a Masters Psychology student, I will never use anything in these videos...yet I'm watching them all haha. Hes just such a good speaker.
Lets add 3D artist to the lot
I'm a bus driver...I have no interest in law, I just enjoy absorbing knowledge, you never know when some tidbit of wisdom will come in handy in day to day life.
This is why I hated Medical School after getting my bachelors in Chemistry. I HATE memorization, its so bad.
Best advice I ever got for reading cases is: Go straight to the Holdings, write them down and then restate them (the Holdings) as questions. Do that first and you will understand the legal aspect of the case (and precedent set) very quickly. You can then move to the rest of the information including shepardizing.
"It's going to be outdated-- it's probably outdated by the time it's published!"
That was hilarious
Internal screaming looking at the $300 book i bought for this semester
The cases are usually there to give an example of that principle of the law. Many cases date back more than a hundred years ago and the current laws have changed drastically.
Well that's the bad part regarding common law. Anything can change (there are abstract restrictions though) with the new ruling. Civil law (dont confuse with civil law as sub branch of common law) is more rigid and predictable.
Could be worse. Could be Psychology. Simpsons had a cartoon on that years ago. "Those books haven't been discredited yet."
That's probably true for practitioners, or doctoral-level researchers. They need to have expensive on-line subscriptions, and to peruse them every day. But for a student in his early years, it's hard enough to just learn the basics from textbooks.
It's so funny how half the people aren't even doing law or thinking about doing it. That's how well these videos are made, great job!
I’m not an attorney but when I was 32, I went back to school for my paralegal degree and certification. I’ve since left the industry but I worked in a civil defense firm.
That said, while I was in school, I had the advantage of having been an adult in the workforce for several years leading up to that and I was surrounded by young students who were struggling because they couldn’t grasp the very basic concept that you’ve articulated so very well in this video: don’t overcomplicate things.
In the real-world environment of a law office (or any professional environment), the right way to do things is however the job gets done the right way. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to accomplishing your tasks. It’s not just about getting the job done, it’s about developing the skills to efficiently get the job done.
The same goes for the approach to academics.
Developing shortcuts is just smart. Buying used case law books is just smart. Doing outlines once a week is just smart.
Briefing every case... not smart and certainly not an efficient use of your time. Not showing up to class because you think you can skate with just the text... definitely not smart.
Whether you’re in law school or junior college, you need to realize that it’s a game and figure out the best way play within the rules and use them to your advantage.
mommymode1985-Your mom’s idea sounds like a great idea. Also, maybe try to get a part-time job at a law firm to confirm that is really what you want to do.
The Real SuperGeeks Do most paralegal positions require a Paralegal Degree? Isn’t the salary too low to justify investing in additional education for the position? A paralegal makes about $50,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most attorneys working for the federal government start out as a GS-11 which is about $68,000 in DC. Within a few years, they become GS-14 which is about $117,000. How many years must a paralegal work to get a raise?
Always go to class unless you have severe stomach flu. Also, where I went to law school, you could only miss a certain amount of classes (generally less than 6 in a semester) without an excuse, or your grade would be at least as low as a C (and for some professors, an F). With the huge costs associated with going to law school, those kind of grades are like flushing money down the toilet. If you do not graduate in the top 25-30 percent of your class, most large firms will not even think about hiring you as an associate. For smaller firms, you generally have to be in the top 50% . You will likely not even get to the top 50% if your GPA falls below a 3.08 (or several tenths higher than that in top tier schools). I finished with a 2.953 (out of 4.000), because I put off outlining beyond the last minute, and tried to study for my exams based primarily on my class notes. Don't do what I did. ;-)
Also: internships are vital! I made the mistake of thinking that working as a paralegal at a highly-respected criminal appeals firm was as good as an internship. It was not. Why? Because I did not draft anything "from scratch." Only my supervising attorneys did that. So, even though I was good at proofreading and cite-checking, I had no real legal experience drafting anything. This meant that my "writing samples" had to come from my legal research and writing classes. Not optimal.
Please just clean your butts people. That saying always worries me.
We gotta fancy lad over here that washes his but! What? You're too good for a little stink?
Who the hell says "butts" irl? It's like sesame street language.
Just need a hydraulic hose and industrial vat of gelatin slurry. Cleanliness is next to Godliness after all. And no one can accuse you of being full of crap!
@@QuasiELVIS cashiers, teachers, managers, and anyone who works with the public.
QuasiELVIS Pahhdon me and mah *posterior,* your highness
I have no plans in becoming a lawyer, much less go to law school, but I can’t stop watching theses vids.
Same 😊
Well the first one is likely applicable in any field... Speaking from experience here, most of my math and comp sci classes were providing a broader perspective through the teacher's tangents and occasional interaction from students (myself included). Yes, some teachers failed to make their matter engaging enough and that timed seemed to just be wasted, but those were not that many, and certainly not worth generalizing.
PS Also the last one, reviewing stuff weekly helps with "getting it," makes things a lot easier than postponing all the recaps until the end of the semesters.
"Real lawyers use all the shortcuts they can get."
WELL SAID! Alleluia!
I think this apply to just any University students
Not just law student
New books are overrated
Start your project early
Try to focus in class
If it's repetitive and seems useless it's probably useless
Never ever buy new textbooks. In fact, if you can avoid it, don't buy textbooks at all. Rent, borrow, whatever you need to do to get the information available during the class. If after the class, you have found a need or desire to look at the book more than once a year, it may be worth buying a used copy to keep around, but you won't know which books are worth keeping around until after your class. You can save a ton of money and space by doing this. In the end, if you continue to work in the same field you studied, you will probably have a few favorite books from college you crack open every once in a while, instead of boxes or shelves of books you never care to look at again.
@@alxjones I passed most of my textbooks on to other students. I only kept a few so I could help my younger siblings, nieces, nephews, and a few friends with High School and college classes. I only bought new books when old books were not available (this was pre-internet days).
When I was at Uni the only book one of the lecturers really pushed for us to buy new was one they co-authored. Funny that.
When I was at university, we were not told to buy our lecturers' books, but we all did, since we expected they would be a guide to what would come up in the exams, even if they weren't the best on the subject.
Sometimes they helped clarify the lectures when they appeared to be based on the same outline, and occasionally they had the same anecdotes.
On one occasion I was too slow off the mark and one book was sold out. Luckily, I had gone to school in that city years before and knew the public library system (which most university students thought was beneath them) and was able to borrow that very book, and keep taking it out again until it reappeared in the bookshop.
ALWAYS go to your lectures, no matter what you study.
As someone who didn't - yes. Always go to your lectures, you'll regret it immensely if you don't.
as a general rule yes. though there are a few cases where you can skip. I had a professor in physics that I could barely understand. attendance was not mandatory and there was a lecture script online. in fact pretty much all our professors had lecture scripts and the were available online through the university. depending on how you learn and how the lecture is structure you learn much more from the script than by sitting there not understanding anything. this is often the case in maths where understanding often comes from simple examples. but many lectures start by handling the very broad and abstract definition first.
generally the experimental physics part was easy to learn in lectures. theoretical physics was often too abstract to understand anything at all in the lectures. long study at home was required to scratch the surface. what you absolutly must attend even if its not mandatory are the exercises.
but of course the few examples where learning otherwise is more productive than the lectures only apply if you actually use that time to learn otherwise. more often than not people dont do anything. but if there is a professor that you can barely understand for example its perfectly reasonable to use that time to do some exercises with a fellow student. since you are likely in uni at that time anyway its a good moment to study with others.
Unless it's gender studies.
Agreed, the university I went to, if you missed more than one class per semester, you got a phone call asking why. Plus your missing out on what your tutor/lecturer has to pass on.
I love how far he's come as far as an "on camera personality" he's really developed so far and really found his legs with this channel! awesome
“You don’t need to go to class or pay attention, trust me”
Advice from students with a D average GPA in college
Well, they're technically correct: you don't need that kind of effort if you're okay with that "barely passing" grade. :-)
DISCLAIMER - I DO NOT ADVISE SKIPPING CLASSES:
I would say this is actually something that is a legitimate strategy ONLY if you NEVER plan to work for a firm and plan to start your own business AND if you leverage that time away from class learning ACTUAL skills to run business (management, taxes, accounting, web design, search engine optimization) as well as networking with attorneys to have a good resource network to bounce ideas off of. Grades won't matter at that point because you are your own boss and if you learn even a passable level of these skills, you will probably run a far more profitable firm that many lawyers you compete with because you won't have to outsource this labor.
Even then, it is HIGHLY risky because you still have to pass the bar and while law school won't prepare you for the bar exam content, the study skills do become key to successfully navigating the bar exam. If you plan to do this strategy, I would only consider it if your state automatically admits to the bar without the exam like Wisconsin if memory serves). I agree with legal eagle, it is stupid to skip classes wholesale. The only time I have EVER advised it was to skip a few days so you could find a job on campus that waives tuition. For me, this allowed my last two years to be tuition free and paid a $1000/mo stipend that covered living expenses. $50,000 in tuition and stipend benefits for missing 3 days of class...worth it. Skipping class altogether...no...just no...
But it is true to some extent that you CAN potentially get D's doing this. My school's anti-trust professor was known for saying on the first day that if you write "Sherman Anti-Trust Act" on the exam, you will get a D at the very least. No one took him up on it but let's just say he was the type of professor who I could never see lying about this offer because law schools bend over backwards to avoid giving F's.
So this is why you know so little about bird law, you slept through that part of class.
Learn tree law, it's staggering how someone cutting a tree can lose their house with a million in debt.
And in liberal arts, all we do is just question why the law is the way it is :D
Kim Mason or work out ways to twist laws to fit the professor's world view.
do you also question why law language is so hard to read
I thought liberal arts was just classes on flipping burgers at McDonald's.
@@garethbaus5471 My university puts chemistry, physics, computer science under the college of liberal arts, and also has International Relations and Political Science under liberal arts, not in their own separate department. It's a weird system and I think they did it so the traditional liberal arts kids don't have second thoughts.
@@jamesyoo4779 my school doesn't really have a proper liberal arts department, and the closest it comes to offering a degree in liberal arts is a degree in business with strong emphasis on engineering.
I watch your videos and they're so entertaining I start to think, "Huh, maybe going to law school wouldn't crush my soul"
But then I catch myself
I was like maybe I'll be a lawyer until I learned the bar is 2 days long
Even if you never practice law you can still get a lot of benefits from knowing it. I doubt I will ever go to law school but I hope to keep learning more about it.
@@disanthropi 3 days in Texas, and I'm taking the 2 day Oklahoma bar next week 😂
Just great advice for college too. I showed this to my kids who aren’t in law, but great study habits are great study habits.
As a senior law student in a country with a romano-germanic law system I find your videos really fascinating :)
OBJECTION!! I graduated from a top 40 law school, and have practiced almost 40 years, so I have a little experience in this area. Your first bit of advice: attend all classes STINKS! After doing it your way for the first semester, I pretty much stopped attending class at all for most professors. I found that my grades didn't suffer, but I was happier and more relaxed. Bottom line is that you do not need to attend classes. You do need to study the Emanuels. Then just show for the final exam and you're good.
SUSTAINED! Your comment regarding briefing cases is spot on. As a professor told us, on an exam cases are not answers. I don't believe that I ever cited to one case in any law school exam. What is critical is understanding the reasoning, which can then be applied to your particular fact scenario.
SUSTAINED! Emanuels Law Outlines are the bomb. 'Nuf said.
OBJECTION!! You don't need to purchase textbooks at all. They are expensive, heavy, and quickly out of date. I've never seen one professor refer to a textbook in class (in the few classes that I did attend). Just purchase used Emanuels, and you'll be passing all of your classes with ease.
PENDING. I'm torn on outlines. I wrote them for all my classes my first year, and stopped thereafter. I experienced no grade fluctuation. I think that I'll land on the side of creating outlines, because as a practicing criminal trial attorney, my best results occurred when I made a trial notebook. It included my entire cross-examination of all opposing witnesses, case law and arguments for any expected legal issue, and my direct examinations.
I became a plumbers apprentice in Canada. I became one because I like to work with my hands and find fluid under pressure is fascinating but dear god I didn't think I would have to interpret so much government written law, that being building code. I knew there was some but not 4 different law books plus 100 other code publications that are also recommended. Watching the LegalEagle makes me feel less crazy for thinking there's not enough capacity in my brain. You gave good advice for note taking, how not to uselessly take notes on "specific cases" thanks for the advice
This was actually dead on right. I spent alot of time doing my own outlines from class notes and the commercial outlines. By the time it came to finally exams I was already prepared it was just a matter of review. Keeping up and reviewing over the course of a semester rather than cramming everything at the end made it must less stressful. I quit briefing cases about two weeks in. There is about a paragraph in each case that contains everything you need to know for an exam. The rest is your own analytical ability to distinguish between facts and spot issues. Just like everything else everyone makes everything harder than it is and more complex than it needs to be.
Another reason for doing your outline every week, is that spending more time with the subject while it is fresh in your mind will help commit it to long term memory better. Studying a little bit every week is much more effective than cramming for 10 hours the day before the test.
Rewatching some of your old videos I could highlight how much you have improved on your delivery. Proud of ya sir.
I love the take of "Teachers have points of view, and reading the book alone won't save you from that." I wish someone pointed that out to me earlier in grade school, its just true everywhere.
I have subscribed for about a month or two to listening do this man because he speaks reasonably and understandably and because of that I feel engaged with understanding law
Somehow I've got the feeling that he got and obediently followed all those advises when he used to be in law school himself. Only painful experiences can drive such passion to help preventing others into making the same mistakes.
THANK YOU for summarizing in the description. I hate these lost type videos where creators don’t list the items to get you to watch the whole video.
I’m done with briefing. That is literally the most unnecessary, time consuming technique ever. I stopped after my first semester. I did experience a professor who literally picked any part of the case and tested it on the exams. He asked about roughly 10 cases. 🙄
Commercial outlines should be a no brainer. There is nothing like writing or typing your own. The information is way more easily synthesized. Plus, commercial outlines almost always lack some critical points, especially in Civ Pro.
Outlining late is highly stressful. I did that in my first semester and suffered mentally. I knew students who started theirs the month of exams...only one young lady claimed she was perfectly fine with that!
Great minds think alike!
I didn't brief much in 1L, either. I often just take short notes on cases so I'm somewhat ready for class or just highlight in the book. Some profs scare students into thinking they need to use brief form all the time but that's ridiculous.
Kelly Bronner yes! I agree. I notate heavily and highlight occasionally in lieu of briefing. Oftentimes, I literally just put an “F” for facts, “H” for holding, and so on near the relevant text. I was nervous about not briefing my second semester. I hoped that it would not backfire and mess up my GPA. However, by God’s graces and my decision, I did better! I also had more time to dedicate to actual work. As for the one professor who tested the actual cases, I just reread the cases at the close of the semester and did like a 2-3 sentence summary for each case. I am so glad I found this channel. I likely would have continued to brief!
Ginia Maxwell You're my favorite person I've randomly come across on the internet today. A woman rocking law school and hot pink lipstick? Here for it. A+
katie kawaii thank you, beautiful!☺️
I love these videos. I’m never going to law school. Hell I’m a Master’s going on Ph.D. Egyptology student. It’s cool to see how people from all over the professional spectrum come to watch Legal Eagle. Keep up the good work!
Never plan/planned to going to law school in my life, yet I for some reason clicked on this video and enjoyed it.
Good advice. 32 years too late for me as I dropped out of law school in 1998. I followed most of the bad advice like trying to brief all my cases; was afraid to use commercial case briefs; didn't attend classes thinking I could just read the case book; I did it all!
In my law school experience, I found it easier to make your notes into one big outline
I'm not in the common law system, or even in the same country or continent (I'm a lawyer in Brazil), and I agree that those are great advices.
Love your channel and react videos.
Learning more about common law, in general, through this channel.
Thank you and keep up the great work.
Worst advice I ever got: go to law school
Law school is designed to confuse and overwork. You won't get any real help on studying law unless its from the close friend or relative, and even then there are no guarantees.
@Islayman 1) class outlines change all the time. 2) good luck finding one from a good student. 3) what happens when 1/2 the class get top marks because the subject you apparently are doing wasn't designed to confuse?
@Islayman You are assuming I'm a struggling student. Are you at a top Law School?
🎶Don't be a lawyer.🎶
@@commentsiguess1263 "Quickest way to ruin your life."....
Legal Eagle. Helping inquiring law students down the right path of success. I love this guy!
Loads of people recommend not going to certain classes, hell I've recommended it myself before. I can't speak for the quality of lecturers and teachers at the top universities in the country, but at a mid-tier university, not every lecturer is competent. I give every class a chance, but after 2 or 3 classes, I feel informed enough to make a judgment call regarding whether it's worth my time to keep attending the classes.
I've had a few classes where the lecturer has spent more time recounting anecdotal stories from their life and having conversations with students than discussing anything related to the subject. As interesting as these stories are, I'm not shelling out thousands of dollars for storytime, i'm paying for an education. If staying home, compiling my own notes and listening to the online resources is a more productive use of my time, then I'm going to save myself the trip to uni and do the work from home.
When the lecturer is competent however, I fully agree that going to class is important. I just think that people should use their own judgment to determine whether going to class is worth it or not. Usually it's pretty obvious when the lecturer is a dud.
I always tell people to avoid law philosophy. Or as it’s actually called “Jurisprudence” where I studied. It was such a leftist class that the lecturer could never speak because there was always a massive fight going on in class
This is the best comment thread ever. Like half the people here are trying to figure out why they've watched so many of his videos when they have no interest in law school. You know you're killing the TH-cam thing when half your viewers have zero interest in your subject but keep watching because you're so engaging.
doing the study or work weekly is great advice.
Studying works best with repetition and constant use of knowledge over time, not crammed into one brief session at the end of a semester.
The human brain's ability to recall information is HEAVILY dependent on how often you access it. You lose things you don't use, but if you're undergoing weekly exercises to keep that information fresh, your neurons form bonds all around it and replicate it into other areas, making recall much easier.
Good advice. I went to law school a long time ago. Your advice still applies.
The way I studied (at an Aussie uni- where there is no pre law, Law is itself an undergrad, and then we do a short “postgrad” with practical legal training before we can become a solicitor or barrister).
The notes!!!! So, I’d start by reading the week’s notes as provided by the lecturer- we’d get the full overview of the week, plus the PowerPoint before the lecture (also, those lectures are out up in the net afterward, so you don’t have to go in to class to “attend a lecture”- very handy).
Anyway, I’d read the overview, make a few notes in what was really important, read my cases or required readings, again, make notes, then do the lecture, and make notes from that.
Once I had all of my notes for the week, I’d compile them into a word document that grew. So, at the very start would be a contents page, with the relevant page numbers- and I’d have important legal issues as well as any really important cases on that contents page under headings of the general area of law.
Then I’d compile my notes- under headings and subheadings (and I’d also colour code- red for cases, blue for issues). Also- I’d reference every page properly according to the Australian legal reference guide- so if I mentioned a case in my notes, I’d just mention the name, then reference properly at the bottom of the page.
I know it seems like a lot of work, but 1- I learned it well and got good grades, and 2- all our exams were open book. So I’d have my beautiful typed notes with exactly what page I need for what issue, and it saved me time in the exam. Also, they really were a thing of beauty 😁
This is much more logical and the US should do this. It's ridiculous that law isn't an undergraduate degree so law students in the US will already be saddled with Undergraduate debt before law school debt. Also, law school doesn't prepare future lawyers for actually being lawyers. So often times after passing the bar new lawyers have no idea what to do as they never gained any experience
It's brutal how Americans have to do an undergrad before going to law school, why can't they just get straight into it? It's all well and good having a base education in something else before studying law but it seems like an absolutely crazy waste of time and money to not just incorporate it into a law degree taken out of high school.
Item 500 out of the 10000 things Americans do that don't make any sense.
Colour coding notes is a very girly thing to do :P
Guy notes are a monotone mess.
QuasiELVIS colour coding notes makes it super easy to find what I’m looking for in a timed exam. And you need all the time you can get.
@@QuasiELVIS
I'm not so sure that it is dumb or stupid. Just because you can do something faster, doesn't necessarily mean that it is better. Also, I am pretty sure that Canadians most complete a undergraduate before going to law school as well.
Hi I’m a retired engineer and I still find this fascinating ! Wish I had this sort of advice at my university.
The worst advice I ever got about law school was "you should go to law school", followed immediately by "even if you don't study law, your resume will look much better if you finish your degree".
I can’t believe I didn’t find this video till the end of the semester. I briefed every single case we read including shorter cases. I wasted three hours a day briefing cases for one class alone because i felt pressured to by classmates and 2Ls.
I feel like at least half of this advice is useful for all subjects; synthesising lecture notes week by week, for example, is super useful for me as a physics student. It's hard to imagine a subject where that wouldn't be the case, for all of the reasons outlined in this video
I was taught to go directly to the "Findings' of a given case first. I was take the Findings and restate them as questions to know what the core of the case was about. It worked again and again.
Every lawyer I met before I went to law school told me not to go to law school. I thought they were just being jerks, but whatever it was I'm glad they said it. If you can be convinced not to go to law school by cursory remarks, you probably shouldn't be there anyway. Not because you're stupid or afraid, but because if you don't care enough to keep going after that advice you shouldn't waste your time, money, and sanity. It's really hard. If you aren't sure, take some time to figure it out before you commit. Law schools love real world experience anyway.
When anyone asks me if they should study law I say no. It's too competitive. That suits some people, but personally had I known what it was like I would have chosen a different degree. You have to be hungry from day one.
Law school also has very little to do with being a good lawyer. If you enjoy law school, you'd probably hate being a lawyer.
Just finished my first year of law school and the man speaks absolute truths!
I'm a CS major. Why am I watching this?
It's really pretty interesting finding out how the other disciplines work. It's always a good thing to be curious about something other than what you do/are good at.
There is a legal dimension to everything.
You never know when a judge will arrest you for asking a woman to join you for dinner, then be arrested for appealing the gag, and finding out how retarded the judges and lawyers really are. As a nerdy type person, you have always been a second class citizen and the more you succeed in life the more you are building your social prison modeled right after the walnut street penitentiary. As a nerdy type person, you probably already know more about the law than most lawyers and judges, but haven't been introduced to procedures and case law research. You need to be able to look out for #1, especially when your lawyers try to rail road you, or the judges engage in the "trial penalty", or when the gaolers tries to starve you to death. THE LAW is based upon man being created in the wilderness and his rational self interest when dealing with others, but what the practice of law has since become is a great perversion of the law where the government has become a tool of anarchist (governmental officials) to cannibalize anyone they don't like. Which pretty much means you are their prey....Especially when you realize that since a little kid you were being tracked to be a isolated silent little robot and try to escape that first prison. America is just one great big prison especially for nerds. The more you seek your freedom, the deeper into that prison you will end up.
You sound like a deluded, jaded and rambling schizophrenic-potentially narcissistic. You're either a bot, or someone truly believes the system is out to get you. Relax dude, the black helicopters aren't trying to find you while you're stirring your spaghetti sauce.
Sadly Theodore, that is reality in America. A reality that you aren't suppose to know about throw gags and prison walls, where even fathers can get 10 years prison just for wishing their kids happy birthday via US mail as what happened to a John Miller. No more John Lilburnes at the pillory after 10k lashes telling his fellow townsmen how corrupt the judges are. If you engage in speech the courts or the feminists don't like, you'll be forced to disappear for a decade if you don't plead guilty. Some of us can talk, because we because we took a stand for the rule of law and against the resurrected starchamber. Our ability to speech is still de minimus because of the extent of the severe harm rendered, but we can because we won. But we can only save those who want to be saved, we cannot save everyone.
The advice you have given here is really universally useful in my opinion. I´m a third year law student from Germany, where we have a strict code-law-system. You still need to do those outlines and it is much easier to do them ahead of time. Usually you'll even end up doing them a bit more in depth that way, since you don't have the exams coming up in a few weeks. Also do listen to what the professors have to say. Especially if they have something specific, that they are passionate about. You'll be able to understand that aspect of the law on a much deeper level and therefore rock any exams, that only require you to scratch the surface of this particular problem.
All in all, excellent advice!
I would think that dealing with individual professors would be practice for dealing with individual judges, opposing counsel, and clients.
Yeah, you always have to account for the human element.
I start law school in less than two week. Thank you for the wonderful advice.
I appreciate the content of LegalEagle. Keep up the great work. 👏
Don't let yourself get overwhelmed the actual law is simpler than you think.
Going to class is important 90% of time. But just remember as you get closer to exam time skipping class to study might be useful.
As someone who has now practiced 30 years, this guy is spot on in his advice. He is great. All very true.
I just finished my 1L year, and I can say with confidence that you’re right about every myth in this video. Too bad I learned the hard way 😂
So glad to have come upon this video. I start my first year on Monday and I am very anxious but excited
I wish I found this channel a year ago, when I started law school.
Great channel i found, when yoube suggested one of his impeachment proceedings videos. Now, I'm binging most of his channel the past few days.
Im doing my JD, i did get that ‘no need to go to class’ advice. I wonder why its so common.
Because people think that cutting corners is alright. Also that advice is usually given by a third year with amnesia.
I guess I can understand why some people would say that. After all when we study for the bar exam the only cases we read are in the MPT and listening to a professor is useless.
But always found listening to the lectures and taking notes invaluable.
I'd imagine it comes from two places 1) Idiots who don't respect education or 2) People who have been to University like myself and learned through experience that a LOT of classes can easily be cut. The only trouble with that as 'advice' is you need to have the experience of attending lectures to learn what you can avoid.
Here's how good these videos are: I'm not going into Law School or anything of the such. My career is in I.T. Development. But, my gosh, I'll watch all of your videos because they are so well thought out, spoken and delivered. Keep 'em coming, sir!
Anyone talking about law school makes me think of "The Paper Chase". ( '70s movie and TV show). This guy's not as intimidating as Professor Kingsfield.
Kingsfield was a real son of a bitch.
@@LegalEagle - "That's the first intelligent thing you've said all day." (Just quoting the movie, by the way. )
@mommymode1985 - I saw it during my recent law school experience. It seems a bit antiquated now. And I'm 52!
The whole thing about "getting inside the professor's head" by breaking into the special section of the library and reading the professor's old student notes was a bit over the top. And, besides, that was only one of the guy's 1L classes. He didn't do anything like that for his other 3 (or was it 4) classes.
@@MkeKen67 My experience was that some law school professors give the third degree to only the 1L students and ease of in the more advanced classes. They are believers in a trial by fire I guess. But yeah the paper chase was pretty over the top.
Most law professors are really cool honestly. Some of that stuff does exist, the seating chart, the cold calls, but at least at my school I never got the feeling the professors were out to get you.
You can hear the lawyer profusing in his advice. He tells the advice, his argument and gives examples of what to do instead. I love it.
James,
So what are we supposed to do with all the free time that we have from not case briefing? Should we really just go play golf like you did?
It’s unsettling feeling like you are not doing enough. Doing practice exam questions early in the semester doesn’t feel right either when one doesn’t have a grasp on the subject.
You should be studying, really understanding the law, outlining, and taking practice exams.
I have no hope of ever going to law school, but I find your content fascinating. Keep it going.
#1 and #5 are just terrible advice for any major in general, #1 is self explanatory and #5 is basically "Don't procrastinate"
Thanks for educating everyone. Law can feel very dry and arcane to study to those of us without a direct interest, but laws affect all of us. Im glad to learn from someone who makes things interesting and comprehensible to the layman.
There is also bulimia studying (directly translated from German).
Study all night before your test and then basically puke it on the paper.
First Thing is that you basically forget everything after your test and second is that you aren't well rested for the test
I called these regurgitation tests. But I'd learn long ago that sleep was more important than cramming anything more into my brain.
@@christina1wilson Yeah, I added this as worst advice I got.
Several of my law professors gave us the "brief all of your cases" advice. We even had a mandatory workshop specifically about briefing cases where the professor in charge repeatedly told us to do this because "you are essentially writing your outline" as you do it. That is not necessarily untrue, but you will delete a lot of useless chaff if your outline is formed primarily from your briefs. I have not briefed a single case since my first semester as a 1L, and am about to start my semester as a 2L. Briefing cases can be useful practice in the very beginning, but only to help teach you how to read and break apart cases. After that, you just need to be able to pick apart cases for the useful bits (and the parts your professor is likely to cold-call for during class, which is also why it is vital that you do attend class).
Going into my 3L year myself. I didn't do formal "case briefs" for a vast majority of cases during 2L year (I did for some more complicated/important cases), but I did have some notes on more or less every case we read or was mentioned in an assigned textbook reading (in classes like Con Law, this was frequently just the holding relevant to the topic). Getting rid of the "useless chaff" from notes --> outline is part of the synthesizing (i.e. learning) process as well, so it shouldn't be looked at as a waste of time per se. The moral of the story is, put in the time and keep doing what works for you, and you'll continue to do as well as you did in 1L year!
I'm jealous of your jaw line.
can't agree more
Thanks man
I know right
Jaw line more like law line I’m gonna kill myself now
@@fatshady8627 please don't, i love your brain.
I graduated from law school in 1988. This advice was the same back then. Only difference in my opinion is do outlines as you finish a topic. Also do all the reading before class. Great video!
I really enjoy law, so while I don't have the money or work ethic to go to law school, these are still great fun :)
I love these law classes you are holding. I took a year of Business Law at Providence College and in the first semester Mr Travis our professor gave us an exam and most of the questions came from the footnotes. The whole class failed the exam. The professor said that's what law school does so get use to it. I was a junior in college.
Have you read all the books behind you? Thanks!
They're reference texts, it's like asking someone if they've read their dictionary.
@@QuasiELVIS I actually have read my dictionary. There are some neat words you can learn by doing so.
@@blarg2429 🙄🙄🙄
Like cromulent. @@blarg2429
Carlo Cocciolo I tried to read my dictionary but 20 volumes in tiny text was too much for me
DEFINITELY agree with the final one - DON'T wait until end of semester! Summarise outlines every week.
The way he said "the way that some of my friends did" makes me feel he too fell for some of this bad advice
We always do at first.
A lot of the advice is transferable even to those not studying the law, including someone like myself who is studying medical sciences. All students can benefit from staying on top of things (class notes, assignments, background reading etc.) and going to as many classes as possible. Biggest thing I can say: DO NOT leave everything until the end of the semester, you will only end up stressed, burnt out and clamouring for time to do any necessary further reading.
I don’t know about law school, but I know used textbooks have actually been more helpful to me as a polisci major than new. Those little notes scribbled in the margins summing up an argument or adding a detail or two can really help make things click, especially when your dealing with jargon heavy writers like Marx and Hegel.
Great advice. I always used the commercial outline to build upon my own outline (combined with class notes). Doing that always resulted in great grades
I mean I know you made fun of Harvey in your suits episode... but man, your voice, your style, your confidence and your look... you can be the better Harvey 2.0 :D
Finally, someone said it!! I started law school a couple months ago and he’s on point. EVERYONE said to brief EVERY SINGLE CASE case like your future depends on it. My quality of life drastically improved when I took my own path and gave up this unnecessary obsession. Just learn the material, however best suits you. If you can do that, and know it well enough to apply it, you’re good to go. The cases are interesting and helpful, but don’t stress about not reading them. Just understand the laws they highlight. This is how you find balance in your life. Don’t learn the way everyone else does, learn the way YOU do. I wanted someone to tell me this. I’m glad he said it.
I agree with all the law school advice in this video, but one thing he said about being a lawyer that is bad advice: real lawyers take all the shortcuts they can get.
That is true, but it is a real problem. When you actually read the citations, it is frustratingly common to find they don't say what they claim to say. I have seen the Hawaii State Attorney General's office submit written and spoken testimony at a committee hearing in which all of the sources cited contradicted her points. I read all her sources and was able to provide quotes from the conclusions of those reports, which contradicted what she said.
Shortcuts in law school are crucial. As a working lawyer, shortcuts are great for your first draft, but ALWAYS check all the citations in later drafts.
100% agreed. You always have to double check your citations.
Law school is where you should not take shortcuts. You're learning, the price of failing/getting it wrong is pretty low. In practise it could destroy your reputation and career.
Also, lawyers can take shortcuts because they know the fundamentals. If you only know the shortcut, you're up shit creek when the shortcut doesn't work.
going into law school this autumn, thanks for this!
Your advices were really good for my 1L year. I was wondering if those tips still apply to 2L year. What do you think?
Almost everything I talk about will apply during the second year too.
LegalEagle Thank you!
Rising 2L as well
Graça Sobre Graça Yes! This is great advice for the entirety of law school. Personally, I did an estate planning concentration during law school. My main professor was AMAZING. But, she taught us state-specific case law, which is great because I’m practicing in this state. Little did I know, however, that our state uses the jurisdiction-neutral MBE, MEE, and (of course) MPT for the bar exam. So, I had to re-learn the general law for subjects I knew cold just for the bar exam, which I wasn’t expecting. Listen to this guy! I’ll add, however, that you’ll find what works for you, so do that. I did my best-in class and on exams-when I book-briefed my casebooks, using a five color highlighting system I devised for myself. Others tried to copy it, but it didn’t work for them like it did me. Others are outliners or notecard-makers. Do whatever it is that helps you succeed in class and during exams because that’s how you’ll get through the bar exam. That’s really the point anyway, right? Good luck to you!
Thats great advice. Thank you!
As a UK law undergrad about to sit my semester one exams, this is the BEST thing ever- you're actually my hero
Objection. There’s definitely some cases you should brief. I’m still haunted by International Shoe! Lol
This comment creates sufficient minimum contacts and does not offend the traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice
@@rakohus oh my gosh! You made me laugh!
The outline advice at the end is so true. It helped me a lot to do that work every week
Me, a nurse who has absolutely no interest or intention of ever studying law: wow these are really good tips, I definitely needed to watch this video
All agreed. One thing undergrads need to know about law school in particular, and grad school generally, is that there are no quizzes or interim exams. You get one opportunity to get any kind of grade. I used the "outline as you go along" approach, along with weekly study groups with subsets of the participants in the classes I attended. One thing you didn't mention is that a moderately deep reading of the 1000 or so pages you're responsible for each day takes a long time, and the Socratic Method means you need to be absolutely ready with an answer or a follow-on question when you're in the hot seat, but no professor will be able to call on every person in the room every session.
I'm not a lawyer, but take it from someone who has three Masters degrees and who is now an educator. I don't care if your going vcr repair school, skipping class is NEVER EVER a good idea. I think the lawyers who want to graduate top of their class are saying that to thin out the herd.
Since you say you have three Masters degrees, and you're an educator, I'm going to assume autocorrect made you type "your" instead of "you're".
I watch this channel regularly today. It's kinda funny seeing how raw almost nervous he was back then.
"context is overrated"
-Legaleagle
Case briefing is an absolute trap. Definitely write your own outlines with the help of comercial outlines. Great video.