Weekly Law School Roundup #21

This Week: Law School Tips Have you ever heard the naysayers comment that blogs are just a "frivolous waste of time"? Let's see if we can prove them wrong.

• First Stop: Blawg Wisdom Blawg Wisdom is a wonderful project from ambimb of ambivalent imbroglio that seeks to collect all the "most useful bits of information" about the law school experience in a single place. After just getting started, it's really picking up steam. Be sure to check it out.
• How to Apply to Law School: A Series Neo Tokyo Times announced the series in this post, and has completed the first installment: "Preparing for and Taking the LSATs," which apparently generated some controversy.
• The Larry-the-Longhorn Guide to Law School
There's plenty in Larry's guide to keep every incoming 1L thinking for hours, including an entire section on "impression management" that includes this tip: "[E]ven if you don't particularly like someone, try to avoid screwing them over, being horrible to them, etc. First, you all have to live with each other, and law school is hard enough as it is. Second, you never know what connections someone might make, and what will come back to haunt you." (Ditzy Genius responds here with her top five tips. Number one: "Don't stress, it ain't that bad." There's more from Ditzy Genius below the fold.)


• Flash Forward Three Years: What If You Fail the Bar Exam? The Uncivil Litigator, who didn't fail the bar exam, has posted some thoughts on bar-exam failure. I didn't fail either--and I took two!--but according to UCL, those who strike out the first time are in good company. In UCL's experience, they include "a law firm partner, a superstar Ivy League senior associate at a big firm, a veteran division chief at the county prosecutor's office, and a well-respected trial judge who once worked at the state attorney general's office."

[Below the fold: Lots more law-school wisdom.]

• Another Guide to Law School from Ditzy Genius Apparently, it grew out of her response to Larry the Longhorn, mentioned above. The initial list of five points has grown to fifteen "Tips for 1Ls." Some of the tips, when juxtaposed, illustrate the difficulty of maintaining your sanity in law school. For example, compare "Study your butt off" (number 12) with "Don't think about law school all the time" (number 8).

• Class Notes and Outlines There are lots of class notes and outlines available on the Internet. For example, see this from Mike Anderson of Boalt Law, and this from Jerry Brito of George Mason. And, of course, Glorie de Guilan of Legislating Gremlins uses an entire blog as a "research notebook," titled Dikigoros.net.
• My Own Two Cents My thoughts on pre-law reading are collected in my post "Get a Head Start on Law School: Karl Llewellyn's Bramble Bush." Meanwhile, at my Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, I've been doing a series about writing. It began with "Six Posts About Better Writing" and continues from there. (Thanks to Ernie the Attorney and Professor Bainbridge for linking from their sites.)

Meanwhile, in news from the law profs:

• Would Socrates Have Preferred Palm or Windows CE? Professor Yin favors the blind Socratic method, but this year, he may be getting a little help from his PDA.
• If You Don't Like Gunners, Raise Your Hand
Ava Rice of Law Sloth got it started with her funny post about how to spot gunners. Then Professor Althouse chimed in with a more reflective post, which included this interesting point: "Gunner-hating is awfully passive-aggressive, isn't it? If all you gunner-haters would just raise your hand once a week and make a contribution, there would be no more room in the hour for gunners to occupy. You may think that it is entirely the prof's job to control the few students who talk too much (or, more importantly, stray off-topic), but in my experience, students will also fault the teacher for cutting off students and for displaying negativity toward a particular student."

And in off-topic news:

• A Blogger Says Good-Bye The author of Natalaw signs off here, and explains why she's giving up her blog as law school begins.
• And Another Reveals His True Identity The great blog Unlearned Hand is now titled A Handful of Sand, and its formerly-anonymous author reveals himself to be Gabe Mendel.
• And a Third Blog Turns Two It's Jeremy's Weblog. Happy blog-birthday, Jeremy!

Comments

[Gabe]

You make it sounds very dramatic! :-)