Blawg Review #142 is here, hosted by Susan Cartier Liebel at Build A Solo Practice, LLC. It is designed as a “Letter to New Lawyer,” and it will make you think, dream, laugh, learn and soar! Be sure to read it.
What would a law school casebook of the future look like? Professor Matthew Bodie’s article "The Future of the Casebook: An Argument for an Open-Source Approach," published in the Journal of Legal Studies, discusses the possibilities for creating a digital casebook as an open-source project. (Hat tip to video visi visum).
Abstract:
Despite dramatic technological change, the thick, attractively bound casebook remains ensconced as the written centerpiece of legal education. That will soon change - but its replacement has not been established. This paper argues that the legal academy should take this opportunity to implement an open source approach to future course materials. Guided by analysis and examples of commons-based peer production such as open source software, professors could establish electronic commons casebooks with a myriad of materials for every course. These joint databases would unshackle individual creativity while engendering collaboration on levels previously impossible. Although there may be concerns that such a project would not draw any interest, or might be swamped by too much interest, the successes of other peer-production projects demonstrate that such concerns are generally unwarranted or manageable. Copyright ultimately poses the biggest difficulty, but even that barrier can be circumvented to greater and lesser degrees. Although as yet an untried experiment, an open source approach has the potential to open a new era in legal pedagogy.
If you let your imagination run free, what opportunities do you see for a future casebook? Perhaps, audio files of cases, possibility to search related materials with keywords and tags, templates for case notes, briefs and outlines, collaborative legal wikis? Nothing heavy to haul around, please... Everything available at a click of a button, including virtual chats with your professor during office hours.
Grant Morris raises this interesting question in the research paper entitled "Preparing Law Students for Disappointing Exam Results: Lessons from Casey at the Bat." The article highlights the emotional toll of the first-year finals and offers a strategy to prepare law students for the realities of the exam results. Here’s the abstract:
It is a statistical fact of life that two-thirds of the law students who enter law school will not graduate in the upper one-third of their law school class. Typically, those students are disappointed in their examination grade results and in their class standing. Nowhere does this disappointment manifest itself more than in their attitude toward their classes. In the fall semester of their first year, students are eager, excited, and willing to participate in class discussion. But after they receive their first semester grade results, many students withdraw from the learning process - they are depressed and disengaged. They suffer a significant loss of self-esteem. This article considers whether law professors should prepare their students for the disappointing results - the poor grades - that many are certain to receive. I assert that professors do indeed have a role to play - in fact, a duty to their students - to confront this problem. I offer a strategy by which professors can acknowledge students' pre-examination anxiety and deal constructively with their impending disappointment. There are lessons to be learned from Casey at the Bat, Ernest Lawrence Thayer's immortal poem about failure.
Hat tip to Law School Innovation.
YourABA reports on the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which was signed into law last month. The new law includes the income-based repayment program for public service:
Under the program, borrowers of student loans who are working in qualified public service would repay loans at an affordable percentage of their income and, after 10 years of service, would have the balance of their loans cancelled.
The program caps monthly payments at 15% of discretionary income.
Dave Shearon, whose work focuses on the application of positive psychology to law and education, wrote an interesting article about optimists in law school for Positive Psychology News Daily. The article discusses Breaking Murphy’s Law by Susan Segerstrom, who examined the research on optimism and its effects on immune system. Shearon writes:
Segerstrom studies future-oriented optimism. Such optimists hold more strongly to expectations of future good events than to expectations of future bad events. In general, optimists have stronger immune system functions than pessimists. However, Dr. Segerstrom found in her research, beginning with that for her doctoral studies, that this relationship was not nearly as strong for law students as in most other studies. On further investigation, she found that the optimists split into two groups, one that had the expected strong immune system, and one where the immune system was somewhat suppressed.
Read the article to find out more about the two groups of optimists. One important lesson from the book is that it is not just your thoughts that count, but rather how your thinking causes you to act.
Today, I am happy to offer you an interview with Ann K. Levine, who kindly agreed to talk to me about her perspective on the law school experience. Ann K. Levine, Esq. is a law school admission consultant and proprietor of www.lawschoolexpert.com. She is also the author of the pre-law advice blog LawSchoolExpert (http://lawschoolexpert.blogspot.com). Ann is the former director of admissions at two ABA law schools and, since opening LawSchoolExpert.com in 2004, she has helped 600+ law school applicants nationwide create strong applications and strategies for their admission to law school. For more information about Ann's background and experience, see http://www.lawschoolexpert.com/experience.html
Thank you, Ann, for sharing your insights with Lawsagna readers!
accurately you process information each day? Pull up a chair, get your cup of coffee (or tea) and join our conversation about informal learning and professional development.
Think how rapidly things change nowadays. Successful knowledge workers have the skills to learn fast, think clearly and act decisively. They don’t feel overwhelmed with information because they know what to look for and how to find and prioritize it. Yet, many of us would probably agree that we have very little time to work on the skills we need to learn better. Here’s an idea. Let’s have a conversation about our informal learning and professional development. How do we learn? What works and what doesn’t? How can we maximize our learning “on the job” – by doing what we already do anyways, but perhaps with better approaches, frameworks, and focus?
Are you ready to take charge of your learning? Join our Learning Incubator community to share your learning goals, achievements and tips for success, to inspire and get inspired to be the best learner you can be. Bring curiosity, humor, respect, and appreciation – that’s how we learn best. The membership is free. What’s there to lose, except a good conversation?
The economic statistics of the legal market described in the Wall Street Journal article "Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers" by Amir Efrati shouldn't really come as a surprise, but it is a good reminder for law students to start their financial planning early:
Evidence of a squeezed market among the majority of private lawyers in the U.S., who work as sole practitioners or at small firms, is growing. A survey of about 650 Chicago lawyers published in the 2005 book "Urban Lawyers" found that between 1975 and 1995 the inflation-adjusted average income of the top 25% of earners, generally big-firm lawyers, grew by 22% -- while income for the other 75% actually dropped.
A BigLaw job is like a lottery - the chances are against you, so you owe it to yourself to use your critical thinking skills to evaluate the hyped-up talk about lawyers' salaries.
Read Build A Solo Practice, LLC and Blawg for more discussion of this topic.
The current issue of The Complete Lawyer focuses on the question “What Can Law Schools Do Better?”
Larry Kramer, the Richard E. Lang Professor and Dean at Stanford Law School, highlights a few areas where legal education is failing students in “Law School Innovations Result In Broader Students:”
This shouldn’t surprise anyone: by the third year, students know the drill and are no longer getting as much from their classes….
The second problem with legal education is that it is too individually focused. Students basically work alone. They study for class and for their exams, they write their papers. But the work is all done individually, whereas lawyers in the real world invariably work in teams….
As the profession has evolved, the international or global dimension has become incredibly important, and we’re just starting to come to terms with what that means. What should we teach students who are going to work with lawyers, clients, businesses, and regulators from other countries and across borders?
Last, like every other profession, legal practice has become more specialized, and as that has happened, law firms have changed. They do not train young lawyers the way they used to: they can’t, their clients won’t pay for it. It’s not that law schools need to teach the nitty gritty of practicing law—new lawyers still learn this best by doing it, on the ground. Rather, law schools must teach students to be reflective lawyers, must teach them how to think about what they are doing and the choices they’re making. Clients will demand this of them, and rightly so. And lawyers need to be trained to be problem solvers as well as problem spotters.
Donald Polden, Dean and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, addresses the importance of building leadership skills in law students in the article “Educating Law Students For Professional And Community Leadership:”
Instead of serving as community models of professional excellence, discernment and good judgment, lawyers in contemporary America are perceived to be caught up in the commercial and business demands of their work and are not sufficiently attuned to their prudential roles and responsibilities to their communities, to the national polity, and to the legal profession.
Daisy Hurst Floyd, Dean and Professor of Law at Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law, talks about the importance of developing a healthy professional identity in the artcile "A Matter of Identity:"
During their time in law school ... many students experience a loss of purpose, which is harmful to individual students and has negative consequences for the profession and for those served by the profession. The loss of purpose results from students’ changing identities.
In the article “Critical Relationship Building Skills For Associates,” Arnie Herz, a practicing attorney, mediator, and the author of the Legal Sanity blog, reveals three core business relationship principles that you need to know to have a successful and satisfying career.
Professional life coach Anne H. Whitaker will help you “Create A Personal Vision And Change Your Life.”
Paula Patton from the NALP Foundation discusses new insight on associate attrition in the article “Why Do Associates Leave Firms That Want Them To Stay?”
Among 2,225 associate departures reported by 118 law firms during 2006:
- 21% were characterized as “desired”
- 28% were characterized by law firms as being “neutral” departures (neither desired nor undesired)
- 51% were described as “undesired” or “unwanted”
In the article “Six Key Pieces Of Advice Straight From Corporate Counsel,” Marcie Borgal Shunk, a principal with The BTI Consulting Group, talks about the key characteristics corporate clients look for in a law firm.
And there are more interesting articles to read in The Complete Lawyer, so check it out.
Ann Levine of LawSchoolExpert blog compiled a great list of law school Loan Repayment Assistance Programs. Check it out here.
I’ve recently had the pleasure to discover LawSchoolExpert blog when its author Ann Levine shared her comment and tips for the bar exam preparation here at Lawsagna. Ann is a law school admissions consultant. Her blog has great advice for those of you who are considering law school. And what’s even more exciting is that she is offering a free 1-hour webinar to readers of The Frugal Law Student on the law school application process entitled "I've taken the LSAT; Now What?" You can choose to participate on August 4 (9 a.m. PST/Noon EST) or August 8 (5 p.m. PST/8 p.m. EST). Read her post and the instructions at The Frugal Law Student on how you can take this $150 webinar free of charge.
Susan Cartier Liebel is an attorney, national coach and consultant who shares her wisdom and advice on how to create and grow a solo practice in her blog Build A Solo Practice, LLC. Here’s what I asked Susan:
“I saw your category of "You Ask...I Answer" posts and thought I'd ask a question on behalf of my readers. Summer time is when many students try to get practical experience by interning at a firm, government or non-profit. If students know they would like to go solo after graduation, what would you recommend they do during their summers to prepare for their solo practice?”
Susan was kind enough to craft a great answer with good questions to make you think about your overall law school experience as it relates to your goal of becoming a solo, as well as practical advice on what you should be doing with your time outside law school:
“If you know you are going to become a solo practitioner upon passing the bar then everything you do, from your course selection to your extracurricular activities to your summer internships should be geared towards two things, networking/building professional relationships and gaining 'practical' experience that mirrors the life of a solo practitioner.”
Read the rest of her post here as she shares her three-step approach to your solo success.
Thank you so much, Susan!
Daniel Pink in his book “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the 
Future” explains the difference between a maze and a labyrinth:
“Mazes and labyrinths are often lumped together in the popular imagination, but they differ in important ways. A maze is a series of compartmentalized and confusing paths, most of which lead to dead ends. When you enter, your objective is to escape – as quickly as you can. A labyrinth is a spiral walking course. When you enter, your goal is to follow the path to the center, stop, turn around, and walk back out – all at whatever pace you choose. Mazes are analytical puzzles to be solved; labyrinths are a form of moving meditation. Mazes can be disorienting; labyrinths can centering. You can get lost in a maze; you can lose yourself in a labyrinth. Mazes engage the left brain; labyrinths free the right brain.”
It strikes me as a good metaphor for the learning process. When it comes to your learning, do you feel like you are in a maze, disoriented and trying to find your way out as soon as possible? Or are you in a labyrinth, focused, enjoying the process and making progress at your own pace?
Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz have teamed up to launch a new exciting blog – Brain on Purpose. It explores the implications of neuroscience for the field of conflict resolution. It’s a must read for anybody who deals with conflicts as part of their professional life. And who doesn’t? The recent post "There's a great future in [neuroplasticity]. Think about it. Will you think about it?" makes you ponder how much control you have in shaping your own brain. Our brains develop new connections with every choice we make. If you let others make those choices for you, you may end up with a brain shaped by your clients, co-workers, relatives, friends, even strangers in a grocery store. It makes me wonder about the challenges the legal profession faces when it comes to the brain neuroplasticity. How do you stay compassionate and empathetic without letting your clients’ problems get to you? Can you use combative trial tactics without harming your own brain and the brains of others who come in contact with you? Do you feel more responsibility now that you know that your actions may affect somebody else’s brain? When does the adversarial turn into adversity?
Want to know what happens to your brain in law school? Read “Law Students: Create A Well-rounded Life” by Stephanie West Allen and Jeffrey M. Schwartz in The Complete Lawyer.
You are interning away, doing the best job you can and hope that your efforts, the 
economic trends and the Universe will produce the coveted offer to return to the firm as a permanent employee. Let’s say you receive that offer. Now what? You will feel the pressure to accept it proportional to the amount of debt you have accumulated and the good intentions of friends, family and career services. Does it mean you should take the plunge? Even if you have one of “The Ultimate Summer Internships” described by Tara Weiss for Forbes.com, don’t let the “outrageous summer internship perks” cloud your judgment. What makes you happy during your summer gig may not be the key to your long-term happiness. Here are a few things to pay attention to as you continue your internship and questions to ponder when you decide on an offer:
What benefits do you get from working for that particular firm? Consider expertise, types of cases or deals, networking opportunities, training, mentorship, career advancement, future employability, resume enhancements, paycheck.
What are the costs or downsides? How much control will you have over your lifestyle? Will this work allow you to express all your talents and offer the best you have to the world?
Will working for this firm bring you closer to where you want to be in your life 5, 10 or 15 years from now? Consider the long-term implications of your decision. Will this workplace help you become the person you want to be?
How do you like the work itself? Does it fuel your passions? Can you see yourself doing this work day in and day out?
Are you comfortable in the culture of this place? Do you fit in? Can you be who you are when you interact with your co-workers? Will you have to compromise on your own values and attitudes if you take this job?
How do you like the partners or “bosses” you are going to work for? Will they care about your professional growth? How much will you be able to learn from them? Do you respect the way they practice law and deal with clients?
Have you noticed any red flags? The support staff gets no respect. The clients’ phone calls don’t get answered promptly. Yelling is an acceptable form of communication. You can’t get straight answers to your own questions. People who work there seem to harbor a sense of bitterness and resentment about the place. Different groups engage in hush-hush conversations. There is a big turnover. Take notice of such behaviors because they may signal trouble.
Last but not least, once you have made a decision to accept an offer, sleep on it. Wear it for a couple of days before you communicate it to the firm. It’s a big decision to make, so take your time. See how it feels.
Myth #1:
You need to read all the relevant materials for the subject matter before you start doing the practice questions.
In reality, you want to start practicing as soon as possible. You won’t have time to read and memorize everything. Practice questions are a tool to train yourself to recognize legal patterns, applicable legal standards and important buzz words. Work with the text of the question: circle, underline, highlight the key words and phrases so that they would jump out at you when you take the exam.
Myth #2:
The bar exam is about memorizing the black letter law.
The truth is that pure rote memorization won’t get you through. The bar exam is also about the application of the black letter law, time-management, stress-management and endurance. You need to work on all of these aspects to be ready. Just like you can’t prepare for a marathon just by reading books about it, you can’t pass the bar exam just by reading outlines. Simulate the real conditions of the bar exam as much as you can: time yourself, do practice exams, submit your essay answers for review.
Myth #3:
You don’t have to listen to all the lectures, after all, you already have your class handouts and outlines.
In realty, listening to the lectures can do more for you than just reading. Good professors strive to make their presentations memorable. I still remember some of my bar course professors because they were like a one-man or one-woman show. It’s good to have the information explained to you in a variety of ways, and you get a chance to ask questions. Also, the content of those handouts sometimes has to be updated, corrected or explained in further detail. So, don’t skip on lectures.
Myth #4:
You are not supposed to have any social life when you study for the bar.
In reality, you need social support even more when you are under pressure. Find time to connect with you family and friends. Go to the movies, eat out, do something fun, or better yet, play sports together. It will give your brain a chance to recharge and help you relieve stress.
Myth #5:
When you study for the bar, you don’t have time to exercise or sleep a lot.
The truth is that you don’t have time NOT to exercise or sleep. You will burn out before the big day. Exercise is good for your brain, it allows you to stay physically and mentally fit. And please take those afternoon naps, they enable the brain to consolidate your memories, which is useful taken into account all the information that you need to remember.
Myth #6:
You need to do your own outlines and flashcards to prepare.
If you have time to do your own flashcards, that’s great. I didn’t. I think, your time is better spent practicing. You will have enough written materials to absorb if you are taking a bar prep course (and I hope you are).
Myth #7:
You don’t need to worry about the essays as long as you do well on the MBE portion of the exam.
While the score allocations vary from state to state, most people will need both strong MBE scores and good essay grades. So write out those essay answers.
Myth #8:
You really step it up a few days before the exam.
Ah, good old cramming, it doesn’t work. In reality, you want to cut your studying hours down right before the exam. Take time to get yourself in a good, healthy place so that you can regain your freshness of mind, focus and clarity.
Other myths:
“A law student failed his California bar exam because he stopped to assist a classmate who suffered a heart attack.”
“A law student left for a bathroom break and when she got back, she couldn't find her seat because the tables and chairs looked identical in the enormous room.”
“Suddenly a woman started galloping down the aisles, flailing her arms, yelling, “I am a covenant running with the land!”
True or false? I have no idea. Check Urban Legends Reference Pages. Maybe, they know.
Law School Innovation blog alerts to this new study that attempts to explain the negative effects of legal education on law students. Kennon M. Sheldon and Lawrence S. Krieger report in "Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory" on the previous findings suggesting that “law school has a corrosive effect on the well-being, values, and motivation of students, ostensibly because of its problematic institutional culture.” It sounds like the psychological distress frequently experienced by lawyers in practice may originate in law school. Interestingly, this new study shows that student autonomy may lead to better well-being in the 3rd year, better grades, better bar exam results and more motivation on the job. All the more reasons to be proactive and take control of your learning.
How do you know if your learning experience is significant? What factors will make it better? Dee Fink addresses these questions in his book “Creating Significant Learning Experiences.” While the books is primarily for the instructors who are involved in designing college courses, students can benefit from its concepts as well in evaluating their learning and devising their own unique ways to make it better if the formal instruction falls short. Fink writes:
“For learning to occur, there has to be some kind of change in the learner. No change, no learning. And significant learning requires that there be some kind of lasting change that is important in terms of the learner’s life.”
Fink offers the “Taxonomy of Significant Learning” based on the following six kinds of significant learning:
Foundational Knowledge. Learners must have the basic understanding of main concepts and ideas of the subject matter.
Application. Application makes the learning useful. It includes the ability to engage in various kinds of thinking, such as critical, creative and practical, and the development of skills needed to apply the knowledge and manage complex projects.
Integration. Learners must be able to make connections between ideas, people and different realms of life.
Human Dimension. Learning must lead to self-improvement and enable learners to function better in the world.
Caring. Significant learning will make learners care about something more than they did before.
Learning How to Learn. Learners must be able to improve their studying skills and develop the characteristics of a self-directed learner.
How does you learning measure against this taxonomy?
To find out more about Fink’s book and the design of significant learning experiences, visit www.significantlearning.org.
Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters To A Young Poet,” Stephanie West Allen of 
Idealawg invited her readers to post on their blogs their “Letter to a Young Lawyer.” Since I receive correspondence from the ABA Young Lawyers Division, I am among the audience, still trying to figure things out. But I decided I’d give it a shot and write about a few paradoxes that I observed in law school and the beginning of my law practice. So, here we go.
Dear Young Lawyer:
You have chosen a profession and a career that is full of contradictions. By now, you should be comfortable with contradictions as they are abundant in the pages of law books that you are reading. They are just another problem to solve. Isn’t it what we do – solve problems? This brings me to the first contradiction:
No groundbreaking secrets here, just the ground work to pass the bar. I ended up taking the bar exams in two states, Illinois and New York, due to the move. And, guess what… I am no longer in either of those states, but I don’t see a third bar exam in my future. So, the first lesson I’ve learned is not to move so much if you want to practice law, or work for the federal government, then a license from any state will do. Here are a few other things I learned:
Good luck!
Whether we like it or not, fear is part of our life, and it is often part of the learning 
process. When we learn new things, we challenge ourselves, we venture outside our comfort zone, we grow, change, and redefine who we are. That’s when we become scared. What if I am not smart and capable enough to do it? What would others think of me if I fail? What would they say if I follow my gut instinct and not what everybody else says I should do? How will I handle rejection? Can I be financially secure? How we respond to those fears has a huge impact on our success in life, happiness, and peace of mind. So how do you deal with fear?
Do you feel that you must overcome your fear? Is it stopping you from achieving more in life? If so, read 5 life-changing keys to overcoming your fear at the Positivity Blog.
“Can We Control Our Fears?” Sevil Duvarci and Denis Paré tackle this question from the neuroscientists’ perspective. A recently published study suggests that “the expression of learned fear is flexible and subject to modulation by the prelimbic cortex, depending on the circumstances; our expression of learned fears is less rigid and less automatic than the expression of innate fears, which are beyond the reach of the cortex.”
Perhaps, you welcome fear. You may even believe that if you don’t feel fear, you are not doing enough. Fear may propel you to action. Is Fear Actually An Asset? It may well be according to Success from the Nest. Get to know your fear and learn from it.
Do you share your fear with others or do you hide it? Executive Coach Doug Sundheim believes that revealing our vulnerabilities to others may strengthen our relationships and generate good energy. He shares his 5-step approach at Fast Company Expert Blogs. Interestingly, neuroscientists also tell us that social contact reduces the brain response to threat.
Would you agree that fear is in the fabric of the law practice? Lawyers work with people’s fears. Sometimes, they alleviate fears, for example, when they do a title search for the clients who want to purchase a home. Other times, they seem to generate more fears: just read the "default" language in a promissory note. And then, there are circumstances when they have to say to their clients that it’s OK to be afraid and help them through their fears. Do you acknowledge your clients’ fears? Or would you rather shun the emotions and stick to business only? What role does fear play in your practice?
The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center created The Legal Research Jumpstation with links to various legal resources under categories such as federal resources, state resources, international resources, legal associations, legal education, legal employment, Continuing Legal Education (CLE), law practice technology, ethics, legal representation, future of the legal profession, surveys and statistics, legal news sources, legal research resources, business and reference resources, electronic discovery resources.
For example, you can visit the sites of the State and Local Bar Associations, check out various statistics about lawyers and the legal profession, read employment trend data compiled by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), find the wealth of information at the Legal Information Institute hosted by Cornell University's School of Law, search online law journals courtesy of the University Law Review Project, or browse through The Virtual Law Library hosted by the University of Indiana's School of Law. [Via Your ABA]
Some students prefer studying on their own, others join study groups. A study group can be beneficial if it is set up and run effectively, but it can quickly turn into a time-waster if the participants gather to socialize, share confusion and commiserate. How do you make your study group more effective? Here are a few suggestions:
What are your experiences with the study groups? Do they work for you? If you participate in one right now, how can you make it better?
Equal Justice Works and Newsweek.com released the E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools:
The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools is a free interactive online resource that provides a broad range of information about public interest programs and curricula at 116 law schools. Equal Justice Works, a Washington-based nonprofit public interest law organization, created The E-Guide to fill the void in existing commercial publications by providing information about public service in law schools and about factors many consider essential to a quality legal education.
You can read the rest of the press release here. Newsweek.com hosts the E-Guide.
Here is an interesting example of collaboration between a law firm and a law school to expand the clinical education in the law school curriculum. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has committed $250,000 to establish the Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe Fellowship for a Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic at Stanford Law School. The clinic, which is scheduled to launch in Fall 2007, will give students an opportunity to work with non-profit organizations and micro-businesses. The students will act as general counsel to non-profits, doing transactional work, including corporate governance matters and corporate disclosures.
The Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic is one of ten clinics that operate as a single law firm – the Stanford Legal Clinic. Among them is the well-known Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which has enabled students to work on more than two dozen Supreme Court cases. Other clinics do pro-bono work ranging from immigrants' rights to cyberlaw and environmental protection.
What do you think of clinical education? What kinds of clinics would you want to see at your law school?
Related post:
Teaching practical skills to students
Do you know what stands in the way of your learning? There are many barriers to learning. Difference people face different challenges. As you are trying to identify yours, consider the following common enemies of learning:
What kills your learning?
I saw a TV commercial yesterday that used the phrase to “fall 
forward” as a metaphor for learning from your experiences. I liked the association. When you deal with your share of disappointments in law school, it helps to keep in mind that you are learning to fall forward. If you play it safe, you eliminate opportunities for learning. It can be scary to fall, you can get injured. Lawyers may even be more risk-averse than the general population because the nature of their profession demands caution. But since some falls are inevitable, you may as well learn how to fall forward in law school, which is a safer environment than the real-world legal practice. So, how do you learn to fall forward?
Learning takes courage. What else can you do right now that may look risky and uncomfortable but has a potential to bring a large pay-off for your future?
As a first-year law student, you hear a lot about the importance of briefing cases. It is an essential step in the development of critical thinking. If done appropriately, the process of briefing cases will teach you, among other things, how to:
Here are a few things to consider and resources to consult when you learn how to brief a case:
What do you like or dislike about briefing cases?
According to the Carnegie Foundation report on legal education, law schools don’t do enough to prepare students for the realities of law practice. The release of the report prompted a discussion of what could be done to address this issue. It is probably too early to talk about the best practices, but here is a round-up of a few interesting programs.
Law School Innovation offers a series on the use of simulations in legal education. Gene Koo discusses Stanford’s simulation-based courses that teach students “to think like a client” and better understand the client’s needs: “Through simulations, law students work in teams with students from other graduate schools to solve a fully-described, substantive problem.” For example, law students work with engineering students on a simulated patent infringement case.
University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is about to launch its new Law Firm Program for third-year students. The program offers a series of courses that simulate the practice of law in a large law firm. Students are divided into groups corresponding to different practice areas.
More and more law schools are establishing Supreme Court clinics where law students help attorneys develop real cases that go to the Supreme Court. If the justices agree to hear the case, the students get a chance to work on the briefs and oral arguments, and even go to Washington to watch the justices in action.
Massachusetts Bar Association offers Job Shadow Day when students can “shadow” attorneys through their work day.
The challenge of developing “soft skills” is not unique to law schools. MBA programs are grappling with this problem as well. The Wall Street Journal reports on how M.B.A. Programs Hone ‘Soft Skills’ (need subscription). Some MBA programs borrow soft-skill training techniques from the corporate world, including coaching, personality assessments and peer feedback. Perhaps, law school can also benefit from those approaches.
What do you think current law students can do to enhance their practical skills even if their law schools are too slow to catch up? Do you have a personal development plan?
Have you noticed how well items are packaged these days? I can’t 
open anything without cutting my fingers. Yesterday, I fought a plastic wrap on a tea box for much longer than such a simple task should take. Do you know that they sell CD and DVD openers now? I expect to see the following message on a box soon: “Batteries included. Box opener sold separately to prevent tampering.” Then again, maybe I should look for the clues more carefully: a red string to pull or a scissor line to tear. I am afraid, I am too impatient for that.
It got me thinking about how information is packaged these days. In our fast-pace life, how much time and effort are we willing to spend on acquiring knowledge we need? Internet makes it very easy to access information. We are accustomed to punching in a few words into a search engine and getting hundreds of pages of stuff. Wealth of information is at our fingertips. But does it make us more impatient and less inclined to dig deeper in our search for meaning? Are we relying too much on the sources whose credibility we cannot verify?
The other side of the spectrum is the knowledge that we have to struggle to receive. You can’t become a lawyer just by surfing the net. You have to read cases, brief them, endure the Socratic questioning, outline. Sometimes, it seems easier to pick up a study aid instead. There is an abundance of commercial outlines, hornbooks, nutshells. Even students’ briefs and outlines are available online. The thing is, though, that even if you read all of them, it won’t make you a lawyer. Don’t get me wrong, I think study aids have their place and purpose in legal education. I have personally used some. But their purpose is to aid, not to substitute for the real work. Our brains don’t like to be spoon-fed information. We are wired to solve problems. Our brains like challenges even if it feels like your head is about to split. We remember things better if we had to struggle to understand them. We have to own the material to turn it into the ready-to-use knowledge. Otherwise, we lose it. I guess, sometimes, we just have to fight through the bubble wrap because it is there for a purpose.
Do you appreciate constructive criticism? Does it make your angry? Do you feel hurt? All of the above? Constructive feedback is essential for learning. Feedback is a scarce commodity in law school. Students often don’t know how well they are doing until they see their grades. There is no homework to turn in so that the professor could evaluate your progress. There is very little team work in law school. In real life, you are going to hear criticism from partners, other associates, clients, opposing counsels, judges. Not so in law school. You need to be proactive in seeking feedback from your professors. The sooner you learn how to receive and act on the constructive feedback, the better off you are going to be. Here are ten tips for receiving feedback:
