Lawsagna

A fact pattern from Halloween

Last Friday we went to my daughter’s first Halloween party.  My daughter is 10-month old, so she did not know anything about Halloween before the party and she still does not know much about it.  We dressed her in a cute pumpkin outfit:  bright orange rompers with matching boots and a hat with green leaves on top.  There were lots of kids and noise at the party.  She clung to Mommy and Daddy while watching the room with a bit of suspicion.  I am sure, she took in and learned a lot at that gathering, like all babies do all the time, but it was not about Halloween.  She was unfazed by a little boy in a Spider-Man’s costume and a tiny Ladybug.  We learn by building on what we already know and making new connections among familiar concepts. Halloween was not a relevant concept to her.

Law students know all about relevancy.  This little Halloween scenario is played out quite often at law exams.  You sit in a classroom, stare at a fact pattern in a Spider-Man’s costume, and wonder:  Why is it here?  What’s the legal significance of it?  How is it relevant to what I know about this subject?  I just can’t spot the issue.  Now, that is a scary thought! 

Go study and I will fill the candy baskets.

8 ways to learn

What was the last time you saw a picture in a law textbook?  I can hardly remember any.  Studying law in a traditional law school setting emphasizes verbal and logical activities: words and reasoning.  However, there are at least six other ways that people can relate to information, according to the theory of multiple intelligences developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University.  (See Gardner, Howard. Intelligence Reframed:  Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century.  New York:  Basic, 2000. ) These intelligences are:

• Linguistic intelligence.  People with a highly developed linguistic intelligence are good with words and languages, they can express themselves well and use words as a preferred way to remember information.  To continue with my cooking analogy, food enthusiasts with a high linguistic intelligence who aspire to become a show host at the Food Network can now apply for a new season of the Next Food Network Star. 
• Logical-mathematical intelligence.   People with a highly developed logical-mathematical intelligence are good at detecting patterns, reasoning deductively and thinking logically. Those are the molecular gastronomy chefs from my previous post.
• Musical intelligence.  People with a highly developed musical intelligencer are good at recognizing and composing musical pitches, tones, and rhythms.  These people think in sounds and are often sensitive to the sounds in their immediate environment.  How about creating menus to go with your favorite operas? Food historian Francine Segan wrote a new book of musical meals: The Opera Lover's Cookbook. 
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  People with a highly developed bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are good at expressing themselves through movement.  Body movement helps them to process information.  The Japanese cooking art of Teppanyaki “on the grill” comes to mind, where chefs cook delicious meals on the tabletop right in front of the guests while skillfully sending metal spatulas and eggs into the air.   
• Spatial intelligence.  People with a highly developed spatial intelligence are good at recognizing and using spatial patterns.  They tend to think in pictures and use them to retain information.  Have you seen what some of the pastry chefs cook up?
• Naturalist intelligence. People with a highly developed naturalist intelligence are good at recognizing, categorizing and drawing upon certain elements in nature.   Perhaps, organic chefs come from this category.
• Interpersonal intelligence.  People with a highly developed interpersonal intelligence are good at relating to people and understanding their motivation, intentions and emotions.  Would you like a personal chef, anyone?
• Intrapersonal intelligence.  People with a highly developed intrapersonal intelligence have a good awareness of their own motivations, desires and feelings.  They tend to engage in self-reflection and self-analysis.   Could that be me in the kitchen? 

Why is this important? 

First, if we can figure out what kind of learners we are and how we process information, we can determine out strengths and weaknesses and predict our biggest challenges in the learning process.   

Second, we can adjust our own studying patterns to rely more on our strengths.  For example, if you suspect that you are really strong on spatial intelligence, you may want to include some pictures, charts, mind maps in your outline for better recall.
 

Third, we may decide to work on some of our weaknesses more if overcoming them is really important for success.  For example, we can pay more attention to our writing and get help if needed. 

Last but not least, we can decide how we want to use our strengths in the practice of law.  Are you great with clients because you have a high level of empathy?  A skillful use of body language may convey trustworthiness to a jury in a courtroom.  If you are sensitive to sound patterns, you may be able to “read” people better at the negotiation table by paying attention to their voice pitch and intonation. 

Anything else you can add to the list?

Obsolete lawyering and avant-garde cooking

How much has the practice of law changed since, let’s say, a hundred years ago? It is not the fastest changing industry, for sure, but it is not immune from change either.  Now we have, in no particular order:  Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw, e-mail, internet, law office management software, the SEC filing system EDGAR, legal forms on CDs.  The dynamics of the legal practice change as well.  Outsourcing Times reports that 79,000 legal jobs will be outsourced by 2015 according to Forrester Research.  Unbundled legal services gain momentum. Partnership is like the horizon:  you can see it, but you can’t reach it. Bold men are looking from the billboards:  Divorce? Bankruptcy? Injured?  Arrested? 

So-so-so, what do we know? It turns out that the law school does not prepare law students to face the challenges of the modern legal practice.  In the New York Law Journal, Thomas Adcock reports on the results of the survey of mid-size law firms conducted by Pace University law school: only 8% of U.S. midsize law firms filled their recruitment needs by hiring law school graduates.  The reason is that they do not have the time and resources of big law firms to train the inexperienced associates.  Law students do not get enough exposure to the technology that has automated the litigation process.  When asked how law schools could improve their curricula, survey respondents emphasized writing (38%), practical skills (24%) and more clinical experience (21%).  Law students, take notice!

Are chefs as technology-averse as lawyers?  Not the members of an avant-garde culinary movement of “molecular gastronomy”, described in the BusinessWeek article Feed Your Mind by Adrienne Carter.  These chefs experiment with cutting-edge scientific processes and tools, such as lasers, enzymes, liquid nitrogen, to produce surprising combinations of flavor and appearance:  how about egg whites tasting like a coconut. These innovative products stimulate not just the taste buds but the minds as well.  What’s the most avant-garde thing in law right now?

Puzzle your brain

Scientists believe that solving crossword puzzles promotes mental fitness and helps the body to cope with stress and fight illnesses.  This mental activity increases the number of brain neuromodulators, preventing memory deterioration.  But what about making crossword puzzles for the subject matter you study?  Creating crossword puzzles helps to memorize the material by presenting it in both visual and verbal formats. Here is an example from the first-year course of Property.  Do you remember rights and duties of cotenants?  Specifically, what items are subject to accounting between cotenants?  Here is a crossword puzzle that links those elements Download crossword_puzzle.doc (Word), Download Answers_RightsOfCotenants (Word) 

You can use a crossword to connect related items that you need to remember together.  It is a good way to brush up on the legal terminology, and it is a fun activity for a study group.  Best of all, with a variety of free crossword puzzle making software available, it is really easy, just search for a “crossword maker.”  All you need is to come up with the words and their clues, and the software will generate a crossword puzzle for you. 

I have some real food for thought for you in my virtual kitchen.  Foods rich in antioxidants, like pomegranates, grape juice, avocados, and blueberries help to protect the brain from free-radical damage.  B vitamins found in lean meat, fish, legumes, dairy products, grains and green, leafy vegetables are important to brain function as they help to control inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, leafy greens, walnuts and flaxseed can help to improve communication between brain cells.

“Agassiz does recommend authors to eat fish, because the phosphorus in it makes brains... But I cannot help you to a decision about the amount you need to eat. Perhaps a couple of whales would be enough.”
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835-1910)

A smorgasbord of advice for 1Ls

University of Cincinnati  Professor Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog has compiled a list of links advising law students on how to survive their first year of law school.  If you are an L1 and have not been given any advice on this topic yet, you must have been living under a rock.  This post got me thinking about the best advice I received in my first year of law school.  “Go to the career services early” wins by far.  At least, I found some money in my pocket due to a summer internship after my first year.  It may seem too early to think about a job. Not so. Start learning the business of law sooner rather than later.  What’s the best advice you received while in law school?

Lifehacks

Have you heard of lifehacks? Danny O’Brien coined the term to describe any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing. The www.lifehack.org weblog has an impressive collection of lifehacks. 

Need to hone your writing skills? Check out Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing  by Roy Peter Clark of Poynter Institute. I like the tip on how to turn procrastination into “rehearsal”: start writing in your head before you put anything on paper (there is more to it, so read the article). 

Do you wish you had more hours in the day?  Jon Bischke will tell you How to have a 36 Hour Day.  You can find out how many hours you can save by multitasking or by improving your reading speed, and what law student wouldn’t like that?  Just looking at the pile of law textbooks will keep you motivated.

Speaking of reading requirements, now you can give your eyes some rest and listen to the cases while taking a walk or working out at the gym, thanks to http://www.audiocasefiles.com   You can download their digital audio recordings of the legal opinions that you want for 0.99 cents a piece. 

For those of us who don’t have a lot of time to cook but still want to eat healthy, there are Over 100 Quick and Easy Healthy Foods.

Now, here is your homework.  Can you identify your personal lifehacks  - activities that you do that help you save time, be more efficient and productive?  If not, it may be beneficial to ponder how you can do things faster and better. Once you have come up with some hacks, use them with purpose.

Stay productive!

The power of associations: a case for a chocolate fondue

The connection between cooking and learning law is not obvious, I admit.  The reason I decided to link those two activities in one blog is that I like to cook and I like to learn and I believe in creating new associations between seemingly unrelated things.  Forgive me, those of you who don’t cook, but at least you eat, right? 

New combinations of ideas can be powerful … and delicious like strawberries dipped in the chocolate fondue.  The skill of building associations may come handy at a test when you read a fact pattern that does not seem to fit anywhere and in legal practice later, when you need to come up with a creative argument.  This is similar to an issue-spotting exercise.  I challenge you to try it.  Pick something you like to do when you don’t study, or something you are good at, and translate your experiences from that activity into studying law.  You may encounter some surprising insights.   

If you want to learn more about the power of random concept combinations, read The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures by Frans Johansson. 

Here is a chocolate fondue recipe for dessert:

12 ounces semisweet chocolate broken into small pieces

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons Coffee Liqueur or any other favorite liqueur

Heat cream in a pot and pour over* the chocolate.  Add the liqueur.  Transfer the mixture into the fondue pot over lowest possible flame.  Arrange the dipping goodies, such as bananas, apples, cherries, pineapple, or the aforementioned strawberries around the fondue pot.  Spear, dip, swirl and savor!

* Is “pour over” a legal term?  It can be, as in “pour over will”:

A will that leaves estate assets to a trust established before the will-maker's death. A pour over will is a protection which is intended to guarantee that any assets which were not included in the trust become assets of the trust upon the party's death.

What do cooking and learning have in common?

My cooking and learning mantras:

·        Cooking food is all about experimenting with different flavors, textures, aromas.  It appeals to various senses.  So should learning.  Our brain enjoys multisensory learning experiences.     

·        I cook primarily to have something to eat, but also to relax, and occasionally, to entertain and socialize, if I cook with a group of friends, for example.  In most cases I reap the benefits then and there.  Learning, like cooking, needs motivation.  Make sure you formulate your goals and the benefits of reaching them before you start doing any kind of learning.  Make them personal and meaningful, and as relevant to real life as you can.     

·        Balancing the flavors is one of the most challenging elements of cooking.  Balancing all of the reading, briefing, outlining, moot court, law journal, and other law school activities is often the most difficult aspect of law school, but it is crucial for success. 

·        When you cook, choose the top-quality ingredients to get the best flavors.  Same goes for learning.  Be selective when you choose your resources and study aids.  More does not equal better.   

·        Reduce, reduce, reduce. Outline, outline, outline.  Reducing the liquid intensifies the flavor.  Outlining intensifies the learning.

·        Marinating meat or vegetables overnight is an easy way to ensure an abundance of flavor in your dish.  When you learn something new, let it “marinate” for a few days and then review the material.  It will boost your memory.

·        You can improvise quite a bit in cooking, however baking requires precise measurement of ingredients.  Make sure you know which legal concepts have precise meaning and which allow for a reasonable point of controversy.

·        I like new gadgets and I watch for new trends in both cooking and learning to taste and share. 

What's Lawsagna?

Lasagna –

1.      pasta in wide, flat strips

2.      a dish consisting of this pasta baked with alternating layers of, typically, tomato sauce, ground meat, and cheese.

(Webster’s New World Dictionary)

Lawsagna –

1.      web posts of a paragraph or two related to legal studies

2.      a weblog consisting of these posts with alternating layers of, typically, thoughts, tools, tricks, tips and other ingredients for a successful learning experience in law school and beyond.