Don’t worry about cold calls

Dear 1L, Please don’t stress about cold calls.

I did, and I regret it.

Scenes from movies like “The Paper Chase” made law-school professors seem like monsters, and before law school started, I played out a dozen scenarios in my mind for what my first cold call could look like.

What a whopping waste of time & energy!

Please don’t make the same mistake. Here’s some info that I wish I’d known back then. I hope it will help you.
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The cold calls I’m talking about are part of the Socratic Method: rather than explain the reading (as in many college courses), a law school professor typically calls on students & conducts a Q&A.

In the Q&A, you have to respond to questions about the reading and what it means.

Most questions are about:
1/ what happened in a court case you’ve read, and
2/ what that case means for future situations.

🔷 1/ Questions about cases include things like:

Who were the parties? What was the theory of liability? Which side won? What did the court hold? Why? Do you agree?

🔸 After the first week or so, these kinds of questions will seem routine to you. Just do the reading carefully and know the answers to the basic questions I list about each case. You’ll feel fine answering these types of questions.

🔷 2/ The harder questions involve hypotheticals.

🔸 These types of questions ask you to think beyond the reading. What if one fact were different? Would it change the result?

Or imagine a whole new set of mythical facts. Then, knowing what you do about how the first case came out, how do you predict a court would rule on the mythical facts?

🟢 The good news today is that:

—Most professors give you some sort of advance notice, such as by designating specific students to be “on call” for certain weeks; and

—Most professors count cold calls 0% in your grade.
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✏️ A TIP

When you get a cold call involving a hypothetical question about a mythical fact pattern:

—> Do not try to get the “right” answer.

The goal is not to know that answer, but to identify the best arguments that can be made for, and then against, that answer.

▪️ What could one party say that would sway you to rule their way?

▪️ Next, how might the opposing party sway you the other way?

-If you think of good arguments to help one side’s case, the professor might then call on another student to take the opposing view.

-Then there’s a sort-of modified debate, where more students may get brought into the conversation.

🗳️
Lawyers: Do you even remember your first cold call? Do you have any tips or words of wisdom for our worrying 1Ls?

Fondly,
💌 Amanda

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