Dear 1L

Dear 1L,

I am thinking of you. With advocacy briefs approaching, your mounds of work grow daily, I know. I am right here with you.

I thought now would be a good time to share how I organize my research results to start sorting through cases for use in writing (such as your spring advocacy briefs).

My focus is Procedural Posture. These are the steps I follow.

FIRST.

Answer these questions about each case:

🔹 Which party raised the issue for the court’s decision?

🔹 By what procedural device (e.g., Motion) did the party raise the issue?

🔹 On what legal ground did the court rule?

🔹 For which party did the court rule?

SECOND.

Write the answers to each question, in brief, atop each case.

THIRD.

Circle the party for whom the court ruled, e.g., “for P,” “for D,” and put all the “P” cases in one pile, and all the “D” cases in another.

* * *

The steps that come next are more nuanced and case-dependent, but by following just these initial three, you will be off to a strong start.

I will follow with a post explaining why Procedural Posture is (almost always) critically important. It is something I did not fully understand until well after law school. It would have made legal writing SO much easier for me had I learned it earlier.

It can take time to learn fully. But for your immediate purposes, try my approach to identifying the Procedural Posture in each case. It is all in the answers to the above, 🔹-marked questions.

☀️ I am sending you extra hours of daylight and mounds of good cheer to combat the less pleasant February 1L work mounds. You will get through this brief, too.

Fondly,

Amanda