Dear 1L Writer,

I’m seeing students use “proscribe” and “prescribe” interchangeably. Wanted to make sure you were clear that the words are near opposites.

🔷 To “prescribe” means to direct or instruct a rule (or course of conduct) to be followed (e.g., a doctor prescribing medicine or exercise). But “prescribe” comes up in law, too.

Dear 1L,

When I worked in BigLaw, I worked with a lot of new associates. One mistake I saw over and over again was this:

They did word searches on Westlaw or Lexis, found a bunch of cases, and then thought they had done “thorough” research.

Don’t be one of those associates.

Dear 1L,

Here are 2 tips I shared yesterday, when I spoke with 1Ls in the Ole Miss Black Law Students Association. Thank you so much to Nivory Gordon III, M.Sc. for inviting me to speak.

1:  Start looking at practice exam questions and answers earlier rather than later.  I regret my delay in starting. 

Dear 1L,

How are you holding up? At this point in the fall of 1L, I remember things still feeling exhilarating, but also exhausting and scary. I wasn’t sure what was coming next. Here are some recommendations.

🔹 When your class notes start to build up and you’ve completed a topic, such as intentional torts, you really need to start regrouping.

Last September, I had less than 600 connections and more than a little self-doubt. But I shared my first original post.

I’ve gained a lot of insight into networking on LinkedIn this past year. I’m still very much a learner, but here are 5 tips that I hope will help you.

***

Dear 1L,

“If everyone chipped in to help those coming after them, the law profession could easily be filled with amazing lawyers. . . .  And law schools could be filled with more confident, happy students.”

I almost fell from my chair.  What refreshing words to hear from a new law student!  Our broken profession may have a chance after all.

Dear 1L,

You’ll hear of “IRAC.” You’ll learn it stands for the words:
▪️ Issue ▪️ Rule ▪️ Analysis ▪️ Conclusion.

But knowing those words won’t tell you how to write an exam. And law school won’t teach you, either.

There are many ways to write an IRAC essay for an “A,” and you may find others that suit you better.

Dear 1L Writer,

I’m not sure why this trips up new law students, but in US English, put the period or comma INSIDE ending quotation marks, regardless of whether the period or comma appeared in the original, quoted material.

Here are two examples.

Dear 1L,

You’ve been through a lot of challenges in life that were hard.
They tested you.
But you came through.

Remember when you tried to ride a bike for the very first time.
You likely fell.

Dear 1L,

You’re likely hearing about “outlining.”

Various schools of thought exist on when you should start, and the answer may differ for each of you.

Dear 1L,

I was wrong.

You may be a good writer.
You may be an excellent writer.
You may even be a published author.
But you are not a good legal writer yet.
You couldn’t possibly be.

💌 Dear 1L,

There will be some people at the start of law school who try to brag about how much time they spent on the assigned reading before the first class.

🔹 They may say they met with one of your professors already.

🔹 They may mention that they already copied all of a professor’s sample final exams from the library.

💌 Dear 1L - Student Spotlight

Meet a two-time college dropout who, later in life, refused to let “delayed” mean “denied.”

In the 1990s, {@ALEX BELOW} failed to get a Bachelor’s from the Univ. of New Orleans (UNO), but he worked successfully in business to support his family for the next 20 years. Still, though, he aspired for more. 

💌 Dear 1L,

The summer before law school, I started to get nervous. I was excited, too, but as I sensed the magnitude of what was coming, anxiety built inside.

There were SO many unknowns:

What would law school be like?

Would the people be nice? 

In college:

Your papers and essays had to be long enough to meet a minimum page or word length (e.g. “must be at least 20 pages”). Essentially, you had to keep writing more words to make your writing long enough, and if you did, you were rewarded.

Your professors also used big, *pedagogical* words and abstract phraseology to teach you.