💌 Dear 1L,

“Your analysis is not robust enough.” That is what law professors think about most of your essays on exams. I ultimately created these 10 steps to avoid that feedback.

▫️ The steps presume that you can identify the major issues that become Claims and Affirmative Defenses, so they are not a panacea, but they should help you write a thorough analysis of the issues.

💌 Dear 1L,

I wallowed. I wavered between angry disbelief and utter embarrassment.

I had done all the reading; I had attended every class. And I had studied SO much.

I knew the material by heart.

Dear 1L,

When you write your first legal memo, you may feel like you understand (sort of) a legal analysis in your head, but you can’t seem to get it to make sense on paper.

The words just don’t flow.

If that happens, try this:

💌 Dear 1L,

There is a difference between a defense and an affirmative defense. Learn it before doing a law school exam.

—>See link in comments for part 1 of this primer, which describes Claims and Elements of Claims.

💌 Dear 1L,

With midterms on my mind, I write to share something that helped me on exams and learning about litigation more generally:

I thought about how a case starts in the real world. To understand that, I had to learn some terminology and the differences between and among:

💌 Today is my birthday (53), so I’m feeling brave. Here’s a bit about me.

I am a mother and a wife. My daughters have always been my biggest source of pride, and my husband my biggest source of support. I am very lucky. But this September has been challenging.

▪️ Mom has really been aging.

▪️ This fall is also my first with an empty nest.

Dear 1L,

You all must be getting quite sick of hearing, “It depends.” That, plus you keep reading virtually identical cases with diametrically different results.

Exasperating!

It seems backwards. You got into law school because you showed you knew how to find “correct” answers.

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.