It was in the 1L legal writing course, and it was devastating to both my confidence and my GPA.

—I wasn’t prepared.
—I had no guide or mentor to help me.
—I experienced the worst academic time of my life.

I never want anyone else to have to endure the same.

“They don’t teach students the practical skills to be a ‘real’ lawyer.”

Well, that is true in part, but I’ve got a different take when it comes to one skill:

That skill is legal analysis.

Here, it’s the law schools getting it right, and, too often, the “real” lawyers getting it wrong.

Do not use it to describe a court’s holdings in your brief this spring. “Find” and “hold” mean very different things.

“But Amanda,” you say, “many lawyers—even judges—use ‘find’ generically all the time to describe the actions courts take.”

 —I know. You are right about that. But that does not make using “find” right.

On the outside, I seemed to have it all together:
—a top GPA,
—a job lined up for fall, and
—a law review Note ready to publish.

What could I be stressed about?

As it turned out, a lot.

By the time you’re a mid-level associate, you’ve put in some tough time—

You’ve endured the early years of 0% control over your schedule.

—You’ve canceled social plans;
—you’ve sacrificed umpteen weekends; and

Here are the rules, and I’ve also attached a chart you can save, print, and pin on your wall.*

RULES:

In addition to capitalizing the word “court” whenever you write out its full, formal name (obviously), only 3 other situations require or permit you to capitalize that word:

It’s the winter before you start law school.

You’re excited but nervous.

You’re not really sure what to expect.

You want to be prepared.

You want to do the best you can.

Your book is ridiculously good. I got up through page xiv and 5 and then died. I had to stop reading and pen this note.

No. 1️⃣: Your book is exceptionally written. Let me say that again. Your book is exceptionally written.

That is the highest possible praise I, Amanda Dealy Haverstick, could possibly say to an author.

A woman sees it & checks 9 of 10.

“I’m not qualified. I’ll never get it,” she tells herself.

—She slinks away and doesn’t apply.

A man comes across the same job listing.

He reads the 10 qualifications & checks off 3.

Perhaps you prefer the hand-written letter by snail mail.

We sure don’t get them often enough these days.

A good one can really make your day.

The email newsletter?

We get too many of them these days.

You’re making 3 big mistakes.

Here’s why, how you can fix them, and
some cool follow suggestions:

1️⃣ MISTAKE No. 1: You post with a FIREWALL.

You post an article you’ve written.
We can’t read it.

The last thing you want to do is confuse a witness, fact, or document from one case with that of another.

So you really need a good organization system.

👉 Enter the 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝘁 & 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻

but I can barely make 50K a year.

So is there cause for celebration?

As a solopreneur, I don’t know.

It is so hard, and it feels like a constant climb.

Some days you are on a really high high.
You think you are living the dream.

-You feel like you have to be perfect.
-You get scared to let your guard down.
-You strive not to let them see the tears, the struggle, the sweat.

That makes for a stressful existence, and it can really take a toll.

Over time, I developed a practice of keeping 3 folders in my office that really helped me feel less daunted and more in control.

If you did not get the grades you’d hoped for, there is nothing wrong with you, and you are not some sort of screw up.

—> What happened is you got screwed by the curve.

I do not fully understand why law schools grade this way, or why the curve at one law school can be so dramatically different from that at another.