That was me in Oct. 1993, and I thought the world was going to end.

To be sure, like most all 1L midterms, it was merely a “practice” exam.

But to me, it was devastating.

Alas, but you do.

Here’s what I mean:

🔹 Definition:

An “expletive” doesn’t just need to be a profane or obscene term.

“Have I done enough?”

Follow these 7 Steps to make sure you don’t miss a key case.

🔹 1. Find, pull, and skim 3 relevant cases (found from secondary sources, sample briefs, searches under keywords & headnotes, etc.).

It’s easy to make it. I did.

It was fatal.

Here’s what happened and 3 lessons learned.

***

RULE:

In addition to the obvious (that you must capitalize “court” whenever you write out its full Bluebook citation), there are only 3 other instances that require or permit capitalization:

1️⃣ CAPITALIZE SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States)

Scope: U.S. Legal Writing*

Here are two examples.

1️⃣ NO COMMA IN ORIGINAL

Original:  “The complaint lacked sufficient facts to survive summary dismissal, but we grant plaintiff leave to file an amended complaint.”

🔷 PRIMER

🔸 Most 1L exams (and all bar exams) present a hypothetical fact pattern followed by a general “Discuss” prompt (or a set of questions that identify which issues you are to discuss).

I’ve noticed that many of you start posts with the word “As,” as in:

“As a lawyer,”
“As a law student,” or
“As an [anything].”

⚠️ Doing that is dangerous. In fact, you need to watch out for any sentence that starts with “As a . . .”

But it does.

And I’m not just talking about Bluebook cites. I’m talking about your prose.

Here’s the deal: Lawyers need to use 2 commas when other writers don’t.

Just learn them now: the Oxford Comma & the TICTAC Comma.

1️⃣ Fully justify your body text.

—That will cut lines b/c full justification fits more letters per line than left justification.

2️⃣ Working from the bottom up, systematically attack each paragraph with only a few words in its final line of text.

Here’s the built-a-business side of the story.

1️⃣

In 2016, I got laid off from a BigLaw firm. I can’t lie: that stung.

In the intervening years, I “tried on” many roles. None quite fit.

THIS is what it’s all about.

The comment on my post from a 2L made my day. It stands for everything I longed for when I started Dear 1L®.

Thank you to every member of my community.

Some gunner with a briefcase asked me that during my very first week. I didn’t even know what an “Outline” was.

Here’s what I wish I knew then:

🔷 It’s not the Outline itself that matters.

I can’t wait to dive in.

What’s on your reading list today?

💌 Amanda

But be careful after a negative verb: “because” causes ambiguity.

Here are some examples:

1️⃣ She was not promoted because she is female.

—Was she promoted? That isn’t clear.