Last Minute Torts Tips for the Bar

Ran across this today when looking up some legal terminology.

It's called Strict Liability for a Reason - Additional Intermediate Torts Questions (and what I learned)

23 last minute tips and statement of law (in that contorted, as-applied bar exam kind of way). Probably pretty helpful!

Newbie Law: Career Alternatives on Above the Law

The great blog, Above the Law, has a running series on career alternatives for law school graduates. For example, they offer graduates to look to become law librarians, law school administrators, or in law firm recruiting. But these mostly feel like "jobs that you can do with your law degree" as opposed to "jobs you can do because you're really smart and have legal training."

One thing I noticed in law school is that often law school is a "default: good" option for kids who did well in college. But they don't know much about law besides what they see on Law & Order--ADAs and defense attorneys. If they're lucky, they would have seen movies like Michael Clayton. (Any other movies that better portray what law firm associate life is like?)

To an extent, it does the world a disservice to stereotype the legal profession in the purely criminal arena--or even a "law firm" arena. It's similar to the medical profession being reduced to ER doctors. Doctors, though trained in medicine, can still be CEOs or politicians. Likewise, alternative careers for lawyers could be in business and politics. And if you're a do-gooder, than in non-profit administration.

I'd love to see more JDs going into international development--and not as legal scholars, but as administrators of NGOs or political/governmental consultants. That's broadening horizons for law graduates.

Bar Exam Studying Tip: Using Flash Cards, Part 2

So another tip to those studying for the bar exam (right now!): You know how BarBri asks you to read the outlines before class? Well, it's a little tiresome and rote... But better would be to just read through your flashcards. It's a bit more interactive, and it gets you one step ahead by forcing you to vet your flashcards, sorting those which are "easy"--and put those in the intermediate, or "blue," pile--and then putting those that you don't know perfectly into the hard, or "red," pile.

This way, you're not just staring blankly at a stack of outlined material, but actually playing a mental game--with a goal--with your flashcards.

Associate Tips: Professionalism is Everything

From the National Law Journal: Professionalism is Everything. Thomas Coyne, of Thompson Hine, quips about what it takes to be a successful associate.

Follow the link for all the tips, but just to highlight and expound on a few:

Coyne talks about "client focus." As an associate, you don't really have "clients"--you have partners or senior associates who are effectively your clients. But that doesn't mean that you can't be client-focused. Of course, focus on the individual and idiosyncratic needs of your internal client, but always think beyond the legal issues your supervisor tasks you with. If you're always thinking about what the actual client needs and wants at the end of the day, that will give you a broader perspective and specific focus on where all those memos, motions, and briefs are going.

"Confidence and presentability." When I was in the tech industry, I probably had one of the messiest desks in the business. The culture cultivated this as a status symbol--the more your desk replicated your home, and a busy home at that, the more important you were seen to be. The same stereotyping goes on in law to a certain point. There are those attorneys who have messy offices; those who have voluminous but neat stacks of paper pillars about their offices; and those whose offices are nearly bare. At the end of the day, as a client, I'd rather see the latter. It shows organization and focus. And if I were to visit your office, it shows that you're there, at that moment, to serve me. Nothing else competes for your time. It's a ruse, but it's one I want to see.

"Charging and recording time." Similarly with the messy desk, some attorneys pride themselves in the rush of their schedules, and how they can't find the time to track time. That's not busy-ness; that's disorganization. Get in the habit of recording your time daily.

Just a few comments and reflections off the top of my head as I perused his list. Any tips and comments you'd like to contribute?

Bar Exam Studying Tip: Commercial Flash Cards

So, it's bar exam season. And it's probably about the time (or maybe it's every time) that you start stressing out that you're not getting enough multiple choice answers right--and what did you learn in law school? 

I know it's obvious, but I know a lot of people who don't use these: commercially-produced bar exam flash cards. You can buy a box of these cards covering the MBE for about $100 from Kaplan/PMBR (or $72 from Amazon) or even cheaper ($50) from Law Decks.  Or buy them used online from eBay, Amazon, or Half.com. 

I remember, during some MCs, I was getting like 8-10 out of 18, consistently, which wasn't good enough. But after a few days with the flash cards, I was up to about 14 out of 18 on average--which puts me well in the clear of passing the MBE portion. 

There are many methods of using flash cards, but I used a simple Three Stack Method:

1. I used three colors of rubber bands: green (I know this), blue (I know most of this), and red (I barely know this).
2. I'd go through the entire stack and put each card into the appropriate pile. For green, I had to know the entire card cold--the definition and the common examples. For blue, I knew the general idea but not the details, or I couldn't recall an important example. For red, I just completely flubbed it. 
3. Then, when it came time to study with the cards, which would be whenever I had free time, I'd start with the blue stack. Any blue card that I knew cold, I'd still keep in the blue stack--but after some time, maybe once or twice more, I'd move it to the green stack. 
4. If I had time after going through the blues, I'd hit the reds. 

This method works because (1) the commercial cards are comprehensive, whereas making your own might not be, (2) it trims down your study time by removing cards you know cold (green), and (3) there's no barrier to studying because you can just pull these out any time and just study away.

On top of it all, I *did* create my own cards, but I'll go into that technique in another post.

Good luck with the bar exam studying!

Legal Hacking Tip #2: Easy Method for Creating Passwords

Even the most security-friendly of us hate having to change our passwords every 3 months (or even less)! We curse the IT demons and figure out a way of beating the system and rearranging our current passwords, or other configurations of our childrens' birthdays. 

Here's another method of creating easy to remember yet strong passwords: Think of a favorite song; within that song, a favorite phrase; and then type out the first letters of each word of the phrase or some creative variation of this scheme. 

For example, let's say every morning when you get into work, you rock out to Jay-Z's "Roc Boys," from the movie, "American Gangster."And what gets you going is the line, "We the dope boys of the year, drinks is on the house." So when you sit down at your keyboard, jazzed up for whatever the day brings, you get to your Windows log on and type: "WTDBoftYDisontheHouse!" Long password, yes, but it gets you past security, and it types surprisingly fast because in your head, you're jamming out to the song.

Even shorter, "WTDBoftheY"... Throw in some numbers and punctuation: "111WTDBoftheY!"

Now, tell me what hacker would ever guess that kind of password? They might figure out your birthday, your kid's middle name, your anniversary, your high school crush, but this? Never. Unless you constantly rock it out loud on the bus to work every morning. But then you have other problems.

Legal Hacking Tip #1: Use del.icio.us

I'd never been the hugest fan of del.icio.us, the social bookmarking web site. For those not "in the know," del.icio.us is a barebones web site that allows you to bookmark (or "save") web pages online, so that you can access your bookmarks on any computer connected to the Internet. For example, say you're surfing the web at home, and you use del.icio.us to bookmark a link on landlord-tenant law. Then, the next day at work, if you want that bookmark, you just visit your del.icio.us web page, and there's the link for your reference.

You can also tag links, i.e., describe them in your own words. So you might tag that landlord-tenant law link as: landlordtenant, realproperty, work, ClientABC. (One huge drawback with del.icio.us is that your tags have to be one "word," i.e., no spaces.) 

Through del.icio.us, not only do you have a new tool in your mobile office, but you also have a catalog of all your links for "ClientABC." Or a library of useful links related to "landlordtenant." It helps organize things and also, if you're working with others, to share information. 

Also, you can mark private links as "do not share," so they're only available under your login. Good thing to note to protect client privacy over your research. 

There may be more robust bookmarking tools, but del.icio.us is stable (technically and corporately--they're owned by Yahoo!), easy to use, and the web standard. Try it out; it's usefulness will ultimately outweigh it's clunkiness.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr: cote)

Newbie Law: What is a Pleading?

OK, to start off with, I remember during the beginning days of Civ Pro, wracking my brain trying to figure out, What is a pleading? What's the difference between this specially-treated, mythical "pleading" and a paper, or a motion, or a subpoena?

And I asked my friends, and they all kind of shrugged, as if it wasn't important--and it's not, if all you do is memorize what the professor spits out at you--or they'd suggest that maybe it's something that you file? Well, don't you file "papers?"

These are the kinds of things that people assume that law students should know or that they can easily find out. And I'm sure that there are lawyers (and professors) out there who aren't exactly sure what constitutes a pleading and what doesn't.

And, now, thinking and ranting about this, I'm not sure if *I* know exactly what it is. If I had to define it, I'd say that a pleading is (drumroll)... The complaint or the answer. These two documents set out what each side is "pleaing" of the court.

Everything else is either a motion (but only if it's called a motion) or a paper or some other "document."

I'd also think that "filings" are papers that you file, so a subpoena, which wouldn't necessarily be filed with the court, would *not* be a filing. (And, on a side note, a subpoena, though it collects "evidence" (colloquially) is not "discovery"--but it feels like it, doesn't it?)

An Introduction (with Some Commentary)

I've had this idea for this blog for a long time. As I studied and practiced law, my background in and obsession with technology pushed me to combine the two as often as possible. And in my experience, this pushed me farther than my peers in terms of my performance and human capital. But my goal isn't to compete with others. My goal is to help everyone perform better and more efficiently to the benefit of our practices, our clients, and maybe society as a whole. 

Yes, better to start lofty, eh?

Otherwise, I want to approach this blog from my own personal viewpoint, embarking upon a legal career--in that I kind of fell into law on happenstance. I didn't apply to law school to become a lawyer, which resulted in me not knowing *anything* about law (and it's internal language), putting me well behind the curve from my peers. I never took any law classes in undergrad and never even though to try and read a case before my acceptance.

So to those who might be in my position, who lack the social, legal background (I'll probably talk more about this as time goes on), this is for you as well.