1L Law School Rudimentary Prep Guide

Terminology

Barrister – another fancy word for lawyer, used mainly in England but sometimes used here

Barrister Ball – It’s like law school prom but fancier, which you should definitely go.

Bar Review – Going to drinking bars and hanging out with classmates. Do not confuse with Bar Prep.

Bar Prep – This is studying for the actual bar exam. Do not confuse with Bar Review.

Brief – it summarizes a case for easy access. Includes facts, issues, holding, rule of law, reasoning, outcome, and dissent/concurring opinion.

Elements – these are the list of things needed to be convicted/sued for a crime/tort.

IP – Intellectual Property – area of law that includes copyright, patents, trademarks, etc.

J.D. – juris doctor/doctor of jurisprudence – What you are trying to get now. Even though it is a doctorate, you cannot be called Dr. with just this. L

L&L or LAL – Lunch & Learn – bullshit event that makes you bring your own lunch to this panel. Also called brown bag lunch

LL.M. – Master of Laws – the next degree after J.D, postgraduate law degree

Law Review/Journal – the law school publication with legal articles. Do not confuse with Law Revue.

Law Revue – the law school musical play. Do not confuse with Law Review.

Legal practitioners - include justices, judges, law professors, attorneys, lawyers, barristers, counsel (not council), legal advisors, and law students. Legal practitioners LOVE abbreviations. You will never have encountered so many abbreviations in your lifetime.

MPRE – Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination – You will have to take this prior to taking any state bar exam, except Maryland (and I think Alaska but not sure?). It is a 2 hour exam with 60 multiple choice questions. Available 4 times a year. People usually take it 2L or 3L year. It tests how ethical you are. Don’t worry, you can fake being ethical. LOL.

Negligence – the elements are: duty, breach of duty, causation, damages. Don’t Blame Cameron Diaz.

Outline – a study guide you create for final exams that outline and summarize all the cases and concepts you learned in a class subject.

RAP - Rule Against Perpetuities - The common law rule against perpetuities forbids instruments (contracts, wills, and so forth) from tying up property for too long a time beyond the lives of people living at the time the instrument was written.

SBA - Student Bar Association – It is the student government for law school. They run and fund most of the students’ things.

SJ.D – Doctor of Juridical Science – the ultimate and last level of legal studies, you could be technically called a Dr. once you have this. It is an extra 3 to 5 years. A lot of people surprisingly don’t know what this is in the States though. It is more prestigious out of state.

Turnip rule – you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip. Symbolically, you can’t get money from just the average employee (turnip). You have to sue the big guns, aka the company, in order to get the money.

Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Law School

1.    Law school is almost like another culture in itself.

2.    Get to know your upper classmates, not just your section mates.

3.    Most law students tend to be very territorial creature of habits. I could find my friends based on their study spot.

4.    Be wary of the library during final weeks.

5.    Go to your professors’ office hours weekly. If you have no questions, make one up.

6.    The answer to is everything is "It depends." or "Possibly."

7.    Turnip Rule: You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

8.    What an outline was.

9.    Tell yourself to breathe.

10.  Bar Review is different from a bar prep.

Websites

Quimbee.com – case briefs and outlines for law school. But you have to pay for it now, which sucks

OutlineDepot.com – can look up past outlines for your professors

Dictionary.law.com – for legal terms you don’t know

Ncbex.org/exams/mpre – site to register for the MPRE and practice MPRE exam

Casebriefs.com – free site for case briefs and outlines for law school.

LexisNexis Advance – expensive search tool program that your law school should provide a subscription for with your tuition. It is has every legal thing you think of: briefs, transcripts, rules, statues, cases, etc.

Westlaw Next – expensive search tool program that your law school should provide a subscription for with your tuition. It is has every legal thing you think of: briefs, transcripts, rules, statues, cases, etc.

Oyez.org – supreme court case decisions

www.law.cornell.edu – free site that has statues, laws, regulations, CFRs, and major cases

Your law school website – should have past exams from your professors and past outlines from students who took the class previously.

Important Cases that is taught in every law school practically and will probably be in the beginning

Contracts

Hawkins v. McGee – a.k.a. Hairy Hand – leading case about damages for breach of contract. A doctor screws up a skin graft surgery on a young boy’s hand. Few days later, the boy’s hand becomes really hairy, like really hairy. Boy’s father gets pissed and says the hand looks worse than before. How much is the doctor liable for?

Civil Procedure

Piper Aircraft v. Reyno – the standard case about forum non conveniens

Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins – very important and difficult apparently. It’s about choice of law and which law to use when the state                  law and federal law differs. I can help you with this case once you reach it since I am knowledgeable about it.

International Shoe Co. v. Washington – case about minimum contacts for jurisdiction

Torts

Palsgraf v. Long Island - Poor Mrs. Palsgraf was injured by a falling set of scales, the result of a box of fireworks that fell onto the railroad tracks and exploded. The box fell only after a passenger, who was being shoved into a crowded train car by a guard, dropped them. Judge Benjamin Cardozo's opinion created the "foreseeability" test for negligence, recognizing that a chain of actions had to be cut off somewhere. Cardozo chose "foreseeability."

Summers v. Tice - Three men go hunting: two behind and one in front, forming a triangle. The two behind see a quail. They shoot. The man in front gets hit with bird shot. Which of the two men behind is at fault? Either or both, said the California Supreme Court. If the plaintiff can't figure out which defendant specifically caused his injury, then as long as he can show that both defendants were negligent, the plaintiff can recover against each of them or both of them, and it's up to the defendants to sort out their own liability between them.

Breunig v. American Family Insurance Co. – so you may not go over this case since it is not a standard case but if you do, let me know. This is the one with the crazy lady who thought she was Batman or driving the Batmobile. The main point is that not all types of insanity are a defense to negligence.

Garratt v. Dailey – This case is whether a young child can have intent. A 5-year-old boy pulls a chair out from under an old lady just as she's about to sit down. Naturally, she's injured. Did he act intentionally? Yes, said the Supreme Court of Washington in this important 1955 decision establishing that acting with "substantial certainty" of resultant harm is enough to show intent.

United States v. Carroll Towing Co. - Judge Learned Hand first applied a simple cost-benefit analysis (the "Hand Formula") to this case about a bunch of barges that brook free from their moorings, hitting another barge and sinking it. The Second Circuit found Carroll Towing, which had secured the mooring lines, had not met its standard of care because the cost of potential damage, multiplied by the probability of damage, was greater than the expense to take adequate precautions (Benefit < Cost x Probability). Cost-benefit analysis is one the foundations of the Law and Economics school of thought.

Negligence – the elements are: duty, breach of duty, causation, damages. Don’t Blame Cameron Diaz.

Turnip rule – you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip. Symbolically, you can’t get money from just the average employee (turnip). You have to sue the big guns, aka the company, in order to get the money.

My Torts professor loved Judge Cardozo and Judge Learned Hand, so you may hear these names frequently in Torts.

Property

RAP - Rule Against Perpetuities - The common law rule against perpetuities forbids instruments (contracts, wills, and so forth) from tying up property for too long a time beyond the lives of people living at the time the instrument was written.

White v. Samsun Electronics America, Inc. – You remember that lady who showed the letters on the board from Wheel of Fortune? She sued Samsung for an ad they made using her likeness and it was an intellectual property case.