Z - JDMBAgirl

True or False: Legal Research and Writing Classes Require a Lot of Time

True.  Recently, I posted a response to a question on legal research and writing that appeared on an on-line law school discussion forum that I frequent.  Since LPS (Legal Practice Skills) is a required class for all Suffolk Law School 1Ls,  I figure it is beneficial to post my response here too.

The questions asked were "How to best prepare for law school legal research and writing?" and  "Which books were helpful for this purpose?"

Here is my answer with a few omissions and additions for relevance to this blog:

        "For legal research and writing, we use the Sloan and Edwards books respectively. I found Edwards part three on writing the discussion section and part four on predictive writing, although a bit disjointed in their presentation, to be very helpful with my fall office memo. We are now writing persuasively for our spring memo, so I will let you know how well I think the book covers this material later.

  Here are the ISBN numbers for the books:
 
  Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies by Amy Sloan, 4th edition
  ISBN-10: 0735576726
  ISBN-13: 978-0735576728
 
  Legal Writing and Analysis by Linda Edwards, 2nd Edition
  ISBN-10: 0735562296
  ISBN-13: 978-0735562295

        I don't think the books are best read front cover to back cover.  A more efficient way to understand the material is to read the chapters as you will use them in your research and wrting.  Most likely you wil be assigned reading and you should follow your professor's syllabus as to what chapters will be relevant to your work and when.  If you want to read some of the books before you start law school, the sections toward the front of the Edwards book which deal with the court system, legal authority, and writing for legal audiences are good preparation not just for research and writing, but for your other classes too.  For example, your audience for the law school exams you write will be your professor.  It is a good idea to keep what she/he wants to see in mind as you write.

    The best preparation for the legal writing assignments is to practice case briefing. (Look this up on-line if you don't know what this is.  There are some good books with examples available on how to brief cases too.)  Briefing cases will help you to understand why a court came to the decision it did.  You will need to know the key facts, holding, and reasoning of each case that you cite as authority (from a higher court than the one your case will be tried in) in your memo.  Then, you will need to be able to draw an analogy between the key facts in the cases you cite and the facts in your case and determine how the court will apply the law.  A good way to approach this interweaving of rules of law (taken from the holdings from the cases you cite) with the facts of your case to draw appropriate analogies is to ask yourself regarding the cases you cite "if I change this fact, would that yield a different outcome?"
 
      The best advice for legal writing and research is to do EVERYTHING EXACTLY as your professor says. (I lost a half grade, A- to B+, as a deduction on my first draft of my fall memo because my margins were not exactly 1" on all sides!) While you should use proper grammar, this is not the time to demonstrate your writing ability learned in college as legal writing is much more
constrained and regulated. (The people who did the best on their first memos in my section, were those who did not assume that they were excellent writers to begin with and followed instruction to the letter.) If anything is unclear, ask in an email to the professor. Start writing early so that when questions come up as you write, you will have enough time to ask, receive a response, and revise your memo accordingly.
 
      As a part-time, evening student, it will be tough to balance your other classes with writing papers especially if you are working full time and/or have a family (like me). You will need your weekends when you have large chunks of uninterrupted time to write because it's hard to start and stop again and keep everything coherent. A good draft took me about 7-8 hours to write! Plan carefully and keep everything in perspective (an A in another class worth more credits will likely contribute more to your GPA).
 
      One last thing about time and planning as an evening student with a full time job. I find that it is nearly impossible to outline once a week as suggested by Suffolk and many law schools. I tried it and I never finished all the material that I covered in the week. I then became stressed out because I felt behind. I've found that I need to outline after classes during the week. It's 10 pm when I get home most nights but I try to outline using my notes from class while the material is fresh in my mind. I use the two nights when I don't have classes to work hypos on old exams and fill my outline from this practice. I read cases on the subway on my way to work and class. I will also read these materials on my lunch break at least one day a week. The other days I relax and eat lunch with colleagues to maintain some perspective and sanity. =) 

Best of luck to you and I hope this helps!"

I finally feel like a real person

Did my last post seem incomplete?  It certainly trailed off in an incomplete thought.  Did you notice that the last sentence had absolutely no punctuation?  It seemed incomplete because it was incomplete.  I started writing and stopped to verify a point that I wanted to mention, and by the time I returned to writing, the admissions office had posted my blog clearly marked "draft".  Apparently, posting happens automatically and anything I have written last gets posted at a certain time along with the latest posts for all other Suffolk bloggers.  No one reads all the blogs before they are posted so a "draft" marking apparently means nothing. 

I have decided to complete the post because it makes an important point about law school and evening students that was totally missed when posted in its incomplete form.  (That is why this post has the same title as the last one.)  Also, since I was on a self-imposed hiatus from blogging during the first semester of law school, it seems appropriate that I start where I left off and bring you up speed as I start my second semester.

So, let us try this again: 

"I finally feel like a real person..."

These were the words of my colleague as we left the law school two Fridays ago and slid into a booth at Beantown Pub.  I second that emotion.  (80s anyone?)  YES, we have classes on Friday nights.  We have classes on Monday and Wednesday night too, and on this occasion we were all feeling the weight of the week.  Typically, we are in class from 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. until 9 or 10 p.m. on the three nights that we have class.  It is a hard routine...  bed, work, class, bed, work, study, bed, work, class, bed, work, study and… so on.  It was so good to sit around a table at the pub with fellow 1L evening law students and get a sense of how, collectively, we were doing.  (The cheese fries, nachos, and other comfort foods helped too.)  Most of us agreed that there just was not enough time in the day to get everything done. 

It has been said that one should spend 3-5 hours studying per one hour of class. So, let’s do the math. Assuming we are in class for 3 hours on 3 nights per week, on the low end that would be 27 hours (3x3x3) and on the high end that would be 45 hours (3x3x5) of study time each week. Consider that an average work week is 40 hours, if one then studied for 27 hours and spent 9 hours in class that would total 76 hours per week. This leaves a mere 92 hours (out of 168 total calculated by 24 hr per day x 7 day per wk) in the week for sleeping and doing other important things like running errands, chores, travel to work/school/other, interacting with family, and eating.  That may seem like a lot of time, but it is not.  It is very little time indeed as sleep alone at 7 hours per night would take another 49 hours.

I find myself squeezing study time in whenever and where ever I can.  I read on the bus and train on the way to and from work and sometimes at lunch time.  I keep flash cards listing the elements and key facts related to the rules I have learned in my purse so that if I ever need to wait (in line, at the doctor’s or dentist’s office) I can review them.  It is not so much the actual amount of time spent as it is what spending that amount of time feels like.  I feel as if am doing something pretty much every minute of the day.

This is why “I finally feel like a real person…” resonated so deeply with me and the others around the table at the pub that night.  We finally took the time to breathe.

I finally feel like a real person

These were the words of my colleague as we left the law school two Fridays ago and slid into a booth at beantown pub.  I second that emotion. Yes, we have classes on friday nights.  We have classes on Monday and Wednesday night too, and we were all feeling the weight of the week.  It is a hard routine...  bed, work, class, bed, work, study, bed, work, class, bed, work, study... and so on.  It was so good to sit around a table

My First Week in Law School (from the perspective of a JD/MBA Student)

Ok... this is long overdue as classes started last week at Suffolk Law School -- a full two weeks ahead of the business school.  I am now proud to say that I have fully switched gears from an MBA type learning style to a more legal-style learning.  There is a big difference!  Law school is more like going to a foreign country, trying to learn the language there, and being able to talk and write at a very high level in the new language all within 12 or so weeks.  It is doable but quite frustrating.  At least in the MBA program, most students have some  "real world" work experience.  In this way they are somewhat familiar with the "language of business".  Not only do you have to learn the new and strange language of law, you have to be able to use (apply) it effectively too. 

I think I touched on this in a previous post, but I will say it again here.  While I had a choice of whether to begin my studies at the business school or the law school, starting in the MBA program instead of the JD program for me was definitely the right choice.  After being out of school for some time, it was much easier to adjust to "going back to school" in the MBA program.  MBA classes are taught much like those in my undergraduate program with homework, exams (usually a mid-term and/or final) and lectures.  I used the familiarity of this routine to ease back into school. Law school is a different beast altogether mostly because of how the subject matter is taught, so it would have been an even bigger adjustment for me to start at the law school.

I am also very glad that I did not take classes during the summer between business school and law school.  Instead, I used this time to prep on my own for law school before classes began.  From what I can see thus far (yes, I know that I am only in day four of law school), prepping for law school seems to have made a difference.  In fact, I would not at all recommend going in cold.  Many of my classmates have already started complaining that they "are not getting it" ("it" referring to briefing cases and the like).  I am more relaxed because I know how much work I need to do to get where I need to be.  Frankly, I think you have to have a vision as to where you are going in order to keep frustration at bay.  Most professors will give you this "vision" in the way of a complete syllabus organized by topic, but some do not.  And why wait for the syllabus anyway?  The basic rules and principles of type of law studied in first year courses have not changed so much from last year that you cannot ascertain the basics of what you need know before you take the class. Prepping beforehand gives you an idea of the mountain of information that you will have to consume, dissect, organize and use in order to do well in your classes. 

You can prep by just picking up old Hornbooks, Nutshell or Examples and Explanation guides for your first year subjects.  I used the Examples and Explanations and prefer them because of the many questions to work through at the end of each topic.  I used the explanations to the questions to test my thinking.  I am sure that any of the books will do just fine though. (Tip: Buy older, used editions of Hornbooks, Nutshells or E&E as you can get them dirt cheap on-line.  Like I said before, the basic rules of law have not changed THAT much, so an old edition is fine to start.)  If you want to know more about  how I prepped and exactly what tools I found most helpful, email me or just leave a comment to this blog post.  I am happy to help.

All first year law students in the United States, no matter the school, take pretty much the same classes.  1L  students (as first year law students are called) will take courses in contracts, civil procedure,  and torts.  Although a few of the following courses are electives at some schools, law students will usually also take courses in criminal law, property, constitutional law, and a legal writing during the first year.  

In the evening program at Suffolk, you will take four classes per term:

Civil Procedure (Fall, Spring)
Contracts (Fall, Spring)
Criminal Law (Fall)
Torts (Spring)
LPS a.k.a. Legal Practice Skills, primarily research and writing (Fall, Spring)

Day students at Suffolk will also take courses in constitutional law and property during the first year; however, evening students won't take these subjects until the second year.

Because the schedule is pretty much set during the first year, it is easy to prep before classes actually start.  Take it from me, a happy 1L (thus far), you will want to do this.

Bit the bullet... I'm on Twitter.

After much resistance, I finally gave in to tweeting. 

I think I was most resistant to the idea of sharing with the world every minute (and seemingly inconsequential)  detail of my life.  It seemed strange to be broadcasting such information -- I mean who cares?  Apparently, many people do.  Personalities and C-level execs like the CEO of Zappos.com (possibly former CEO as I think I read that Zappos was recently sold)  have over one million followers on Twitter. These folk give nuggets of advice, discuss current events, or just talk about who they had a business dinner with the night before.  And they have loyal followers.

Given that more and more B2B businesses are looking for ways to use social media to market their products and services and given that my background is in high technology and marketing, I felt that I simply could not ignore the Twitter phenomenon any longer.  I even came across an article recently stating a strong case for law firms to tweet to gain clients and establish their expertise in their domain!  Imagine that.  Definitely food for thought for a JD/MBA.

So, I am on twitter now. My beginning tweets are fairly random, but they are getting better. I am still mainly listening and learning.  Learn with me.  Follow me at http://twitter.com/only1kiku

First African-American Woman CEO!

I thought I would rest from blogging over the summer, but this news is too juicy not to share.  Besides, after a week of celebrity deaths (Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon... I will so miss MJ!), we all need something to be excited about.  Furthermore, for those of us who are passionate about diversity in the work place, this represents a triumphant leap forward in two ways.

Not only is Ursala Burns the first African-American woman CEO of a fortune 500 company, she is also the first ever successor of a woman CEO.  Yes, that's right... back-to-back women CEOs!  Where?  At Xerox Corporation.  (Xerox's Anne Mulcahy named Ursala Burns as her successor.)

Watch Ursala speak at the Rochester Institute of Technology commencement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xROcJd223Qo

Read about Ursala's first day and the challenges that are ahead in this Business Week article:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_23/b4134018712853.htm

(You've got to love business week.  Their MBA forum is quite nice.)

As an MBA student at Suffolk University, you will take MBA 400.  It is a three day course held off campus where you will practice running a corporation through a simulation and learn about networking.  I am mentioning this course here in this blog because historically, very few female students volunteer for the one C-level position that is available during the simulation.  (In the simulation it's the COO or "chief operating officer" role.)  When I took the course in Fall of 2008 (AE), there was only one woman COO!  I remember thinking to myself..." Why?!"  Where else can you hold a C-level position, make all kinds of mistakes, and still hold on to the majority of your dignity?  B-school and MBA 400 is the time to do it!  I hope that as more woman like Ursala Burns rise to C-level positions, their success will inspire other women in lower ranking positions to dream big, work smarter, and rise too.  I would also like to see those women who have achieved to that level help prepare, build the confidence of, and pave the way for their would-be women successors much like how Anne Mulcahy did for Ursala Burns.

Pink Magazine, a business magazine for women, reports that "The number of women CEOs among the Top 500 remains constant at 15 but is up from only eight since 2005, when PINK launched." 

(Note: I love Pink Magazine's free email newsletter called "Little Pink Book".  That's where I first learned about Ursala Burns.  Subscribe here: http://www.pinkmagazine.com/NewsletterSignup/SinglePageUserInfo.aspx?step=1)

 

This gives me hope.  Borrowing a quote from the last Little Pink Book newsletter, I'll leave you with:

"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition" -- Timothy Leary

Do you not just love that?

JD/MBA joint degree program - Part 2, How It Works

    This is the continuation of the series on JD/MBA joint degree programs that I started over a month ago.  Here I will talk a bit about what happens once you are in such a program.

    As previously mentioned, the JD/MBA program at Suffolk University is a four year program (five years if part-time).  You spend your first year entirely at either the business school or the law school.  It is your choice. 

    Most Suffolk University JD/MBA students elect to spend their first year in the program at the law school.  I am not sure if there are advantages to starting with school over the other.  I know there is a class around legal issues in business that the business school will waive if you have completed the first year of law school.  My guess is that you could just put off taking that business school course until after you completed the first year of law school though.  Therefore, I think where to start is more of a personal choice than anything.

    I elected to start at the business school.  I figured it would be easier to adjust to going back to school (since I had been out for some years) if I took business classes, which I believe are taught and structured more like the courses I took in undergraduate school. Also, I studied engineering in college, so math really doesn't bother me. Law school to me is a totally different style of learning. For example, in the first year of law school there are typically no homework assignments and students are responsible for preparing for the final examination at the end of the term.  Your entire course grade is determined by the final exam.  In business school, homework may be assigned, especially for computation intensive courses, to allow you to practice and to correct errors in reasoning before the exams.

    No matter the choice to start at the business school or at the law school, spending an entire year at one school is beneficial because it  allows you to attend orientation and begin with your class at the school. You make friends, find study partners, and learn the ropes, etc.

    During year two of the JD/MBA program, you switch schools and take courses entirely at the other school.  Thus, I will begin my first year at Suffolk Law School this fall.

During year three and beyond, you can take courses at either school as your schedule allows so long as you fulfill your credit requirements at each school.

Just checking in...

This term has not been the best for me which is partly the reason for my lack of recent posts.  I'm not sure if it is the number of classes, type (I'm taking two on-line classes this term instead of just one), the combination of classes, adjustment to spring term, or maybe all of the above that make this term seem a lot more stressful than the previous one. 

Indeed, the weather during spring term is absolutely miserable.  I had the pleasure of completing my undergraduate degree in the Boston area, so I remember how hard it is to make a trail through mounds of snow and bitter winds to attend class and still be excited about having to do it.  It is not much better for graduate school. The weather definitely takes a toll on motivation. 

Also, I think that there is a difference in the amount of work required of me for this semester's classes in comparison to last semester.  Last semester I took Accounting (called Financial Control and Reporting) on-line and two classes on campus, Organizational Behavior and Operations Management.  This semester, I am taking two classes on-line, Marketing Management and Information Management, and only one, Economics, on campus.  It seems like the on-line classes require an extraordinary amount of work and much more group project work, and the latter has to be completed outside of class time.  I must admit that I am annoyed to say the least.

It's annoying for two reasons. First, the on-line professors seem to have something to prove through assigning mountains of work.  It's as if they feel a need to justify the on-line nature of the class in doing so.  I have heard this complaint from On-line MBA students at other schools as well.  Second, I find the excessive group work (and by excessive I mean more than one group assignment per class per term) annoying because most on-line students have a good amount of full-time work experience already and really don't need to "learn" how to work in a team.  I find myself not just juggling independent work like reading for class, family, class sessions, and work assignments, but also having to carve additional time out of my already, very overloaded schedule to complete group assignments with team members in different time zones without, I feel, a lot of real benefit.  On-line classes do not facilitate group work!  Sorry, it's just the nature of the beast. 

Please note that I am not in anyway suggesting that anyone not consider an on-line MBA program.  If anything, I am simply whining about the amount of work I have this semester.  I like the the flexibility that Suffolk offers in that I can take some classes on-line even though I am a part-time on campus MBA/JD student.  It's really helpful when I have to travel for work (like two weeks ago when I went to Orlando for a conference - ah the 80 degree weather... ok, back to reality). The best part about Suffolk's on-line MBA program is that the students in it will receive a regular degree.  It won't say on-line degree.  If you are considering an on-line program, be prepared for tons of work!!  In my opinion, on-line classes require more work and time than attending class in person.

As I struggle to stay a float this term, I will also desperately try to post to the blog more often so that you, readers, can gain insight into more of my experiences -- good and ugly.  Don't forget that you can email me at quipus59924 [at] mypacks [dot] net  It's an anonymous address that I set up for the purposes of this blog.  Talk to you soon.

JD/MBA joint degree program - Part 1 Admissions (continued 2)

Hi all,

In the last post, I promised to list some of books and websites (etc.) that I used and found helpful during my JD/MBA admissions process.  The following is not an exhaustive list of all the resources that I used; instead, it is a list of my favorites (the resources I found most useful) only. Here they are in no significant order:

Books for law school admissions:
The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions (ISBN: 0156029790, 978-0156029797)
Essays That Worked for Law Schools (IBSN: 0345450426, 978-0345450425)
http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/content_index.cfm (Practice workbooks for Games, Reasoning, and Reading)

Web sites for law school admissions:
www.vault.com (See the law school community forum)
www.lawschoolnumbers.com (Use as a "where should I apply" guide)
www.annaivey.com
www.lsac.org
www.powerscore.com (See test taking tips.)
www.kaptest.com (Join the Kaplan community and view comments about the test centers in your area. Some are much more comfortable than others.  Suffolk University ranked the highest!)

Books for business school admissions:
Your MBA Game Plan: Proven Strategies for Getting Into the Top Business School (ISBN 1564149684, 9781564149688)
GMAT CAT: Answers to the Real Essay Questions (ISBN: 0768911737, 978-0768911732 )

Web sites for business school admissions:
www.businessweek.com/bschools/ (Try the forum)
www.annaivey.com
www.mba.com

If you have questions about how I used any of these resources, please email me.  I can be reached at "quipus59924"@"mypacks.net".  Note: I used four quotation marks here to prevent automatic spamming to my email inbox. To use the email address you must first remove the all of the quotation marks. 

JD/MBA joint degree program - Part 1 Admissions (continued 1)

ADMISSION ESSAYS (this part is continued from a previous post)
My approach to the JD/MBA admissions essays was to look at and compile a list of questions from various b-school applications (whether I ended up applying to these schools or not).  I then thoughtfully answered each of the questions (length of answer should be at least a paragraph) and use the answers to construct a personal statement and to write the other essays.  Tip: A personal statement that touches on "where I've been", "where am I going", and "how will this degree from this school help to get where I am going" is always a safe topic. You can also use one such  essay for both the b-school and law school at various institutions and thereby save time.

ADMISSIONS EXAMS
You may have to take two exams -- the LSAT for law school and the GMAT for business school.  Some schools, like Suffolk, only require one exam (typically the LSAT).  Make sure that you do your research on what your target schools will accept before hand, so that you start off with the right exam and have time to plan a solid strategy.  The exams are totally different and test completely different abilities. If you plan to take both exams within the same calendar year leave at least 4 mos. between the exams to relax your mind and to take retakes if necessary.  The GMAT is "computerized" and is offered frequently. The LSAT (currently not computerized) is only offered only a few times a year, so you will have to take this into account. For example, you may take the February LSAT and then take the GMAT in July or August before the admissions cycle begins. You don't want to be taking exams and filling out applications at the same time so get the testing out of the way before then. Study time will vary per person per exam. TIP: Take a practice LSAT and GMAT immediately under timed conditions to see where you stand. (You can download, buy or get information on where to get practices exams directly from the testing authority websites.) Compare your practice scores to the averages of those at your target schools. Based on this comparison, determine if you can study on your own for the exam or will need to take a test prep course. My favorite test prep is PowerScore for both LSAT and GMAT.  I've also heard that Manhattan GMAT is good too.  Basically, any of the test prep companies (Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc.) are fine if you are willing to put in the time to improve your score.

On the next post, I will wrap up PART 1 on JD/MBA degree programs with a list of my favorites.  This list will include books and websites that I found helpful during my application process.