—ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN The Gulag Archipelago (1973)
99
The other students are scared, too.
Law school is tough for everyone, and law professors are often demanding and unclear. Owning your ignorance and asking questions are among your best tools for survival. The best questions to ask are often those you fear will make you appear stupid; the likelihood is high that other students will have the same questions. And perhaps as importantly, speaking up in class is good practice for speaking up in court.
100
You have to find a mentor; no one is going to make you a protégé.
It is unlikely anyone will seek you out to nurture your career, no matter how talented you are. Although many organizations have formal mentoring programs, a long-term mentor is usually someone you connect with over time on an intellectual and personal level.
You probably will have to do most of the work. Ask questions of those around you. Most people like to be asked for advice. Don’t worry about their stature; a low-ranking associate could soon be a partner. But make your requests manageable; ask for input on specific issues. Save broad questions of career and legal philosophy for after hours.
101
A career in law is continual preparation for a day that may never come.
Everything a lawyer does must be done with awareness of how it will hold up in a trial. Yet lawyers rarely get to argue in court. Even professional litigators spend little time in the courtroom, as over 90% of both criminal and civil cases are resolved prior to trial by plea bargain or settlement. Many suits are filed not with the goal of going to trial, but to prompt settlement by the other party.
A lawyer can’t merely love being a showman in a public arena; a lawyer must love the law.
Vibeke Norgaard Martin is an attorney in California. She practiced commercial litigation at a major international law firm before turning to civil rights litigation and criminal appeals. She has taught at the Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and worked for the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Previously, she clerked for the South African Constitutional Court.
Matthew Frederick, an architect, is the author of 101 Things I Learned® in Architecture School and the creator, editor, and illustrator of the 101 Things I Learned® series. He lives in Hudson, New York.
www.101thingsilearned.com
Other books in the series
101 Things I Learned in Business School
101 Things I Learned in Culinary School
101 Things I Learned in Engineering School
101 Things I Learned in Fashion School
101 Things I Learned in Film School
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (MIT Press)
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Notes
Lesson 2: Gallup, 2011
Lesson 21: LegalMetric, via “So Small a Town, So Many Patent Suits,” New York Times, 24 September 2006
Lesson 54: American Bar Association and U.S. Census Bureau
Lesson 56: Nolo
Lesson 62: Court Statistics Project, 2009
Lesson 71: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Census Bureau, and Office of the Federal Register
Lesson 77: After the JD Project, American Bar Foundation
Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Law school doesn’t teach laws.
Chapter 2: Lawyers must be honest, but they don’t have to be truthful.
Chapter 3: Lawyers are contextualists.
Chapter 4: You’re not a lawyer until you pass the bar.
Chapter 5: You can’t pass the bar until you’re a lawyer.
Chapter 6: All U.S. states except Louisiana have a primary heritage in English law.
Chapter 7: “Civil law” means two things.
Chapter 8: “Adversarial” isn’t necessarily bad.
Chapter 9: A legal ruling is the beginning, not the end, of the life of the law.
Chapter 10: Find one good case.
Chapter 11: Lawyers are incrementalists.
Chapter 12: In arguing before a California court, one may cite an unpublished case from Texas, but not an unpublished case from California.
Chapter 13: An appeal to an intermediate court is a right. An appeal to a court of last resort is a request.
Chapter 14: An Alabama Supreme Court case is not mandatory authority in a Minnesota court.
Chapter 15: A Supreme Court might be the lowest court.
Chapter 16: Requirement of a controversy
Chapter 17: Sometimes the U.S. Supreme Court overrules the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chapter 18
Chapter 19: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Chapter 20: Federal courts have limited jurisdiction.
Chapter 21: Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938)
Chapter 22: A copyright doesn’t protect an idea.
Chapter 23: Most areas of interest have a corresponding area of law practice.
Chapter 24: Hire a lawyer, even if you are one.
Chapter 25: The law creates fictional characters.
Chapter 26: Corporations have standing. Trees do not.
Chapter 27
Chapter 28: Explain it to an eight-year-old.
Chapter 29: The theory of a case
Chapter 30: Insight doesn’t arrive head-on.
Chapter 31
Chapter 32: Give your witnesses a home base.
Chapter 33: A hostile witness can be helpful.
Chapter 34: Avoid asking a question in court if you don’t already know the answer.
Chapter 35: Ways to discredit a witness
Chapter 36: Witnesses were once “suits.”
Chapter 37: Put some length in your briefs, but keep your motions short.
Chapter 38: Research isn’t finished until the deadline arrives.
Chapter 39: Writing isn’t recording your thoughts; it’s thinking on the page.
Chapter 40
Chapter 41: Good argument trumps good facts… if you’re a student.
Chapter 42: Don’t try to prove you are objectively right; show that your position is preferable to the alternative.
Chapter 43: If the law is in your favor, pound the law. If the facts are in your favor, pound the facts. If neither is in your favor, pound the table.
Chapter 44: Always be the most reasonable person in the room.
Chapter 45: Make a logical argument.
Chapter 46: Tell a compelling story.
Chapter 47: Let your citations argue for you.
Chapter 48: Master the transitions.
Chapter 49: Sometimes passive voice is stronger.
Chapter 50: Something reasonable is reasonable, not “not unreasonable.”
Chapter 51: Stop talking when you’ve made your point.
Chapter 52: How to misunderstand a contract
Chapter 53: The Peerless Case
Chapter 54: A lawyer may not practice law with a non-lawyer, unless the non-lawyer is in jail.
Chapter 55: One cannot simply sue, but must sue for something.
Chapter 56: You can’t sleep on your rights.
Chapter 57: An injured party has a responsibility to minimize the damage.
Chapter 58: Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., 248 N.Y. 339 (1928)
Chapter 59: The Thin Skull Rule
Chapter 60: Most of what happens in a civil trial happened before the trial.
Chapter 61: The party that alleges bears the burden of proof.
Chapter 62: The party that alle
ges gets an extra chance to argue its case.
Chapter 63: Keep it slightly above room temperature.
Chapter 64: What’s in dispute—facts or law?
Chapter 65: When meaning is contested, look to intent.
Chapter 66: A lawyer may not reveal that a client intends to commit a crime.
Chapter 67: 4 types of boundaries
Chapter 68: There are more than 300 nations within the United States.
Chapter 69: Felonies, misdemeanors, and wobblers
Chapter 70: If you’re going to spray graffiti, don’t do it on the Post Office.
Chapter 71
Chapter 72: You’re allowed to puff.
Chapter 73: Intent can be essential; motive rarely is.
Chapter 74: Guilty act + guilty mind = Guilty
Chapter 75: A criminal defendant may have to conduct a criminal investigation.
Chapter 76: Contingency fees are prohibited in criminal cases.
Chapter 77: An hour can be 116 minutes long.
Chapter 78: Invoking the Fifth Amendment in a criminal trial prevents self-incrimination. Invoking it in a civil trial may induce self-incrimination.
Chapter 79: If a client brings a friend to a meeting with an attorney, privilege might be lost.
Chapter 80: You don’t know the rule until you know the exceptions.
Chapter 81: Circumstantial evidence can be more damning than direct evidence.
Chapter 82: Useful evidence isn’t necessarily admissible evidence.
Chapter 83: Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966)
Chapter 84
Chapter 85: The integrity of the system is more important to the court than the truth of one case.
Chapter 86: Not guilty doesn’t mean innocent.
Chapter 87: A guilty verdict isn’t binding.
Chapter 88: Winning the battle might not be worth the collateral damage.
Chapter 89: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Chapter 90: Judges are biased.
Chapter 91
Chapter 92: States deliberately pass unconstitutional laws.
Chapter 93: Memory is a crime scene.
Chapter 94: Ronald Cotton exoneration
Chapter 95
Chapter 96: People act from a center of pain.
Chapter 97: There never was a Twinkie defense.
Chapter 98
Chapter 99: The other students are scared, too.
Chapter 100: You have to find a mentor; no one is going to make you a protégé.
Chapter 101: A career in law is continual preparation for a day that may never come.
About the Authors
Other books in the series
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Notes
Copyright
Copyright
The materials available in this book are for general informational purposes only and not meant to provide legal advice. We make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in this book. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing provided in this book should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent legal counsel. Contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.
Copyright © 2013 by Matthew Frederick
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Matthew Frederick is the series creator, editor, and illustrator.
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