Wanna succeed in law school? Get M.A.D.!

[($)]

Law school is simply a rite of passage; you have to go to law school to be able to take a bar exam so that you can obtain a license to practice law. Law school will not teach you to be an attorney, nor to think like one, nor will it give you the business skills that will ensure your success as a practicing attorney. Law school will expose you to the law, and whether you learn anything will be strictly up to you and no one else.

The teaching methods used by professors in law school are determined by economics and the fact that most professors hate teaching and would rather be playing golf, writing books, taking the next big case, or trying to get their own show on TV.

The "Socratic Method" is used because it's inexpensive and can accommodate a large number of students. It has its merits, but as far as teaching someone to think and act like a lawyer it falls short of what is required. The "Socratic Method" is effective in teaching philosophy and that is exactly what you will learn in law school: the philosophy of law.

Learning to argue and think like a lawyer is strictly a matter of good legal research and experience. It is the art of persuasion. Such a skill can only be learned over a period of time and with experience. The "Socratic Method" plays no role in developing legal research skills, and only a small role in developing the art of persuasion.

It is for this reason that the vast majority of lawyers who practice are mediocre. In addition, the majority of law school graduates do not practice law five years after graduation.

What's wrong? Nothing, really. It's just that law schools have a monopoly and for the most part are enjoying it. Law schools and the practice of law are nothing more than a business. The sooner you realize this the better off you will be.

This may seem very cynical but it was written to try and make a point. Do not be impressed by or scared about what will happen in law school. Law school is not a "Paper Chase", although some professors love the image of Kingsfield tearing apart students causing them to melt in nervous breakdowns. Remember, the person who asks the questions using the "Socratic Method" wins the argument.

Remember the vast amount of anxiety you feel as a law student is because you are faced with the unknown on a large number of levels. You are with people you do not know, and you have no idea who to believe with all the "worthless" advice you are receiving without ever checking who is giving it.

In response to this stress most of you will abandon all the methods you have used in the past to learn things. Don't be so stupid. The same thing that got you good grades in undergrad or in any other higher education endeavor will be the same thing that gets you through law school except for one minor difference. All the material you learn in law school builds upon each element so you must learn and remember it all and not do a data dump after each test.

To get through law school you only need to do five things:

- Memorize the law.
- Learn the application of the law.
- Learn the skill of issue spotting.
- Learn the skill of exam writing.
- Learn the methods of legal research.

So don't get frustrated, don't get nervous, don't go crazy studying everything, just get M.A.D.

The M.A.D. study method is unique to the Study Partner law outlines. It consists of the following study methods:

* MEMORIZE

* APPLY

* DISSERTATE

[lipper]

i agree with almost everything you said.

Majority of law graduates do not practice law after 5 years?

[arioso]

i agree with almost everything you said.

Majority of law graduates do not practice law after 5 years?

Sarcastic maybe? Literal, yet figurative?! Lawyerspeak, anyone?!

[katrina]

According to LSAT "majority" may well mean 50% + 1.

LOL!

[istically]

i agree with almost everything you said.

Majority of law graduates do not practice law after 5 years?

Well, I guess, many lawyers get disgusted with the law profession, taking into account how unethical it is!

[spouse]

tag

[mrbig]

here,

[...] When you think about the complaints you've heard from friends in small offices, you can place almost every complaint as being caused by the pattern I'm talking about. So what should you do? That is the question facing the 75% of law school grads who end up in the kind of practice that law school ignores. Well, you can drop out of the practice of law. Between 40% and 50% of all law school graduates drop out. There are very real options to the practice of law.[...]

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,38675.msg945165.html#msg945165

i agree with almost everything you said.

Majority of law graduates do not practice law after 5 years?

[swtsheila]

Hi!! I am a new member of this website and really enjoyed reading "Wanna Succeed in Law School? Get M.A.D." I need all advice about studying for the LSAT, any recommended readings or study manuals, and picking a school.

If anyone can give me any advice, I would really appreciate it!! I would like to hear different perspectives and experiences!

Hope to hear from you soon!!
SwtSheila

[terapist]

i agree with almost everything you said.

Majority of law graduates do not practice law after 5 years?

here,

[...] When you think about the complaints you've heard from friends in small offices, you can place almost every complaint as being caused by the pattern I'm talking about. So what should you do? That is the question facing the 75% of law school grads who end up in the kind of practice that law school ignores. Well, you can drop out of the practice of law. Between 40% and 50% of all law school graduates drop out. There are very real options to the practice of law.[...]

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,38675.msg945165.html#msg945165

hmmm ...

[execstyle]

i agree with almost everything you said.

Majority of law graduates do not practice law after 5 years?

Sarcastic maybe? Literal, yet figurative?! Lawyerspeak, anyone?!

Tough to say what the deal is! Anyway, I'll post something that deals with something that can be "literal" and "figurative" at the same f**ckin' time

Here is an example of how one simple, seemingly mundane, statement can simultaneously have all three levels of meaning. Imagine, for instance, that we live in a city called 'Troy'. For us, the statement 'We live in Troy' would then express a literal truth. But the same sentence, 'We live in Troy', can also take on a figurative quality in certain contexts. For instance, if someone were to point out to us that some would-be friend means us harm and has snuck into our good graces with flattery and praise we could shrug off our naivety with the comment, 'We live in Troy', which is now an allusion to the Trojan Horse incident.

Or, aware of the fact that LePage described ancient Troy as a 'wisdom city' constructed in accord with mandalic principles that divide it into 'outer', 'inner', and 'secret' levels, one of us could use the same sentence to remind the other of the sacred nature of the city in which we live. In this case the words 'elicit', or 'draw forth' a realization of that 'secret' (ie, sacred) level of 'place', but also the words themselves are 'elicited', ie, 'evolved immediately from an active power or quality'. In the mind of one who uses them this way they come forth, like a joke, out of nothing, but also point back TO that nothing.

One can even imagine a situation in which the same sentence, 'We live in Troy', can have all three meanings at once. For instance - imagine that we have been considering making a move. And one day, while we are in the midst of talking about LePage's interesting comments about the three-fold structure of Troy, the doorbell rings. It is our friend and he has come to reveal to us that there is a traitor in our midst, a local man named 'Jack'. Seeing our friend's concern, one of us shrugs and says, 'We live in Troy'. The visitor takes it as a humorous allusion to the Trojan horse incident, and is relieved, thinking that it meant 'After all, in Troy, such things can be expected to happen'. But given our recent conversation, the other knows that 'We live in Troy' is also an expression of the decision that has just been made (to stay in Troy) - based partly on the realization that what the situation here needs is people who can see the politics in the current situation as an expression of deeper needs that are basically positive.

The comment happens in a split-second. Both of us spontaneously laugh, seeing humor in the fact that we have been writing about the motif of jewels hidden in less desirable objects, and are now presented with a real-life example of the converse situation - a wolf in sheep's clothing. And both images - diametrically opposed to each other - come together, in this synchronistic real-life event that invokes the image of 'Troy'. One might ask, Is it really a coincidence that the motifs of the Trojan Horse and the hidden kingdom should find a home in the mythology surrounding the same city?