3L law students know that organization in law school is crucial for success. Here is a nice post about how one law student uses GTD in law school. read more | digg story

Law School Outlines, Exams, Tools & Tips – 1L, 2L, 3L & Pre-Law

JD2B, a blog for law students, has a survey of its readers on its front page. What is surprising is that when asked whether “gaining a law degree is a good investment,” over half the readers in the survey answered, “no, in fact, I think it is not an investment at all.”

What do you think? Is a law degree a good investment? Also, what is the reason for your opinion? Please add your comments below.

I believe a law degree is a good investment even though law school costs three years of law students’ lives and nearly $100,000, and many attorneys make surprisingly little money (see Why Most Law School Graduates Earn Less Money Than They Expect, The Amount of Money Law School Graduates Actually Earn, and More on Graduating Law Students’ Employment Prospects).

A law degree is more than a degree. The law degree represents years of learning how to analyze intangible thoughts and concepts (often called “thinking like a lawyer”). A law degree also involves years of training in legal writing, research, and studying the writings of some of the brightest minds in history. These aspects will benefits students for the rest of their lives whether they are a lawyer or not.

Law school helps people make decisions in life, analyze factors and information, and articulate these decisions. This helps in the role of parent, friend, co-worker, and whatever profession the law school graduate eventually chooses.

In short, law school is expensive, but its value far exceeds the mere value of a lawyer’s salary.

For a somewhat contrary view, discussing the consequences of law school, consider reading Are Law Students Emotional Wrecks?

11-23-07 Update: This article has been updated. Please read Many Law Graduates Disappointed: Few Jobs, Low Salaries, High Stress.

The legal job market is competitive. Many law students wonder how to stand out from the crowd. A few students at Georgia State School of Law may have accidentally done just that. They are using the web to improve access to the law. These students prepared online legal research guides that give in-depth overviews of developing areas of law in Georgia legal practice.

What value is this on a resume? What value will it be to the legal community? It will be interesting to see how the legal community responds to this. Providing legal research on cutting-edge areas of law would seem to be valuable to the Georgia legal community, assuming the materials reflect effective legal research and writing.

This example of providing free online legal resources on developing areas of law may be a good model for law students in other states.

Law School success is all about intellectual ability. The question is, are you stuck with the intellectual ability you were born with or can you become smarter?

The obvious answer is that you can become smarter. The more you learn, the more knowledge you can build upon. The more you learn, the more your brain improves its capacity to learn. The more you push your brain through mental exercises, the more agile your brain becomes. Studies abound with evidence supporting these premises.

So where do you start? How do you become smarter? It seems easier said than done. Fortunately, one blogger prepared a number of great tips.

There is no quick-fix, easy way to become instantly smarter. It’s a process over time. There is no 3 step formula to increasing your intelligence. But since you must start somewhere, why not start with these thought provoking ideas.

These are great ideas to ponder. Identify which steps would be most valuable for you, and take steps (schedule them on your calendar, etc.) to implement them in your life.

Without further ado, here are 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner from the Lawsagna blog:

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1: Setting your learning objectives
Step 2: Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3: Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4: Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5: Determining the “IIQ” of what you read
Step 6: Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7: “The Three ‘P’s of Performance” in Action
Step 8: Tapping into your social networks
Step 9: Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10: Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11: Managing your energy
Step 12: Focusing on how you think
Step 13: Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14: Asking Good Questions
Step 15: Condensing your knowledge
Step 16: Memorizing
Step 17: Becoming a reflective learner
Step 18: Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines

Of course, being smart is only one of the factors that leads to success. Hard work, an environment that offers the resources needed for growth, and creativity are other important factors to success. Here is a good article on how to be more creative.

To get good grades, do you have to read the cases? How much should I use law school subject outlines? These are questions that many law students wonder.

Curious about these questions, I did an informal poll among my friends on law review, other law students, and successful attorneys. Please note, this survey is about as unscientific as it gets, but the results might still be of some value as you consider your own situation.

Law Students

First, students with grade in the top 1-3% of our class consistently read all the assigned cases, and often used outlines, study aids, or hornbooks when they didn’t understand an area.

Above Average Law Students

Law students who did above average often did not read all the cases. Instead, they adopted a strategy that worked for their lifestyle or a particular class. In particular, they focused on the goal of knowing the material, using law outlines or study aids to learn some courses rather than reading all the cases.

The Problem of Focusing Solely on Cases

Some students “miss the forest for the trees.” That is, some students focus so much on the cases, they forget that the cases are merely vehicles to learn legal doctrines. Students may understand the blackletter law in cases, but not understand how each rule fits into the larger context of the legal doctrine.

General Strategies

Rather than merely reading cases, many successful students review an outline first. This outline explains the basic legal concepts and how they fit together. Once the student has an understanding of the general concepts, reading cases puts “meat on the bones,” as they say. In other words, the cases provide illustrations of the concepts that the law student already generally understands. The cases also provide more details for the concepts.

The point here is that students who focus on understanding the legal subjects tend to do better than those who merely read the cases.

Why Law Students Skip Reading Cases

Law students often have interruptions in their law school education. These interruptions might be from illness, family or friend relationships, a job, or self-initiated breaks for mental sanity. Whatever the reason, time is limited so law students may have to choose between reading all the cases for class or reading only some of the cases and reading some outlines.

How to Skip Cases

If you are going to skip some cases, here are some things to consider.

1. You can still get an “A” grade if you skip cases—its been done many times—but your odds of getting an “A” grade are probably reduced. Still, skipping cases and gaining some extra time might be smarter for you when considering the broader issues of your life.

2. Do not skip cases in a course if the exam in that course will require knowledge of many case names. If you haven’t read the cases, you may have a hard time learning the case names later and remembering the facts or concepts of the cases. Fortunately, final exams rarely require knowledge of many case names (with exceptions for Criminal Procedure and a few other classes). Normally, if law students need to know the names of cases, law students only need to know a few case names. For example, you will need to know International Shoe in Civil Procedure.

3. Think about what information you will need in each course’s final exam. If you primarily need to know the blackletter law, you can skip through some cases and highlight the blackletter law for later. If you don’t understand the blackletter law, read more of the case so you do understand it.

If you are in a rules-based course, like Civil Procedure or Tax, make sure you understand the rules and how they apply. You may be able to skip other stuff in a case.

4. Pay attention to the casebook’s table of contents. From this, law students can often determine the main concept in a case. If law students don’t have time to read the entire case, they can at least review a study aid explaining the concept before arriving at class.

5. If you skip a case, read a summary of it in a law school study aid or outline, so at least you know the main points.

6. Sometimes, the law school professor teaches from a hornbook rather than the casebook. In these rare situations, you are probably better off buying the hornbook and skipping the casebook. How do you know what a professor does? Talk to upper-level law students who have taken the course.

7. Sometimes a law school professor tells you everything you need to know for the exam during his lectures. In fact, you may not have to read the casebook at all. I had one class like this; I read only three cases, listened to Sum & Substance, took excellent notes in class, and received an “A” grade. I’m not recommending you do this for all your classes, but for me, it worked for this class, and the time I saved allowed me to spend more time reading cases and outlines for other classes.

Conclusion

These tips are not intended to encourage law students to skip their assigned law school readings. Rather, these tips are a part of a much broader strategy in law school: since you have limited time, focus on what counts, learning the best way for your individual style, even if it isn’t the standard approach.

Find the methods of learning that work best for you, whether it is focusing on study aids or cases, study groups or studying alone, studying 16 hours a day or 8 hours a day, etc. Also, find the methods of learning that work best for the final exam in each of your classes—your approach to each class should be customized to that class’s final exam.

A good list of tips or advice for law students is hard to find, even on the internet. Job Profiles published this list of 100 Tips and Resources to be a Happy, Successful Lawyer. These tips and resources are a great, especially for some easy summer reading before law school starts again for the school year.

The tips excerpted below are from the tips for law school students and new lawyers. However, check out the entire list if you are interested in a number of good tips for lawyers and life as an attorney.

84. LSAC: College students and law school students who are starting to plan their legal careers need to go over the resources on this official site.
85. About Law School: The Princeton Review: Get an overview of what to expect in law school, from applications to the first year experience to picking a specialization to legal clinics.
86. There’s No Competition in Law School: A group of 3Ls shares advice for younger law students while also doling out the real-life misery and fun of being a law school vet.
87. Tips for Summer Associates: Lydia R.B. Kelley stresses the importance of knowing deadlines for summer associates.
88. JD Law Students Blog: Various law students “share their thoughts and experiences” for the benefit of other students and future law students.
89. Links for New Lawyers: Get survival tips and help choosing a firm with this guide.
90. Marketing and Networking: A Conceptual Framework: New lawyers get a crash course in networking and promoting themselves and their practice in this article.
91. Five Indispensable Tips for Law Students and New Lawyers: The Legal Underground shares tips like “learn to use legal technology” and “don’t be an asshole” to give new lawyers’ careers a boost.
92. Firm Attorneys Offer Tips for Summer Associates: The Virginia law school site posts this article that will help summer associates land a job at the firm.
93. 10 Survival Tips for New Associates: Tips like “don’t be afraid to be a new associate,” “know the rules,” and “stay in touch with friends” will help new associates adjust to their new life.

Finals are over.  Are you ready to reward yourself by spending your Lexis and WestLaw points?  Why not get a head start on the Fall semester and double your points at the same time: Both companies let you double your point’s spending-power when buying their study aids.

Students are often too busy to worry about loan consolidation. But after graduation, when student loan payments become due, student loan consolidation becomes even more important. Unfortunately, the loan consolidation process can be overwhelming for some. This page seeks to inform students of their options.

If you don’t consolidate your student loans, you are missing out on a number of benefits.

Student Loan Consolidation Benefits

By consolidating your student loans, you can benefit in a number of ways. Most peoople think they should shop for the best interest rate when consolidating their student loans. This isn’t entirely true. All lenders use the same interest rate when consolidating your federal student loans, but some lenders offer discounts once you start paying on your loan.

Student Loan Consolidation Discounts

The student loan discounts include a discount for timely payments over a period of time, such as timely student loan payments for the first six months of your student loans.

Student loan discounts may also include a rate reduction for setting up automated payment from your bank account. These discounts can become substantial over time, making student loan consolidation a popular option for law students after graduation.

Finally, law students benefit from loan consolidation if they have multiple student loans with multiple lenders. It is inconvenient to make payments and receive bills from multiple student loan lenders each month. By consolidating, you can reduce the headache of all this paperwork.

Disadvantages of Student Loan Consolidation

There are a few reasons not to consolidate your student loans.

1. More Interest Due for Extended Repayment Periods.
   If your loan consolidation allows you to pay less each month, you are probably extending repayment period of the loan, and this may increase the total interest charged on the loan.But you don’t have to extend the loan repayment period when you consolidate. This is merely an option, but you should know the consequences if you choose this option. In short, you can reduce your payments now, but you will pay more interest in the long run.
2. Grace Period. Borrowers who consolidate in the grace period will lose any grace period that would otherwise remain if they had not consolidated their loan.
3. Rate Decreases. You would not want to consolidate your student loans if
   1. your student loans are on an adjustable interest rate, and
   2. that interest rate is going to go down. If the interest rate is going down, you would want to wait until it went down to consolidate your student loans.

Generally, there really is no reason not to consolidate your loans, unless (1) you are within a grace period because you graduated in the past six months or so, or (2) you believe the rates on your student loans will decrease in the future, so you want to wait to lock in at a lower rate.

Student Loan Consolidation Interest Rates

As you might imagine, guessing the rate increases and decreases is part science, part witchcraft. For this reason, many law school graduates consolidate within the first year or two after graduating from law school. It makes sense to lock in a fixed interest rate so you know what you will be paying, reduce the law school student loan bills you receive, and hopefully benefit from some other discounts offered by student loan consolidation lenders.

Student Loan Consolidation Lenders

For law student loans, I use and recommend Access Group because its loans have no fees, plus it offers discounts after graduation for timely payments and automatic payments. I doubt there is a better place for law students.

Of course, there are many quality online lenders that offer student loan consolidation, and I recommend you compare what they have to offer to find the best program for you.

My Student Loans

The U.S. Department of Education offers a website where students with student loans in the United States can see a list of all their student loans. Students with a lot of student loans are often confused about how many loans they have and which lenders their loans are with. This website is a great way to find out what student loans you have and which lender you used for each student loan. Visit My Student Loans to find out more.

Update: Here are some additional resources on online law schools and online law degrees.

Have you ever wondered whether online law schools are scams? To date, the American Bar Association has not approved any online law schools. Recently, advertisements on Law Student have included Google ads for online law degrees. We can’t easily prevent these ads, but we can evaluate them.

What is wrong with online law degrees and online law schools?
Google ads promote Concord Law School, California School of Law, and The Novus University. Many other online law schools exist, such as the William Howard Taft University and the Oak Brook College of Law and Government Policy.

The problem is these online law schools are not approved by the American Bar Association, and as a result, very few states will allow graduates of these schools to take the bar exam required to become a licensed attorney in that state. In other words, students can get online law degrees, but they can’t practice law in most states.

California is the Exception for Online Law School Admission
California is one state with an exception. California does not require students to have degrees from an ABA approved law school before taking the California bar exam. However, passing the California Bar Exam is very difficult. And statistically, students from law schools not approved by the ABA fail the California Bar Exam more often than other students.

Other California Challenges: Passing the Bar and Getting a Job
Once students from a law school not approved by the ABA pass the California Bar Exam, they have other problems.

First, these students can generally only practice in California, but some states make exceptions after the student practices law in California for a few years.

The next challenge is getting a job. Students from a law school not approved by the ABA will automatically be categorized as less qualified than other law school graduates, which is especially a problem in a tough job market with many law students seeking legal jobs.

Deception of Online Law Schools and Students’ Reliance on the Deception
The problem with online law schools is they advertise themselves using terms like “accredited,” “recognized,” or “registered with the State Bar of California.” This misleads prospective students into believing an online law degree has the same credentials and standing as a law degree from an ABA approved law school. In reliance on this, students invest thousands of dollars and years of their lives only to experience great disappointment upon realizing the limitations of an online law degree.

On the Other Hand
Of course, there are students who realize the limitations of an online law degree. Also, some students wouldn’t be able to get any law degree if they couldn’t get an online law degree. Further, students may not want to practice law, so they don’t care about not being able to take the Bar Exam. Finally, some students of these schools are happy with their online law degree.

While all these things may be true, two concerns remain:

1. Most students seeking online law degrees probably don’t know how limited their degree is, and they don’t know the challenges they face.
2. Even if students know the limitations of an online law degree and don’t intend to practice law, they may change their mind about this after it’s too late. They will have spent thousands of dollars and years of their lives on a degree that fails to allow them to practice in the exact area they have been trained.

Conclusion: Enroll in Online Law Schools with ALL the Facts

I have no axe to grind with online law schools. But people considering an online law degree deserve to enroll with their eyes wide open. Online law schools should not mislead students into thinking their law degree is equivalent to a law degree from an ABA approved law school.

Learn More About Earning Your Law School Degree Online

This article is one of a series of online law school articles. Read the series here: online law school.

For more information, visit our Online Law Schools section or this website: Law School Online.