Finals are almost over

It is time to take a break. If you find yourself remaining in the Bay Area for the holiday break you are in luck. The San Francisco Bay Area is the best place in the world for low cost fun. Simply meandering the city is fun enough. There are numerous no cost places to visit. Take, for instance, the Palace of Fine Arts. The structure was originally built for the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Only the center dome remains. The rest of the structure is in ruins. The Palace contains no fine art, but sits adjacent to a beautiful man made lagoon filled with swans, ducks, geese, frogs and turtles. The park area surrounding the lagoon is home to a large raccoon population. One could spend a brisk morning walking the grounds while gawking at the numerous wedding parties who come to pose for photographs.

If you prefer your Fine Art to showcase fine art you can visit the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Golden Gate Park. If you do not want to pay the ticket price of $10, you can always enjoy the Legion's stunning architecture and magnificent locale. The Legion is within a short hike to Land's End, the park not the parka purveyor. From there you could hike down to the beach or the Sutro Baths.

If you prefer to stay in the East Bay you will still have plenty to do and see for free. The East Bay Regional Park District offers activities ranging from hiking to horse back riding. You can even find a place to practice your archery skills among the trees.

Whether you stay in the Bay Area for your break or get out of town, it is important that you take a well deserved break. You will need to re-charge and decompress before you start the process all over again in 2009.

BLSA's Holiday Food Drive

The JFK Black Law Students Association has organized a food drive on behalf of the Emeryville Community Action Program. You can drop off any non-perishable food item at the Berkeley or Pleasant Hill Law Library from December 1st until December 15th. Don't just raid your own cupboard. Raid the cupboard of your friends, family and neighbors!

Exam Taking Tips - The Menu Approach

Law school exams test students in a subject area by creating scenarios that the student must address in a logical and comprehensive fashion. The student is tested on whether she knows the law and recognizes the legal issues presented in the hypothetical. Knowing the law and recognizing the issues is half the battle. Writing a coherent answer that speaks to each issue is the other half of the battle. For those who are nervous when taking exams the Menu approach will be helpful.


The Menu approach is simply creating a list of issues, or menu items that may possibly arise on the exam. This list can be created from your outline and class notes. If you cannot bring your outline or notes into the exam, you should memorize the list of issues. Before even reading the exam you should write out your menu. Then when you read the exam you can jot down notes next to each issue that you find in the exam. You are graded on whether you spot the issues and on how you address each issue and sub-part. If you have a list or menu of possible issues it is easier to organize your answer and spot all the issues under pressure.

Creating Outlines

The benefit of an outline is derived in the process of creating the outline more so than the outline itself. An outline is essentially a roadmap of the material, condensed and focused based on what you were taught in class. Over the course of a semester students gradually learn the concepts and how each relates to the material as a whole. Outlining is a method of integrating the concepts and finding the connections. Students who use outlines they did not create may be able to get through an exam simply memorizing the black letter law (BLL), but that student will be at a disadvantage relative to the students who put the time and effort into creating their own outlines.

The nuts and bolts of outlining…

Start with your notes. Depending on how the class was organized and the lectures were structured you can use your own notes as a roadmap for your outline, or the syllabus or even the table of contents from the class text. The topic headings in your outline should be the BLL, as described by your professor and supplemented by reference materials. Under each header, briefly describe the major legal concepts (including the grey areas and conflicting authority) and the major cases that elucidate those legal concepts. If there are any cases that your professor spent a great deal of time on, be sure to include those cases and a write a longer discussion of the facts, procedural posture, and relevance of those cases. Remember that the professor expects everyone to know the BLL cold before sitting for the exam. The professor is not testing your memorization skills. You are being tested on whether you can think like a lawyer. That means recognizing issues and applying the law to those issues in a way that recognizes the obvious and teases out nuance. Know the rules, know the exceptions and know where the murky areas are so that you can argue both sides.

You must also know how the professor conceptualizes the issues. You cannot get this from a commercial outline. You can only get this from sitting down with your notes and grinding out an outline. Where your notes are unclear, go to a commercial outline or a trusted friend or a hornbook. You can also show up at your professor’s office hours or to a review session and use that time to get clarity on any outstanding issue.

Rule of Thumb: not too long (don’t re-write the book) and not too short. 20 to 40 pages is the consensus.

What we are reading...

The Invisible Constitution, by Lawrence Tribe, argues that there are two versions of the US Constitution. One is the text and the other is the "document's shadow." That part of the text that is unwritten, but nevertheless there to be pieced together from bits and pieces. Between amendments, decisions and the original text Tribe details how the "invisible constitution" has evolved. Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, now is a great time to read a book that provides an analytical argument against "textualism" and "strict construction." To be honest, any time is a great time to read a Lawrence Tribe exegesis on constitutional law.

The Curve

Law students and, believe it or not, law professors do not like the curve. There are no established guidelines that all law schools must follow. Generally, grades must follow a distribution set by the administration. Historically all law schools have adhered to a curve structure so students could be easily ranked. If all students received the same grade it would be difficult for employers to recruit only the "top" students and sell their services based on only hiring the "best." Some top law schools are moving away from the letter grade model. Notre Dame, Columbia and Boalt Hall are among the highly ranked schools who have moved away from mandated curves and grades. Boalt has a pass/fail system with 40% of students receiving a pass with honors. JFKU law school’s curve remains firmly in place.

Barbara Glesner outlines the arguments for and against the curve and grading in Competition and the Curve, 65 UMKC L. Rev. 879 (1997) [Available at Hein Online and Westlaw. Use http://www.jfku.edu/schools/libraries/law/ as a web portal to the resources]. The argument against grades she posits is that grades do not induce learning behavior, but anyone who drifted through Legal Writing and Research because it was the only p/f course will tell you that the graded courses provided more incentive to hit the books. Glesner argues that law schools need to sort students and the most effecient and fair way to do that is to employ a curve.

Although the curve may seem unfair to law students, many schools employ the curve to ensure fairness in the sorting process. A student's ranking within her class should not be left to the vagaries of class scheduling. Law school is a highly competitive learning environment. The curve only increases competitiveness. Is this a good thing? Do we want to inculcate the next generation of lawyers in such a cut-throat environment?


So, by now you are probably wondering how do you defeat the curve. The answer is really quite simple. Lay out an answer that so far exceeds a 70 that you will no longer be in danger of being on the low end of a curve. Check out earlier blog posts that give helpful suggestions for exam preparation.

Victim Impact Evidence - Kelly v. California

The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of two defendants convicted of capital murder. The defendants argued that the victim impact videos shown during the sentencing phase of their respective trials unduly prejudiced the jury against them. Souter, Stevens and Breyer voted in favor of hearing the appeal, but the court requires 4 votes to hear an appeal. The two men were sentenced to death.

There are several cogent arguments against victim impact videos. Justice Steven's argued that the videos add nothing, but invite juries to make decisions based on sentiment over reason. Another argument is that victim impact videos cause further stratification among victims. The victim impact statements and testimony already give greater voice to those who left behind eloquent and passionate loved ones. Now will we see justice hinge on whether the victim's life can be summed up on video?

Prop 8: When is a Constitutional Amendment not a Constitutional Amendment?

While millions of absentee ballots are still being counted, and LGBT groups have yet to concede defeat on Proposition 8, odds are that the proposition restricting marriage to one man-one woman has passed. While the results thus far show that a slight majority of Californians (approximately 53%) voted in support of the proposition, the question now occupying legal scholars is simply, is that enough? Proposition 8 changes the California Constitution so that same-sex couples no longer have the right to marry. While it is clear that the California Constitution can be altered in some ways by a simple majority vote of the populace, it is far from clear that this kind of change - identifying one group among many similar groups and taking away a right given to all other groups - can be accomplished through a bare majority. The NCLR, ACLU and Lambda Legal brought this issue before the California Supreme Court as soon as Proposition 8 was certified for the ballot. However, the Court felt that the issue was not yet ripe since it was possible that the election itself would make this issue moot. That did not happen, the three groups have again filed with the Court a writ asking that Proposition 8 be rejected as an impermissable revision to the California Constitution. Read the petition at http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/CampaignPetition.pdf?docID=4321.

Do you think the opponets of Proposition 8 have a good case?

California Bar Exam

The California Bar Exam is tough and expensive. There are grants available to help defray the costs. Check out this website.

http://foundationstatebarcal.org/programs/scholarships/rosenthal.html

Once you have ponied up the money for the bar you have to pass it unless you want to pay up again. There are countless websites offering advice on how to approach the bar exam. Ms. JD offers a humor along with her test taking tips at http://ms-jd.org/topic/features/advicepassingbarexam. Diane Curtis writes about a man who sat for the CA bar 47 times at http://calbar.wordpress.com/. The 48th time was a charm. And last, but not least the "Bar Guru" offers advice and useful links on everything bar related at http://barexamguru.wordpress.com/category/california-bar-exam/. The Bar Guru is a bar review company, however, they offer free workshops, advice and a lot of free and useful material on their website.

Exam Prep

Finals are fast approaching. Everyone has a different way to study. Some people can study with their iPod blaring and others need total silence (good luck finding that). A lot of people can study in groups. I never could. What I did do to get me through law school was to OUTLINE. Outlining is the most boring thing on the planet, but the tedious plodding will pound the law into your head.

If anyone has another tried and true way to get through give me a shout.

The Berkeley Campus

JFK University's Berkeley law library is complete. We now have wireless internet, computers and heat! We also have all the resources you need to research California law. Students are encouraged to drop in to study, ask reference questions or just see what is happening.

Those of you who are studying for the February bar are encouraged to check this site regularly for bar prep advice and a pep talk.