The Economy Bites

Now is not the best time to be on the job market, but it is a great time to be hiding in graduate school. The upside is that you can expand your skills and marketability instead of being lucky to be employed or finding yourself underemployed or unemployed. The downside is the increase in applicants makes each school that much harder to get into. Having successfully completed a JD or being in the process of doing so gives you an edge over the competition. What graduate degree you pair your JD with depends on what you want to do when you graduate. The choices are numerous, but a few readily spring to mind: MBA, MPP, and MPA. JFK has an MBA program and several other local universities have MPP and MPA programs (MPP and MPA degrees are very similar). For those of you who have not had your fill of law school, you can also get an LLM. Unlike, the other programs mentioned, an LLM is a one year program as opposed to a two year program.

An MBA does not carry the same cachet as it once did. In fact, many people blame our current economic crisis on the MBA crowd. Nonetheless, training in finance and business pairs well with training in the law. An MPP or an MPA also pairs well with a law degree. Making public policy can be challenging without a lawyer's understanding of how to interpret caselaw and knowledge of rule making procedures and much of the law is poorly understood without a grasp of the public policy reasons and implications of a judges' decisions. Both educational programs teach a little of the other. An MPA/MPP provides in depth training in policy analysis, administration and implementation which you will not get in law school. Dual JD/MPAs or MPPs typically go to work for government agencies, special interest organizations or politicians.

And for those of you who really enjoy spending time in the library, there is always library school. An MLS takes one year and an MLIS takes two years. Either way, it is an entree to a noble profession filled with very quiet people.

Acronyms
MBA = Master of Business Administration
MPP= Master of Public Policy
MPA= Master of Public Administration
LLM= Legum Magister or the feminine Legum Magistra
MLS= Master of Library Science
MLIS= Master of Library and Information Science

Reading is Fundamental

Reading is an important skill for a lawyer. Although every person in law school can read, some are better readers than others. Like any other skill, reading improves through practice. One way to practice is to read things you normally would not. In your daily practice you will come across well written opinions, letters, reports, etc. You will also encounter poorly written items. If you practice reading things you are unfamiliar with you will train yourself to be a more careful reader. For those who enjoy reading Mother Jones, try reading the National Review. The point of view and style of writing differ dramatically from MJ so you will not be able to guess where the sentence is going, but you will have to parse each word. Try reading articles from the list of periodicals below to flex your reading muscles.

Mother Jones
National Review
Christian Science Monitor
Wall Street Journal
San Francisco Chronicle
Economist
New York Times
The Onion

Not only will practice improve your reading skills, it will also improve your writing skills. In order to get through unfamiliar items you will necessarily learn new vocabulary words and be exposed to various writing styles. The process of reading about current events from different ends of the political spectrum will also hone your skills at recognizing different styles of argument and analysis.

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.