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Law School Preparation Courses
Congratulations! You'll soon be going to law school! Unfortunately, staying in law school is much harder than getting in.
Law school is different from college in every imaginable way. You'll have an assigned seat, so the instructor can note your absence. Your textbooks contain both good theories and bad ones, with no explanation of which is which. A hundred pages of reading can be due before the first class.
The grading process is equally alien. For each class you'll have one final exam, three or four hours long, with perhaps two questions on it. Usually classroom participation, though required, won't contribute to your grade, and you have no quizzes or midterm exams. And that exam isn't much like those you've taken in college. You can analyze a hypothetical case, give the correct reasoning and get the correct outcome, and still get an average grade.
The DeLoggio Law School Achievement Program
can help you succeed in this difficult environment.
The first half of the program, Intro to Law School, will orient you to the teaching methods and study aids used in most law schools, while showing you the basic skills of briefing, synthesizing, and outlining cases. It will explain the interdisciplinary aspects of the legal system which are never taught in any classroom, but which are a necessary part of understanding the law.
The second portion, Law School Exams, will show you how to identify issues on an exam, organize and write a thorough answer, and allocate your time to maximize your grade.
The DeLoggio Approach
Most other programs try to give an overview of every first year subject. I believe that with this approach, you don't learn enough law in any one area to practice the classroom experience or exam techniques. I prefer using cases in one subject area. This approach offers several benefits:
Case briefing, outlining and exam taking are all taught using an integrated series of cases like the ones in your case books for law school. This allows us to explore the role of such pragmatic elements as burden of proof and political factors in understanding the cases you read, and an understanding of the elements of law and how they fit together.
The essence of "thinking like a lawyer" is the ability to assemble various pieces of information into a coherent view of the law on a given topic. You cannot practice this skill unless you look at a number of related cases in one area of law.
Even more important, you cannot practice writing a law school exam without the tools you will use to answer exam questions. Answering an exam question requires comparing the facts the professor gave you with a number of cases you've read. You draw a conclusion by deciding that the professor's case is similar to case X and unlike case Y. There is no way to practice this skill unless you are already familiar with cases X and Y.
This course is not a substitute for CLEO, or for an individual law school's summer start programs. No course is. A six week program exposes you to the harsh reality of studying at a grueling pace, night after night, for weeks.
However, this course gives you much more than the books you can read for a few dollars. Our Intro to Law School program will give you hands on experience with the basics, plus a sense of how one lesson in law school builds on another - the "case synthesis" that is the essential element of "thinking like a lawyer." Instead of telling what law school is like, as most commercial courses do, we'll throw you into the pool -- but only at the shallow end.
Program Content and Schedule
The program covers eight 4 hour lessons. The first four will require you to read, outline, and brief cases. After a day's break, the next four lessons will focus on exam writing. Classes will be held from Saturday, May 24, through Sunday, June 1. You must fly in Friday, May 23 and fly out Monday, June 2.
Part One: Intro to Law School
Lesson 1 - Orientation -- Saturday, May 24
- Curriculum: Courses, legal research and writing; case, problem and Socratic teaching methods.
- Resources: Textbooks, hornbooks, and study aids; the law library; study groups.
- Homework: Briefing, synthesizing, and outlining; time allocation.
- How to Brief Cases: facts, issues, procedure, and rationale.
Lesson 2 - Case Method -- Sunday, May 25
- Review Briefs
- Role-play Case Method class
- Common Law and Statutes
- Mandatory and Persuasive Authority
- How to Synthesize cases
Lesson 3 - Socratic Method -- Monday, May 26
- Review Synthesis
- Role-play Socratic Method class
- Law and Public Policy
- Time, Place, and Court
- Presumptions and Burdens and their effects on outcomes
- Outlining Cases
Lesson 4 - Problem Method -- Tuesday, May 27
- Review Outlines
- Role-play Problem Method class
- Flowcharts and Summaries
- Federal and State Law
- Substance and Procedure
- "Result oriented" Decisions
Part Two: Law School Exams
Lesson 1 - Issue Spotting -- Thursday, May 29
- What is an issue
- What isn't an issue
- Statutory and Common Law Approaches
- The Constitution as Statute
- Finding the Issues You Missed
- Outlines as Issue-Spotting Tools
Lesson 2 - Organization -- Friday, May 30
- Identifying the Elements
- Priority of Elements
- Negative and Affirmative Defenses
- The Outcome
- Outlines as Organizational Tools
Lesson 3 - Writing the Exam -- Saturday, May 31
- Issue, Rule, Fact, and Result
- How much to write
- Time Allocation
- Space Allocation
- Staying Organized
- Hiding What You Don't Know
- Outlines as Exam-Writing Tools
Lesson 4 - Practice Exams -- Sunday, June 1
- Two examination questions, one statutory and one common law, will be written in class and reviewed.
- Statutory Question will test your ability to address every issue in an organized and succinct manner.
- Common Law Question will test your ability to integrate doctrine and jurisprudence in determining the outcome of a case.
Costs
Rooms cost about $90/night for a single, $50 each for a double. The hotel has full kitchen area, so meals can be prepared and brought with you. For those who wish, we'll offer dinner at some of Seattle's hundreds of ethnic restaurants; these can be a bit pricey; allow $25 per day.
Transportation will be provided for everyone adhering to the schedule we establish. We will charge a one-time fee of $75 per person to defray the costs of local transportation.
| You will be required to purchase the following books of background
information:
1. Black's Law Dictionary, West Publishing Company; 2nd Pocket edition (June 2001)ISBN: 0314257918; 2. Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell, West Publishing Company; 4th edition (July 2003) ISBN: 031414644X;
3. Federal Jurisdiction in a Nutshell, West Publishing Company; 4th
edition (August 1999) 4. Judicial Process in a Nutshell, West Group Publishing; 3rd edition (November 2002) ISBN: 0314144218 |
The casebook for the class, as well as the syllabus and handouts, will be provided at no extra cost.
The course fee will be $1,000. A nonrefundable $250 deposit will be due by May 1. The balance will be due on arrival.
If you're interested, call or email us today.