Law School: Behind The Scenes, Part 2

Class

Everyone talks about the Socratic Method and how scaaaary it is. Now I don’t know whether it’s because I go to a more laid-back school or whether law school just isn’t as bad as everyone says, but getting cold-called in class isn’t any different from the class discussions I had as an undergrad. As long as you do the reading, you won't find the questions hard, and even if you are completely clueless, the professor will either help push you in the direction he wants to go, or move on with the lecture. In other words, don't worry about being humiliated- everyone else is just as worried as you. In fact, the cold-calling is pretty limited in all my classes because there are usually a good number of people in each class who are willing to raise their hand and volunteer answers or ask questions.

The "lawyering skills" class is something that has developed more recently, as law schools realize that they are as much a professional school as an academic institution. At Boalt they call it Legal Research and Writing (LRW), and next semester it’s called Written and Oral Avocacy. In LRW, we learn to read, research, and analyze cases and then write legal memos. Next semester, we learn how to make oral arguments, etc.

The entering 1L (use that term instead of "first year law student", and you'll sound much much cooler) class for my year was about 266 people, split into 9 modules, or "mods" of about 30 people. The idea is to encourage more personal contact, both with fellow students and the professors. My Contracts and Crim Law class are big "lectures," in which they put together 3 mods, for a total of about 90 people. They're the biggest that classes get here, and considering the fact that they're under 100 people, it's not too bad. My Civil Procedure and LRW classes are with my mod only, so those feel very cozy, like the average undergrad discussion section.

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"So what's the reading like? Isn't it supposed to be overwhelming or something?" Stay tuned for part 3!