I did 95% of the reading for all 3 years.

Yeah. Some of the best students I know are obsessive briefers.

Bottomline is do what works for you.

Yes, just old exams if the professor released any and MBE multiple choice questions. In the first semester drafted my own outlines and was top 11%, second semester did not outline at all (got outlines from friends/upper class men) and jumped to top 7%.

I did as many practice questions as possible so there was not a hypothetical that would be thrown at me that I never saw before.

I never briefed a case but I always read them

Do what works for you. For 1L, it can't hurt to just brief all the cases/read everything and be ready for cold calling for the first few weeks. You can then adjust accordingly, but if you don't do enough/fall behind early, you'll be really stressed out.

1L is critical. Nothing wrong with just putting your head down and working for 15 weeks first semester. I think everyone gave you good advice above as well


edit: Should say, this coming from someone who did almost no briefing/reading after 1L and barely even went to class 3L. Finished top 1/3rd at a regional T2, but was top 20ish% before I phoned it in completely during 3L. I think a few posters in here crushed LS at T14's though, so their advice might be more applicable depending on your goals.

I thought the thread might find this one interesting from today....


Have a relocation of custody full day hearing tomorrow. The whole thing was expedited, as I received the case May 25th, filed everything/motion to set date/received June 29th as trial date/was able to move it to June 20th by joint motion with OC and being good friends with Judge's clerk.

Client moved yesterday to the new location, but is back for the hearing. Counseled her against that decision, but can't be lifecoach for everyone.

Anyways, OC is winding down her practice. She just won the primary and will almost assuredly be winning a seat on the common pleas bench for the county in November. I even made a small donation to her campaign in the spring because she was such an overwhelming favorite. OC does very minimal trial work outside of the occasional family law case. Mostly contract work for oil/gas companies and in her 20 yr career, said she has done less than 2 dozen hearings.

Fast forward to last week. I turned over exhibits/witness list. We decided to just stipulate to all documents as we had no time for discovery/anything formal. I sent docs last Wed. OC said, "i'll get them to you, sorry for delay". I think nothing of it...

Its now Saturday, I just sent friendly email. No response. Sunday at 8:30 pm, I get email saying, "I'm going to have new wife testify and enter pictures of the basement."

No pictures attached. No name on current wife. Nothing lol.

So, I called today (Monday) and OC still didn't turn anything over. She mentioned she would be getting back from vacation late tonight/won't have anything for me.

What's the play? I talked to a mentor who's been practicing in county for 40 years and he said, draft a motion to strike the testimony but the exhibits most likely coming in (which is fine, I have no problem with basement pics). I'm going to file it before the hearing, but then sort of "present it" in chambers w/OC before the actual hearing begins. (This specific judge takes all counsel to chambers to try to resolve before the actual hearing begins). If denied, obviously going to present it on the record for the hearing and get the denial by judge on record for appeal.

I mean, obviously have to do something, but in that weird spot where I don't want to piss off the newest member of the bench. She'll be on the bench for a long time, as she's only 40 (maybe not even tbh), so again, don't want to be starting off on the wrong foot. I truly don't think it's malicious, but she just doesn't do any trial work and honestly doesn't care about the work at this point.

It will work out fine I'm sure, and I can think on my feet/figure out what to do tomorrow if I'm denied on everything. Thinking ask for an offer of proof on new wife and try to get strict boundaries for her to testify within and object like a madman if she strays. I don't think the motion will truly work, but I want something on record for a potential appeal here.

tl;dr: Didn't get case till late; OC is about to be a politically connected judge; OC never turned over docs; Get nasty tomorrow or nah????


edit: forgot, I got my first DUI case as well. DA pretty much outright refusing to have a reasonable plea, so we could be heading for a jury trial by the end of summer.

I personally believe that if you do not advocate to the fullest for your client because of politics, that you would be committing malpractice. It might feel like a tough spot to be in, but you have a job to do.

Lawyers pull these kind of moves all the time, especially with younger attorneys, and they will respect you if you challenge them when they pull moves. Since she is going to be a judge that you are going to be practicing in front of for a long while, it behooves you to present yourself as a competent attorney right now.

Draft your motion and bring the emails with you.



Since you put that part in about the DUI, I will tell you that trying cases, and trying them hard, will lead to prosecutors giving you better offers down the road. Just like the soon-to-be-judge, a prosecutor will respect you more if you come right at them. On the flip-side, as a defense attorney, I did not have a lot of respect for prosecutors that routinely gave low offers. Be aggressive and have fun with it!

For 1l's - 1) go get the bar review materials the summer before and learn the basics of civil and criminal procedure, contracts and tort law. These are the correct answers that you will rely on when practicing law. 2) in law school there are no correct answers - learn how to spot the issues, learn the reasoning (especially con law) and present arguments for either side of the debate.

Could not disagree with 1) more.

Same. There's no reason to. You won't even know what you are trying to learn, much less how to apply it. Coming into law school knowing lots of black letter law isn't very helpful.

You will learn civpro, crim pro, contracts, and torts in law school. Supplement your study once you're actually there if you feel it's necessary.

The Barbri free outlines are utterly useless. Read old exams and find a former student's outline so you only focus on what the professor talks about.

You get no points for talking about things professors didn't talk about in class.

Thanks for the thoughts Donk. I felt the same way, so I am currently hanging at the office now waiting to drive to court to file. I sent over a copy via email last night to OC w/enclosure letter and pretty much said, "it's just business, not personal, but I have to advocate for my client" in more elegant terms. No reply from OC, of course lol.

I've heard that from lots of criminal law attorneys. I expected that to be part of the reason DA was being difficult here, especially since I'm in a new county where I've done almost no practice prior. Personally, I would love to jump into a jury trial, but I doubt it will actually get there.

Still, glad to hear it sounds like I made the right move. The political sphere can be hard to play sometimes is all.

At a NYC DA's office this summer, and got assigned to felony sex crimes. Was in Family Court last summer, and was always surprised by how the attorneys waited until the last minute to prep for trial, hearings, etc, likely due to how frequently things were postponed or settled in the final hour.

Not much different here in felony sex crimes. Tough to get complaining witnesses to show up, pressure to plea up until the day of trial, last minute adjournments, etc, etc.

Related- Maryland only lets you use spousal privilege to keep you from testifying once. Used to see it when I worked in the courthouse and go watch court all the time, people using the privilege.

Have a friend here who is basically a mentor to me who has to move to AZ/NM (he's looking at TX maybe) or anywhere where it's hot because his daughter got diagnosed with a condition requiring it. Needs to be a dry climate. Any of you guys who reside down there have any advice? He's 47, been a solo for most of the time since law school when he graduated at 33 (has multiple other degrees) but is basically done with the solo life. He's pretty connected in this state and has worked all kinds of other stuff, but starting all over down there will be tough. Biggest factor is health insurance too because his wife is a diabetic too.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it. I had a terrible uGPA because of poker and I feel like I'm getting a second chance to do well and really want to take advantage of that opportunity, even if it means overdoing it a bit.

I'll be at a t14 school in the fall and really want to start out in biglaw so I'm hoping good grades can all but guarantee that.

dont do any prep work your 0L summer

that's always a mistake. you'll waste your time at best and confuse yourself at worst.

The only thing I would try and figure out over the summer is procedural history/posture. You may or may not learn it in civ pro; but all my professors expected that we knew what summary judgment, directed verdicts, dismissal motions were on the first day of class.

+1. Enjoy your freedom for now and just try to be as mentally fresh as possible for day 1.

If anyone cares, update for my trial issue yesterday.


Ended up bringing the motion/presenting it and OC just laughed, said, "oh no big deal, they wife doesn't have to testify" and moved on lol. So, that solved that problem.

As far as the hearing, probably going to lose bc the bar is just so damn high on relocating out of state. Crushed opposing party on cross to the point where he was in tears. In my admittedly limited experience, I have yet to come across someone so just aloof of lying. Like, he would say, "I work so hard for my family. All my money goes to them," but on cross, can show he tried to lower child support 5x in last 5 years lol. So hammer him on these type of things and he just responds, "I'm not willing to discuss that" lol.

But like, every time, he would say something, then his actions did otherwise. Heck, I turned over pictures of his area the kids lived in pre-trial, as I am obligated, and I still was able to impeach him w/pictures when he adamantly denied his house ever being messy lol. Like, he knew there were pictures! Just didn't care at all.

I think his attorney just did bad prepping him tbh. Either way, it went well. Judge is issuing ruling in next few days. Hopefully we come out with a W.

Very nice

Nice job man!

Thoughts about the girl that was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the encouraging text messages she sent her boyfriend regarding his suicide?

Yes, the text messages were awful - but it really seems like an overly broad interpretation of causation.

Massachusetts is out of control. I say that as someone who grew up there.

I remember this last year:

http://www.wbur.org/news/2016/09/20/...to-flee-police

Winner! Ship it!

Got the 24 page opinion via email but we got our request granted + a more favorable custody arrangement. We spoke about our ideal arrangement on direct, but I really doubted we would get it....but we did.

Put one up for the good guys today boys