Law School 101: How to Study for Law School – How to Outline for Law School and How to Brief Cases
Welcome to Law School 101! One of the biggest challenges of being a law student is figuring out how to study for law school. Law school is different from any other undergraduate, or even graduate, program. To succeed in law school, you have to study a certain way to develop a specific set of skills. But the skills you need and how you need to study to develop them are not taught in law school classes. As a law student, you have to figure it out for yourself how to outline for law school, how to brief cases, and how to manage your time.
Here at Tutor In Law, we believe in a “less is more” approach to law school. We do not believe that law students need to go out and buy a ton of supplements to succeed. We also believe that it is important to establish a streamlined, efficient approach to studying for law school. As a busy law student, you don’t have time to figure out how to study. Heck, you barely have enough time to read all of the cases. Your time is precious – you should use it strategically and efficiently. Our tried-and-true approach to how to study for law school is simple, but effective. Having a game plan will help you stay confident throughout the semester and will ensure that your efforts are focused on what you need to do to succeed on the exam.
Not sure how to brief cases or how to outline for law school? Law School 101 is for you.
How to Study for Law School Throughout the Semester
There are two distinct phases of studying in law school. These phases are related and often overlap, but you should be spending your time differently during each phase.
The first phase we will call “law school maintenance”. This is the phase of studying that takes place throughout the semester. During the law school maintenance phase, you are learning the law by reading cases and attending lectures.
The second phase is exam prep. During exam prep, you are in crunch mode gearing up for your law school exams. You will still be attending classes and learning the law, but how you spend your time studying will look different.
For our purposes today, we are going to focus on how to study during the law school maintenance phase. How you spend your time during this phase will make or break the exam prep phase. If you are not focused on the right things during the law school maintenance phase, you will not be ready to switch gears and start preparing for your exams. If you try to work on exam prep tasks during the law school maintenance phase, you will fall behind on your case briefs and outlines.
There are only three things you need to be doing during the law school maintenance phase: briefing cases, attending lectures, and creating your outlines. Easy, right?
How to Brief Cases for Law School
The first step in your legal studies is learning how to brief cases. Each week you will be assigned a set of cases to read for each class. These particular cases were assigned because they relate to the rules of law that you will be discussing in class that week. Typically, most of the cases relate to the same general rule of law and each case highlights a particular nuance regarding that general rule. For instance, a case may focus on a particular element or a sub-rule.
Your job when reading the cases is to create a case brief. As tempting as it is, you should avoid book briefing or using canned briefs. Reading the cases will be confusing at first because the cases are not written using everyday language and you are learning the rule for the first time, but eventually it will get easier if you keep practicing.
Many students are tempted to take short cuts when briefing cases because, although they understand how to brief cases, they don’t understand why they are briefing cases. That’s why you’re here in Law School 101. When reading the cases, you will develop a better understanding of the rule. Even if it doesn’t make sense at first, it will later become clear as you interact with the rule of law more. Cases have been used to teach the law for decades and for good reason. Reading cases is the only exposure you have to analysis in law school, besides practice exams. Often, the court discusses the history of the law, its purpose, and the public policy behind the law, which you can use to guide you in your analysis on the exam. Reading the cases will also help you understand when a rule of law applies and why the court reached a particular decision based on the set of facts in the case, which is helpful when you are presented with new, but likely similar, facts on the exam.
By writing out your case briefs, you are practicing your legal writing. With each case, you are learning to be concise, identify relevant facts and the determinative issue, and write an analysis. These skills are essential for legal writing. Think of each case brief as a mini practice exam.
We recommend writing the case brief as you read the case as it is more efficient. Your case briefs should be succinct and should be written in IRAC format: issue, rule, analysis, conclusion. Many students find it helpful to also include a separate section for the procedural history and facts.
Do not pressure yourself to completely understand the cases or the rules just yet. Feeling lost and confused is totally normal. When you read a case, this is your first time seeing the rule of law – it is your introduction to the law. Let it be just that. You will have plenty of time to get familiar with the law throughout the semester.
Attending Lectures
During class, your professor will lecture on the rules of law that were covered in the assigned reading that week. It is your responsibility as a law student to figure out three things: 1) what the rules of law are, 2) what the rules of law mean, and 3) how to use the rules of law. Hopefully, after you have read the cases and created your case briefs, you will have a general understanding of what the rules are and how they are applied. Remember, you do not have to completely understand the rules at this point.
While you are in class, your job is to identify the rules of law from the lecture. You should be cross-referencing the rules of law your professor is discussing with what you pulled from the cases. Once you have a clear rule statement, you should be putting this into your outline. More on this later.
Use your time in class to confirm that you have an accurate statement and understanding of the rules of law based on what you gleaned from the cases. Your professor’s lecture is your opportunity to get clarification and answers to your questions. It is also a chance to better understand the application of the rules of law through a discussion of the cases. Thus, it is essential to pay close attention during class and take notes.
Your lecture notes should include explanations of the rules of law and examples or hypotheticals that help you understand the law. Some students find it helpful to record the lectures so they can listen to them again later.
How to Outline for Law School
The final step in your study routine during the law school maintenance phase is figuring out how to outline for law school. We recommend that law students make it a habit to keep their law school outlines up to date with the rules of law covered each week. The easiest way to do this is to take notes during the lecture directly into your outline. Your notes do not have to be perfectly formatted, but it is convenient to have all of the information you need in one place.
After class, you should review your notes and condense them into an outline format. Your outline should include the rules of law and any explanations, wording, or examples that help you understand the rules. You can also include cases, but be mindful not to include too much information in your outline. Your outline should be just that – an outline. If your outline is too long, it will not be usable.
You will use your completed outline to refresh your memory on the rules of law: both what they are and what they mean. Your outline should be personal to you and should be a living document throughout the law school maintenance phase.
Once your outline is up to date, you should review it a few days later. Challenge yourself to identify where you have holes in your understanding and questions. This is how you know where you need to focus your studies. You can review your notes, commercial outlines, or other supplemental materials to help you better understand a rule of law that you are struggling with. For many students, having too many supplemental materials to reference is confusing and time-consuming. You will find that often a simple search on Google or YouTube will answer your questions.
But remember, it is alright if you still don’t completely understand the rule. Your goal at this stage is simply to know what the rule of law is and have a basic understanding of what it means and when it applies. When you start preparing for the exam, you will have the opportunity to really take a deep dive into understanding the rule of law and will practice its application.
We have come to the end of Law School 101. So what else do you need to do throughout the semester? That’s it! Avoid the temptation to start memorizing rules or looking at practice exams. If you find that you have extra time, the best use of your time at this stage is to get ahead on case briefs. Outside of that, you can work on better understanding the rules of law.
We hope you enjoyed Law School 101! Need more help? You can learn more about our approach to law school with our How to Approach Law School Workshop.
We wish you all the best of luck this Fall! Happy studying!
